How to Build a Stock Portfolio Watch List

A stock portfolio watch list consists of a basket of stocks that investors can watch like a hawk. The watch list provides timely information on different financial securities that can be used in making smart financial decisions.

By creating a stock watch list, you will be able to monitor changes in price every single trading day. You can even receive emails on major price movements and relevant breaking news relating to the stock. The watch list can help you keep up-to-date with the performance of your stock portfolio.

You can know exactly when the prices head south so that you can drop that particular stock to the bottom of the portfolio.  It can also help you determine when the prices have crossed a certain point so that you can sell the stock at a targeted profit level.

Now that you know about the importance of creating a stock portfolio watch list, let’s find out how to build one for your portfolio.

The Basics of Creating a Portfolio Watch List

You can create a stock watch list for your portfolio in not one but several ways. A number of online services such as Bloomberg, MSN, Yahoo! Finance, Morning Star and Market Watch allow you to track your portfolio once you create an account.   

Once you have registered to the sites, you can create a portfolio watch list by adding stock symbols or tickers.  That’s it! You don’t need to enter share price, share amounts, or commission information to create a stock portfolio watch list.

Apart from creating a stock watch list by registering to the finance sites mentioned above, you can also create a stock portfolio watch list using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

The Stock Connector add-in that you can download from the Office Store page allows you to link stocks to cells in the spreadsheet. The information displayed on the cell is updated in real time allowing you to view up-to-date stock price information at every trading session.

The add-in is compatible with Excel 2013 or later for Windows PC. For MAC versions, the add-in is compatible with Excel 2016 or later versions. You can also use the stock watch list add-in with the free Excel online and Excel iPad.

With the Excel add-in installed, you can add and edit portfolio stock symbols. The values are updated automatically throughout the day at your specified interval. You can have the values updated in as little as 5 seconds. You can add any symbol that is supported by the MSN Finance API, including mutual funds, ETFs, market indexes, and currencies.