What’s Your Point of View?

TradeStops allows you to analyze your portfolios according to what’s important to you. Plus, it’s easy to set up its many different customizable views.

When first setting up your portfolios in TradeStops, the default view is the following:

This default view includes information about your stocks and funds such as the entry date, entry price, latest close, etc. This is good information, but there’s a lot more that’s available to you. To make changes and customize the views, click on the “Add View” box.

Look at all the different items you can choose from to customize your portfolio view. I’ve decided on the ones I’d like by un-checking the ones I don’t want, and checking the ones I do want.

If you don’t know what something means, i.e. “Total C/B,” just hover your mouse over it and it will tell you “Total Cost Basis”

Once you’ve checked off all the boxes you want, you’ll need to set up a name for the view. I’ve named this “THM View” and then I’ll click the “Save as New” button.

Now that I’ve saved this, here’s what it looks like on the “Positions and Alerts” page.

OK, now I’ve got the columns I want, but they’re not in the order I’d like. Let’s click on the “THM View” pencil and change it to what I want.

You can move the different columns by clicking on them and dragging to where you want them.

I’ve changed them into the order that works best for me. Play around with these. You can change the layout of the columns so they make the most sense to you in working with your portfolios.

Be sure to hit the “Save” button after you’ve reordered the columns.

Now look how easy it is to keep track of my portfolio. I know what I own, how many shares, when I bought them, the cost basis, current value, the effect of the dividends, current unrealized gains, and how many days my stocks have been in their current Stock State Indicator (SSI) condition.

This works for me as an investor more focused on capital gains than on income.

Income investors would probably be more focused on the details concerning dividend income.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with this to get the view you want. They’re your stocks; they should be set up with your point of view.

Tom Meyer
Education Director, TradeStops