What do you use for portfolio tracking?

DlphcOracl

I had been using Yahoo Finance for portfolio tracking, watch lists, etc. However, their website is a mess and I am having persistent problems accessing their site. It no longer recognizes my password and resetting it is futile, that doesn't work either. Simply put, I need to find another way or site for basic portfolio tracking and setting up watch lists.

Can MFO readers and subscribers give me their recommendations and what they use? Does anyone use or recommend commercially available programs such as Quicken? Any and all recommendations will be appreciated because Yahoo Finance has ceased to be an option.

Old_Skeet

Hi DlphcOracl, Skeeter here ...

I use the Bloomberg site as it provides all the things that you mentioned plus some other features. I have provided a link to Bloomberg below.

http://www.bloomberg.com/personal-finance/

Under the Personal Finance tab there is a drop down menu ... once it appears click on portfolio tracker ... and, from there follow the set up instructions.

After your review, please let me know what you think. And, if you find something better, please let me know that too.

Hope this helps ... and, have a great day.

Skeeter

DlphcOracl

Thank you, Skeeter. I will visit the site and set it up. I am so frustrated with trying to use and access Yahoo Finance that I have thrown in the towel on that site. Small wonder Yahoo has been in a slow death spiral for the better part of a decade.

Investor

I use M* Portfolio manager tool.

You can create either transaction or watch portfolios. Transaction portfolios require more maintenance but tracts your performance more accurately over time (dividends, splits etc.).

I track my performance using an spreadsheet based on monthly results (and incorporation the affects of new money) so I switched to using watch portfolios only.

Mark

I share your frustration and and the problems seem to be the worst when combined with Internet Explorer. If your game you might try using the Google Chrome browser - much faster, much slicker, better performance overall.

AndyJ

Agree with Mark - Yahoo Finance works pretty well with Chrome. I run Chrome and Firefox, and with FF, Yahoo pages are constantly freezing up, but it's usually smooth with Chrome.

Like Investor says, M*'s Portfolio Manager works fine for me, with a spreadsheet of my own alongside. The only thing about PM is that sometimes M* is a little tardy getting closing prices updated in PM; actually Yahoo seems to do a bit better on that.

hank

Sorry to hear your problems. Have used Yahoo about 10 years. Never a problem with password. Seems to work from any device or location. My issues are less serious: (1) occasionally - once a month perhaps - the daily quotes don't update from previous day (2) on rare occasions, I'll log in OK, but can't call up the portfolio. This generally clears up in hour or so (3) probably already mentioned, but if you click on a fund to track performance, you'll find the numbers out of date, (4) They've added some obnoxious advertising banners that occasionally interfere with view - but it's easy to close them. Also don't like changes from about 6 months ago. The "add-edit holdings" tab is very small & hard to find. Could go on ... Yep - If hadn't already invested substantial time entering multiple portfolios (Roth holdings, commodities, stock funds, etc.) I would follow your lead and look for something better. Good luck ..... LOL - TIAA-CREF just revamped their account access site & also a mess. Wonder if they used the same programer? (-:

Sven

For the sake of simplicity, I use a spreadsheet to track performance and allocation changes over time. Perhaps my needs are less demanding than most investors, real-time tracking is not necessary.

Ted

I use and like Yahoo Finance, never had a problem. I suggest you look at MarketWatch.Com
Regards,
Ted

bee

Hi,

I also use Yahoo Finance in conjunction with MS Excel.
Simple steps:
-Create portfolio in Yahoo Finance
-At about 7-8 PM EST each day download it into an Excel file format...look for the download button in Yahoo Finance
-Open you personal Excel portfolio file
-Copy & paste the Symbol and Price Columns into your personal file (not on Yahoo's server)
-Create a column for shares held...update as you buy/sell shares
-Create a column for Value

The Value cell needs a simple multiplication function for calculating Value = Shares held X Day's Price. You could total this at the bottom and add other calculations as you like.

Here's a visual(click on the image for a bigger view):

DlphcOracl

Thanks to all who posted comments and advice. Very helpful and very much appreciated.