Spring is here, and while we don’t have daisies in green pastures for you, we do come bearing seeds to bloom new profits! How? Advanced portfolio monitoring features on the positions subtab.
Let’s review those features now.
Portfolio Summary
The Portfolio Summary section in TradeStops can help give you an idea of how your portfolio is doing. It gives you quick, visual information without having to hunt through all your data. To find this information, you first need to view a portfolio on the Positions and Alerts tab.
On the Positions subtab in TradeStops, you can use the drop-down box to organize your positions based on a portfolio. This dropdown can be found in the upper left corner below the TradeStops logo when in the Positions & Alerts tab. Just click on the portfolio title to select it.
After you select a portfolio, a link will display under the dropdown box. It will say “Show Portfolio Summary” with a little downward pointing triangle. You can click on these words to display more information about your portfolio.
If you don’t see these words or the portfolio drop down box, refresh your Internet page. Doing this will make the information display again.
After you click the text, a dropdown will appear. It will give you basic information about your portfolio, the statistics for your portfolio, and the Asset Allocation for your portfolio. You can close this information by clicking the “Hide Portfolio Summary” text. This text is found directly below the portfolio name drop down box.
Please note that if you have a Watch Portfolio which has positions with 0 shares, this information will not be available. It would just tell you how many positions are in that Watch Portfolio. If your positions have shares, the information will display regardless if it is a Watch or Investment Portfolio.
Editing Basic Data
For the portfolios that do have positions with shares, you can edit and interpret the data. You can edit the Basic information column. This is done by clicking the Pencil icon directly to the right of the word “Basics.” After you click the Pencil, you can edit any of the information in white boxes. Make sure to click “Save” so you don’t lose your work.
Please note that the Statistics column cannot be edited. If you need any help with the row titles, you can find our helpful glossary here.
The final part of the Portfolio Summary is the Asset Allocation. It’s located on the right side of the summary, and it will tell you how diverse your portfolio is. By hovering your mouse over the colorful wheel, you will see what percentage of your portfolio is invested, say, in Information Technology.
This useful tool will show you if you are perhaps too heavily invested in on sector or another. It saves you the time of having to look up which sector every position is in and calculate the portfolio percentages. If you are unhappy with your portfolio diversification, you could research into making your portfolio more balanced.
The more detailed version of this pie chart can be found in the research tools under Asset Allocation. It can help you know specifically which positions are in which sectors.
If you need help…
You can always use our Chat feature if you need help with any of this. Simply click the “Online – Chat with Us” button in the bottom right corner of your program. Our chat agents are available from 9:00-5:00 PM Eastern, Monday-Friday. Just please note that they can’t make calculations for you.
If that timeframe does not work for you, the Feedback button in the bottom right will let you send an email to us. We usually get back to you within 24 hours during the business week.
Searching for Positions
Another useful feature located on the Positions tab is the search feature. This is especially helpful when you have numerous positions in one portfolio. It will let you quickly find the position that you are looking for. Just make sure to be on the Positions tab when employing this feature.
The search box can be found in the upper right hand side of the Positions tab. It is directly to the left of the yellow lightbulb. If you don’t see the yellow lightbulb, that’s okay. You can also look for your Portfolio Cash in the upper right corner. The search bar is below that.
In the search box, simply start typing in the ticker symbol or the company name that you are looking for. (Or even if it is a call or a put option.) After you type in the appropriate information, your position will appear. Please note that if you have numerous positions, there can sometimes be some lag between the time that you type the letter and the time it shows up on the screen.
Searching Increases Accuracy
You can also use this search box to look for specific information such as which stocks have been in their SSI signal for a specific time. For example, you could type “8m” into the search box to have it display only the stocks that have a specific SSI signal for 8 months. Just know that the search function does not work if you type in, say, “green” for your green positions.
You could, however, type in “n/a.” This would display all your positions that do not have an SSI yet. Some stocks won’t have SSI data if they have not been publicly traded for at least 3 years. It is important to have an alert for these stocks so that you are protected. By searching for these “n/a” stocks, you can ensure that you do have an alert set. That way, you get stopped out when appropriate and don’t lose money.
Turning Off Search Criteria
If you want to see all your positions again, simply delete what is typed in the search box. If you don’t want to delete the text, you can simply refresh your Internet page. Both methods will make all your positions display again.
Try the Advanced Features
Give some of the advanced position tab features a try. There is so much information to take advantage of. The portfolio summary feature will let you know exactly how your portfolio is doing and how diversified it is. The search feature will let you quickly find a specific position or even organize your positions based on certain parameters. We hope that these features will make your investing more fruitful as Spring continues.
To Spring weeding out the bad and growing the good in your portfolio,
Customer Success Team
