Trading stocks? Create A Watchlist!

For some it may seem obvious. For others, maybe not so much. When you're trading stocks, it may be helpful to create an online stock trading watchlist. Most financial websites show the most recently checked stock quotes. This is handy when you check your stock prices daily, but what if you want to create a long term stock watchlist? It's basically a list of stocks that you either already have in your portfolio, or the ones that you have your eye on, and can potentially become part of your stock portfolio. Believe it or not, there are not many websites on the internet that allow you to create informative watchlists.

So far the best stock watchlist I came across is from Bloomberg. Registering is free and very easy (especially with facebook connect). You can quickly add stocks to the list, even if you don't remember the ticker symbol, thanks to the 'auto complete' feature.


The reason why I found Bloomberg's watchlist the best is that you instantly get an very clear overview of the stocks that you are 'following'. What makes it even better is that you can also sort your watchlist. You can sort it by fundamentals (if you want to know a little bit more about the basic information about the company, like market cap, EPS, P/E ratio etc), or by Earnings Report, so you can see when the next earnings report date is (very handy if you are an earnings report trader).

There are also others like Yahoo, Google and MSN Money where you can create a watchlist, but I found them to be a little cluttered, though they do have an option where you can also see the news about the company on the list. However, 'news' isn't always a good thing (since it's usually delayed).

Checking your stock list frequently may help you become a better stock trader. You might discover certain price patterns, or be reminded of stocks (opportunities) that you may have otherwise forgotten. You can add stocks to the list that you don't really want in your portfolio right this second, but maybe at a later time. Of course the advantage of an online watchlist is of course that you can check it online anywhere you are. You can also put stocks on the list that you would've bought if it were an actual portfolio (like a stock trading simulator), Bloomberg's online stock trading watchlist is ideal for that because of its 'Holdings' feature, which allows you to enter a price for which you would've bought or sold a stock.