In today’s world, technology has permeated every aspect of financial markets. The modern investor is savvy and has multiple investments across categories. It is time-consuming and painful to individually track all financial holdings that one has invested into. There is also a chance that one skips tracking a particular investment because of a memory lapse.
A one-stop solution for tracking multiple investments amid a hectic professional and personal schedule is a portfolio tracker. If you haven’t, below is a breakdown of the whole concept and how you can use these tools to help you grow your wealth.
What are Portfolio Trackers?
Portfolio trackers are platforms that integrate all your investments and help you track your investment portfolio. Earlier, these trackers used to be relatively simple: Spreadsheets with related news links. However, high-end tech tools have started popping up in the last five years. Nowadays, they even come with powerful analytical tools and have integrated brokerage and stock screener tools. Check this site finscreener, which is a stock screener for investors and traders.
While some trackers offer free online services, it is always beneficial to avail the services of a specialized tracker that charges a fee for high-end services.
Do you really need these trackers?
If you are an investor then keeping track of your investments all by yourself is challenging. However, if you are a day trader, you might assume you don’t need one as you are used to juggling positions without using any of those. Think again. It is always beneficial to have a good stock portfolio tracker for the following simple reasons.
Helps you make smarter investment decisions
It is always necessary to know how much money you have for trading before buying a stock as otherwise you might end up overextending yourself (GME, anyone?). Portfolio trackers inform you about the same. Some also notify about the best time to buy or sell a particular stock.
Helps you stay within your budget
Investments are risky as they are prone to market risks. Therefore, one needs to pre-determine how much risk they are willing to bear. The ones who don’t determine their limits often end up losing piles of money. So it is always beneficial to set your limits at the start itself.
Address your tax worries
Many portfolio trackers come with features that take care of your tax payments. Just by updating your buy and sell records, you automatically get updated about your tax liability.
Integrate all your investments
These trackers integrate all your investments in one place and keep you updated about them on a real-time basis. Consequently, this saves a lot of time and also helps to overcome the chances of incurring sunk costs or losing capital. It also provides a reality check to the ones who hold onto investments for a long time thinking they might recover.
Offers customized services as per your needs
Although this facility isn’t available in the free ones, most specialized trackers help you create your own trading plans as per your choice.
The best portfolio trackers this year
One question that always pops up is: What are the best trackers in the market? Some of the best stock portfolio trackers in 2021 include StockstoTrade, Sharesight Portfolio Tracker, and Morning Star.
StocksToTrade
StockstoTrade is a popular portfolio tracker and comes with many interesting features. To begin with, it is an all-in-one trading platform that connects the user’s current stock details with their brokers along with providing additional functions like charts, indicators, watchlists, relevant news, and a lot more.
It has a simple operating interface for the users and uses its own customized trading algorithm for bringing alerts regarding buying or selling of stocks at specified prices. Especially, if you are into short term trading then this one can surely uplift your trading experience.
To know if it is the best one for you, avail of their 14-day-trial just at $7.
Sharesight Portfolio Trackers
Sharesight Portfolio Trackers is comparatively a newer version of portfolio trackers. Additionally, it also offers tracking services of over 40 currencies across the globe or unlisted investments like fixed interests and properties.
The platform is extremely popular and has about 150,000+ active users from around 100 countries. It doesn’t offer all its levels free but you can always opt for a trial to get your ShareSight experience.
Morning Star
Morning Star offers a wide range of services even in its free trials. When it launched. its Portfolio X-Ray tool was considered a revolutionary one amongst the peers which could evaluate the distribution of one’s holdings. But one gets this feature only if they subscribe to the premium option. The premium feature also provides some extra features like Quicken. Try their free version to know if it’s the one for you.
The verdict
It’s quite easy to get confused with a wide variety of available options. Always choose a portfolio tracker that loads super quick because even a delay of seconds might screw up your trades. Also, check if the interface is easy for you. Most importantly consider whether the cost of the services provided is commensurate with the actual services received. Know your requirements well.
Choose the one that actually fits your needs and doesn’t create a big hole in your pockets. There is no point in paying for the services which are of no use to you.
