Just like flowers needs water to grow, your stocks and options need tending in order to flourish and bring you new or higher profits. The TradeStops suite of tools can help you do this. The Positions & Alerts tab can turn you into a Power User with powerful profits.
Let’s look at some of the tools available for you today.
Accessing Positions & Alerts
When you first log into TradeStops, it is important to start on the Portfolios tab. Here, you can check if your portfolio is in sync and if there are any errors that need resolving. If everything looks fine to you, go ahead and click on the title of your portfolio.
This brings you to the Positions and Alerts tab. You can see all the positions that are in that portfolio from this page.
Quickly Switching Between Portfolios
Take note of the box in the upper left hand corner of the screen. This box tells you the portfolio that you are looking at. You can switch between portfolios with a few simply clicks. Just click on that box, and a list of your portfolios will appear. From the list, click on a portfolio. Our system will then display that portfolio. Easy, right?
Notice the “All Investment” and “All Watch” titles. We created these for you.
- If you click on “All Investment,” it will display all the stocks and options that you are invested in for all investment portfolios. These are the stocks and options you own.
- If you click on “All Watch,” it will display all the stocks and options that you are interested in for all watch portfolios. These are the stocks that you don’t own.
Multiple Tabs
There is a plethora of information located on the Positions & Alerts tab in TradeStops. We organized this data for you in tabs to make it a little easier. There are three sections.
- Positions – these are your open positions. They are the ones you own or are interested in.
- Alerts – these are the TradeStops alerts you have set up on your positions
- Closed Positions – these are the positions that you have sold
Today, we will focus on the Positions tab.
To make one of these tabs active, just click on the title. A blue line will appear under the active tab. You should also see a green button that says “Add Position.”
If you don’t see Add Position, that’s okay. Positions cannot be added to synced portfolios, so that button should not be there if you are viewing your synced portfolio. Just make sure there is a blue line under Positions.
Using the Positions Tab
Working with the positions tab is fun and informative.
- The downward pointing triangle will let you delete, close, move, and copy positions. Please note that synced positions cannot be closed or moved.
- The status column tells you if your position is synced (S) or manual (M) and the number of alerts you have for the position. If the bell is white with a 0, you have no alerts. If the bell is purple, the alert has been triggered.
- The SSI column tells you the current SSI status for your position. The letters and numbers in the colorful boxes tell you how long the position has been in that state.
- The VQ% column tells you how volatile your stock is. The lower the number, the lower the volatility. Any number above 50% is considered sky high risk.
- The Symbol column tells you which symbol you are viewing.
These columns are called your Position View. You can change how these columns are ordered. You can even add more information. Learn about Position Views here.
Organizing your Data
You can organize any of this data by clicking on a column title.
Once you click on a header, like “VQ%,” TradeStops will automatically sort your data from smallest to largest VQ. If you click the same column header again, it will organize the data from largest to smallest.
To put your stocks in alphabetical order, click on the Symbol column title. If you want the stocks and options in XYZ order, click on the symbol title again.
You can even organize your stocks and options based on their status in TradeStops. Above the SSI column title, there is a drop-down box that says Status. Use that box to organize your stocks based on, say, triggered alerts.
To turn this setting off, just click on All again. It will then display all of your stocks and options again.
If you click on a ticker symbol, it will bring you to the Position Card Page. From this page, you can edit the data for your stocks one at a time. You can read more about using the Position Card Page here.
Position Errors
Errors can sometimes occur with your positions. This can happen if a ticker symbol changes, if there is a company name change, if the ticker gets delisted, or if there is missing data.
We will notify you of any position errors with a little red triangle. We will also send you an email. If you don’t see any red triangles on your account, you are free of errors.
Simply click the red triangle, and a message will appear. The message title will give you a quick summary of what is wrong. The description beneath it will tell you exactly how to fix it.
You could also use our helpful chat feature if you have any questions about position errors. Simply click the “Online Chat With Us” button in the bottom right corner of your TradeStops program. Our chat agents are available from 9:00-5:00 PM Eastern. Just keep in mind that our agents cannot give investment advice about your positions or make calculations for you.
Give your Stocks and Options some attention
Keeping your account free of errors will ensure that your investments stay up to date and accurate. With the correct information, we will be able to send you the appropriate alerts for your positions. Just be sure to check on your Positions tab at least once a week.
Checking on the status of your positions will keep your account free of errors. This ensures that you do not get stopped out too early and that you do get stopped out when the time is right. We want you to be a TradeStops Power User, and the Positions & Alerts tab can help you get started today.
To powerful profits,
Customer Success Team
