We saw that Google Docs spreadsheets have financial functions available in the first post in this series.

For this post, I've created a Google Docs Template which you can view, and copy for your own use if you like (it's free). Click here to see the live template.



The template currently has 2 sheets for securities. The first is for open positions, i.e. your current holdings. The second, "Closed Positions", is for securities you've already sold: use this if you want to keep a history of your past performance.
Continue reading "Your Financial Portfolio in Google Docs 2"

It makes sense to track your stock portfolio's performance online: quotes are updated in near real-time, your securities are linked to information and analysis for each stock... All you have to do is enter your transactions at home and you can then check your portfolio in the dodgiest-looking internet café in Lagos without worrying about the sysadmin investing all the cash at your actual broker in ZZZBest.

This blog reports on the major websites that allow you to track the performance of a portfolio of stocks online, for free: Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance and AOL Money & Finance, etc.

Hopefully, it will help you find the best free online financial portfolio service for your needs!

FAQ: are share prices in pence or pounds?

Stock prices on the London Stock Exchange are quoted in pence sterling, often referred to as GBX, occasionally referred to as GBp. Brokers usually report fees in pounds (GBP), so it's worth paying attention to the denomination. When entering transactions into an online portfolio most sites expect GBX for the share price of the transaction, and GBP for the fees and stamp duty (Google Finance is an exception, expecting GBX for both).

Recap:

1 GBP = £1 = 100 GBX = 100 GBp
1 GBX = 1 GBp = 0.01 GBP = £0.01

Reuters have a section on their site called Community Portfolios. It seems to be geared towards following and comparing other people's portfolios and their performance, but you can also create a private portfolio by unchecking the "Share this Portfolio with the Community" box.

Overall it's a pretty impressive system. It's easy to enter transactions, the site automatically figures out dividends, and can even display nice charts of historical performance like this one:



Continue reading "Reuters Portfolios"

If none of the free online portfolio tracking sites cater to your needs, you might want to try creating your own. Well, maybe not your own site, but you can use Google Docs to create a spreadsheet that shows you up-to-date stock information in any format you choose.

For example:


The company and EPIC columns are typed in manually, the Price and Change columns use the GoogleFinance function to find data for the given ticker.

Continue reading "Your Financial Portfolio in Google Docs"

Today I noticed that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) website allows you to enter and track stock portfolios. Their site was slower than molasses in January when I was using it, but I persevered thinking that, for stocks traded on the LSE, the LSE might be able to provide a better online service than most.

Despite the fact that the LSE recently updated their portfolio services, I was to be pretty sorely disappointed. Here's a list of 5 things I think LSE need to do before anybody with an ounce of sense will use their free portfolio service:

Continue reading "Portfolio Tracking on the London Stock Exchange Website"