Finding the Right Personal Finance Website for Your Stock Portfolio
- In This Quick Guide:
- Choosing the Website Program That’s Right for You
- Websites to Consider
Unless you’re diligent about staying up to date, it’s easy to lose track of how your investments are doing, so it’s important to develop a system for keeping track of your holdings. Using a personal finance website program to track your stocks from day to day keeps you informed about not only how your stocks are performing at a given time, but how the current performance compares with how they’ve performed in the past. In this guide, we will show you how to choose the right program, and give you some sites to consider.
Choosing the Website Program That’s Right for You
There are no shortage of personal finance websites that can help you create and manage a convenient, easily usable online stock portfolio. You’ll have to pay for some, while others are free. All offer varying features, so check to make sure the one you choose includes the features you’re looking for.
Some of the features included on various sites include the following.
- tracking of securities through their market symbols
- tracking and crediting of distributions, dividends, and stock splits
- access to press releases about the company and news that could affect the value of your stocks
- access to current and past performance of your investments
- ability to set up personalized views of a portfolio
- access to domestic and international markets
- notification of when a particular stock reaches a certain price
- access to technical and fundamental information related to stocks of interest
- access to message boards
- ratings for various stocks
When choosing a website with which to create and maintain your stock portfolio, consider features, price, and ease of use. Regardless of which financial site you choose, youll have to enter data pertaining to your investments.
Websites to Consider
Most of the primary financial news websites offer online portfolios and tracking tools that allow you to keep an eye on individual assets, as well as the overall performance of your portfolio. Here are the most popular of those sites:
- Morningstar. Portfolio includes features such as customizable viewing methods, a stock screener, and portfolio allocation tool. Also offers automatic recognition and crediting of dividends, and a tool that allows you to compare your rate of return to a particular index. The online portfolio service is free, or subscribers can upgrade to a premium service that includes proprietary stock and mutual fund analysis. The premium service, which starts at $19.95 a month or $159 a year, also includes reports and recommendations for which investments to buy.
- MarketWatch. Part of the same online network as the Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney, and Barron’s, MarketWatch is a free site that enables you to set up and activate message alerts for your stock, such as when it reaches a particular price or exceeds its 52-week high. Other features include tools to help you track profits and losses and a link that connects you with a technical analysis chart for a particular stock. Graphs included on the site make it easy to view stock movement throughout an entire trading day, and investors also get breaking news regarding any stocks they own.
- Google Finance. This free site gives you access to as many portfolios as you care to set up, with tabs for stock fundamentals, overviews, and performance. It lists your transactions and allows for a cash balance. Links from the site take you to a stock screener, data, and news concerning your investments.
- Gainskeeper. Offering accounting tools and services to individual investors as well as brokers, fund companies, and institutions, Gainskeeper allows you to combine all of your brokerage accounts and keep up to date on your capital gains and losses, providing the information you need to file income taxes for your investment profits and losses. This specialized site also provides analysis to help you minimize tax consequences. Subscriptions to GainsKeeper begin at $79 a year.
- QuoteStation. Subscribers to this free site, which allows you to download software to your desktop, appreciate that you don’t need Internet access in order to access many of its features. It allows quick access to quotes, financial news and charts, both for U.S and foreign markets.
- Stockalicious. A free, web-based system that provides easy access to your transactions, current statistics, and performance figures. A performance review allows you to see exactly how you’re doing, and you also can review your allocation concentration and open or closed positions to help you diagnose problems early.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Take a little time to explore what else is available. Most sites have instructions for entering your information that are easy to understand and implement. Creating a stock portfolio allows you quick access to your investments and can keep you up to date and on track for making smart decisions.
Remember, an online stock portfolio is only as valuable as you enable it to be. The program you choose may be extremely sophisticated and robust, but if you don’t take the time to learn how to use the various features and programs, you won’t be utilizing it to its fullest advantage. Also remember that, while online stock portfolios are advantageous to use, they can’t foresee the future. It’s up to you to stay on top of your portfolio and be proactive regarding your transaction activity. Good luck, and happy investing!
by Sarah Young Fisher, CFP, and Susan Shelley, authors of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Stock Investing
