The Portfolios tab on the Portfolios and Alerts screen allows you  to create a new portfolio or change an existing one. You can get to this screen by clicking MENU button and selecting Portfolios/Alerts or through the Portfolio Menu.  You can also do this by clicking the button on the main screen, to right of the Portfolio drop down list.

 

 

Clicking on the upper list will select the portfolio to edit. You can also create a new portfolio by clicking on  the Add button and then entering a Name for the portfolio or delete a portfolio by selecting it and clicking on the Delete button. To make a duplicate of an existing portfolio, click on the Copy button.  Rearrange the order of the portfolio using the up and down button to the left of the Portfolio list.

 

Portfolios that have a yellow S indicator after their name in the list are special account portfolios that are synchronized with a trading account. If you try delete a synchronized portfolio a message prompt will appear indicating that the account will no longer be synchronized.

 

You can export one or more portfolios that can be shared and imported into QuoteTracker. Click on the Export button to select which portfolios to export and the location and filename to be saved. A dialog window appears to allow you to pick the portfolios. Use the standard CTRL and SHIFT keys on your keyboard to select multiple portfolios:

 

 

The default file extension is PEX. When you Import portfolios a dialog window appear where you can specify the location and file name.

 

The bottom pane is used  to add, delete or edit the stock symbols of the selected portfolios.  Enter each purchase on a separate line in the table. For watch-stocks (stocks you do not own), just enter 0 for the number of shares (Quantity). You can also enter the Commission and any Note you have for this stock.  To display this Note in your portfolio as a column, select the Note column to display in Edit Views from the View Menu.

 

When adding a symbol, you can click on the button to search for a symbol for which you only know the name. The Symbol Lookup screen will appear. Press Confirm to add the symbol to your portfolio.  TD AMERITRADE Clients can also click on the Option Chain button to add options to the portfolio

 

If you check the Consolidate check box, all entries for the same stock will be shown on only one line in the portfolio tracking table, with the averaged purchase price shown. If you do not check it, each stock purchase will be tracked separately. 

 

Use the up and down buttons to (re)arrange stocks in the portfolio or simply drag and drop the symbol to the location you want.  This can also be done directly on the main portfolio windows by using Drag and Drop.

 

If you enter any holdings (Quantity and Base Price) for your symbols, QuoteTracker will automatically add a TOTAL line as the last line in your portfolio.  Your current portfolio totals are calculated based on the price selected in Preferences/Misc.

 

Note: You can quickly add and delete symbols directly on the main portfolio window from the right click menu on any symbol.

 

Rearranging the portfolio

 

You can move a symbol from one portfolio to another by dragging the symbol to the portfolio name in the Portfolios (upper) box.  To copy the symbol, rather than move it, hold down the SHIFT key while dragging.  This can also be done directly on the main portfolio windows by using Drag and Drop.

 

You can Sort the portfolio by symbol by clicking the appropriate Sort button, ascending or descending.  Note, this is a permanent sort, which cannot be undone, which is different that the temporary Sort by column on the main screen.

 

CASH and MARGIN Tracking

 

QuoteTracker lets you include cash or margin that you have in your accounts in the portfolio.  To do that, add the special $CASH symbol to your portfolio.  Put the dollar amount into the Quantity column.  Put 1 into the Base Price column.  For cash, put in a positive dollar amount, for margin, put in a negative amount (such as -7500).  You can use $CASH, and $CASH1 through $CASH9 and as many of each as you like.. Each unique $CASH symbol is treated independently when you select the Consolidate option.

 

Selling Short

 

Short stock positions can be entered by specifying a negative number of shares.

QuoteTracker has special handling for shorts.  You will not see a negative number in the value column for short positions unless the stock more than doubles in price from the time you shorted it.  The value of the position will be a positive value and will go up as the stock price goes down and a negative value as the stock price goes up.  This way, you get an accurate representation of what the value of the position is as well as the portfolio. The value is NOT the dollar amount that you would need to pay to cover the position.

For example, if you sell short 100 shares at $40 (assume no commission for simplicity), the value will show as $4,000.  If the stock drops to $35, the value will go up to $4500.  If the stock goes up to $60, the value will drop to $2,000.  You will not see a negative number until the price per share more than doubles.  If the stock goes up to $100, the value will drop to $-2000.

 

Splits

 

 

HORIZONTAL Separator

 

You can add a horizontal separator to your portfolio to help organize it. The separator puts a line on the screen when you view the portfolio and can be used to separating different groups of stocks, as well as giving you subtotals for that group.  It also adds a nice feature when you sort by a column.  If you sort the portfolio by one of the columns or the Sort on this screen, QuoteTracker will sort each group of stocks separately.  So if you sort by the symbol column and have one separator in the portfolio, the symbols above the separator will be sorted independently of the symbols below the separator.  To add the separator to your portfolio, use --- (3 dashes) as the symbol and move it up or down in the portfolio to properly separate the stocks.  You can have more than one separator.  You can add a description after the --- if you like.

 

Note that although portfolios synchronized to a trading account can be deleted or renamed you can not add or delete symbols in the synchronized portfolio. You can only change the commission and notes for the symbols.