When trading stocks or doing stock investment, investors need to track many metrics. Is the stock going up or down? How much profit have you made? What is its current value? All these questions and more are essential for monitoring the health of a stock investment. Keeping up with all the information related to stocks can be challenging, but there are plenty of ways to track that information effectively.
Avoiding unnecessary stress can be difficult when investing in stocks, especially if this is your first time buying and selling shares. However, armed with the correct information, you can keep a level head and manage your investments effectively. Once you understand how to invest in stocks, track their progress, and sell them for maximum profit, you’ll feel much more at ease as an investor.
How do you track stock investments?
The first thing you should do when tracking your stock investments is to keep tabs on their progress over time. This way, if you notice that one of your investments is suddenly rising or falling more quickly than usual, you can investigate and figure out why. Tracking a stock’s progress over time will help you determine what is typical for that stock and flag other stocks behaving abnormally.
Tracking stocks over time will help you identify trends in the market and see how your investments are affected by those trends. Ideally, you want your stocks to increase in value over time, but it is also important to avoid selling stock too soon. Knowing how long a stock matures will help you avoid shortening your profits.
Use a broker to track investments
Another way to track your stock investments is to use a trading/broker platform. Some broker platforms, such as TD Ameritrade, even offer free monitoring services to their users. Trading platforms usually provide information on daily price changes, volume, open and closing prices, and more. They also often offer valuable analysis, including recommendations on when to buy or sell stocks based on those numbers.
Tracking your investments using a trading platform will give you a more detailed picture of their progress over time than simply keeping tabs on the daily price changes, volume, etc. Some trading/broker platforms even allow you to track your investments on a mobile device, so you can stay on top of your stocks wherever you are.
Monitor news and company updates
The performance of your stocks will be at least partially influenced by the general health of the industry they are part of. Monitor news and company updates from the industries and sectors to which your investments are tied. This will help you track how your assets are affected by changes in the market. Monitoring news about your assets will also help you identify potential buy and sell signals.
If a company you are invested in announces that it has received a new contract, for example, that might indicate a good time to sell some shares and pocket some profit. Similarly, if a company is experiencing financial troubles, that might be a good time to sell your shares before the stock loses value.
Install tracking apps
You have plenty of options if you prefer using apps to track your stock investments. Several apps can help you track your investments. Some apps offer complete portfolios of all your stocks, while others are more specialized and focus on just one stock.
If you’re looking for apps to help you keep track of your stocks, search for “investment tracking” in your app store. You may also want to look for apps that offer “real-time” tracking, meaning you can see the current price of your stocks at any given moment. This type of tracking will help you stay on top of rising and falling prices.
Order flow indicator
Some trading platforms also offer an order flow indicator. This graph shows how many orders are placed for buy and sell shares (and at what price). An order flow indicator for Ninja Trader will show how many people are currently buying or selling a stock, which will help you understand what might be driving a price change.
For example, if many people are selling a particular stock, it could indicate that the price is dropping due to a change in the general market. Knowing how many people are buying and selling a stock is important because you can use this information to adjust the price at which you want to buy or sell shares. If many people sell shares at a specific price, you may want to hold off on buying at that price. You also want to avoid buying shares with an overabundance of sellers.
Conclusion
Tracking the progress of your stock investments will allow you to monitor their health and make informed decisions about when to sell. Make sure to track these stocks over time, monitor news about their industries, and use apps to conveniently keep track of prices, buy and sell signals, and more. If you follow these tips, you’ll better understand how your stocks are doing and have a better shot at making a profit with your investments.