Portfolios & Watchlists

Our portfolios & watchlists allow you to monitor a custom group of securities. You can set up multiple portfolios and multiple watchlists to help you better manage your investments. A portfolio allows you to record the number of shares you own of each security and will calculate your running profit/loss plus the current holding value of each security. A watchlist simply shows you the current price of each security in the list. This is useful if you are tracking a group of shares you don’t yet own, and do not need to enter holding details.

Please note: Digital Look does not operate a dealing service. Your portfolios and watchlists allow you to monitor a group of securities, but you are unable to execute a trade using this service.

Creating a portfolio or watchlist

To create a portfolio or watchlist, first log in to Digital Look. You should be taken to ‘My Home’ automatically, but if this does not happen then click on the ‘My Home’ tab.

Once in ‘My Home’ you will be able to see a list of the portfolios and watchlists you have set up already. This is located in the lower left column on the page. To set up a new portfolio, select the appropriate ‘add’ button. You will need to give each new portfolio a unique name. We recommend using a descriptive name, such as ‘Penny Shares’ if you are creating a portfolio of small cap companies.

Adding a security to a portfolio or watchlist

To add a security to a portfolio or watchlist, first click on the relevant portfolio or watchlist. Next, click on the ‘add to portfolio’ button. A pop-up window will appear where you can search by name or ticker. If the pop-up window does not appear, hold down the control key (ctrl) and click again.

Enter the name or ticker of the security that you are trying to add. Note that the default settings restrict the security search to a company in the LSE. If your security is not a company or not listed on the LSE, then you will need to adjust the dropdown menus accordingly. The search results will display all matching securities. Simply check the security you wish to add then click on ‘select’.

Entering & editing your holding

If you are monitoring shares that you already own, you may wish to enter your holding amount and transaction costs. To do so, click on the ‘add shares’ button to the far right of the security name in your portfolio. This will take you to a new screen where you can enter the number of shares you purchased, the price you paid (in pence) and the commission and stamp duty (in pounds). You can also enter the date of purchase. Please note that if you make multiple purchases or sales of a single security, the security will only show up once in your portfolio but all transactions will be included in the holding value and profit/loss calculation.

If you make a mistake, click on the ‘history’ button to edit your holding details.

Managing your portfolio

There are several portfolio management options available to you. If you have completely sold a security, but do not want to lose the transaction history, then select the ‘hide’ option for that particular security. Or, you can delete any security by clicking on the red 'x' to the left of the name, but this will also delete all of your transaction history for that particular security.

You can see a portfolio statement that shows the cash flow of your trading account by clicking on 'portfolio statement'. Note that every time you ‘purchase’ a share this will impact your cash balance negatively, and vice versa for every sale. To get an accurate reflection of your trading account, you will need to add the amount of money you have started with in your trading account by selecting ‘edit cash balance' located at the bottom of the portfolio screen.

Finally, you can select to view your portfolio in a different format. The following seciton briefly explains the different viewing options available.

Viewing your portfolio

In addition to the default valuation screen, there are a number of alternate portfolio views designed to help you get a full picture of your holdings.

Real-time - View live streaming prices on your portfolio with marketLIVE!

ShareCast News – View our market leading ShareCast news service for your portfolio – simply click on the News tab. Also find all regulatory news for the shares you hold in the News tab as well.

Director Dealings – View all director buys and sells for the last 90 days for all companies in your portfolio quickly and easily via our Portfolio Director Deals View. The Director Deals Centre is available via the Company Research tab.

Broker Views – Find out which of your holdings the experts are tipping in an instant with the Portfolio Broker View, also available via the Company Research tab.

Key Dates – Get a personalised version of our useful Company Diary through the Porfolio Key Dates View. Save time going through all upcoming announcements and see instantly which of your companies have upcoming results, meetings, dividend payments and more. To access Key Dates choose the Company Research tab and click on the ‘Key Dates’ link. Also find all recent and upcoming results for the shares you hold in the Company Research tab as well.

Charts – Click on the Charts tab to view charts for your holdings without having to navigate away from your portfolio. The drop down menu is automatically populated with all companies in your portfolio and trade annotations are displayed directly on the chart as default. You can easily see when you’ve bought or sold in relation to the share price and spot in an instant whether you’ve made a wise decision or missed an opportunity.

Asset Allocation – Another great feature we’ve added to the Portfolio Tool recently is the ability to analyse your portfolio in terms of sector, market and asset class. Each pie chart on this page will show your portfolio by criteria, and the key displayed below will show you the breakdown in size order so you can quickly and easily evaluate your portfolio to determine if you are overweight or underweight in any area.

Tools - View your portfolio holdings as a Heat Map or Performance Table. The Heat Maps give you a colourful visual representation of which stocks are on the move, while the Performance Table allows you to view in-depth information on the shares you hold. View detailed price information, key ratios and fundamentals and more.

Set-Up - Controlling your portfolio has never been easier via the 'Create and Manage Portfolios' button at the top right of the Portfolio Tool. From here you can re-name, delete or edit portfolios and watchlists as well as enter your dividend preference options.

FAQs

Here are some common FAQs on the portfolio tool:

Q. How do I create a new Portfolio?

A. Login using your username and password and click the ‘My Portfolios’ link in the ‘My Home’ channel. Go to the ‘Set-up’ page and type a name of the new Portfolio in Create Portfolio box and click ‘Go’.

To rename or delete existing Portfolio go to the ‘Set up’ page and click appropriate rename/delete link located to the right of each Portfolio name.

Q.How do I add a stock to my portfolio?

A. Login using your username and password and click the 'My Portfolios' link the 'My Home' channel.

To add a stock to your portfolio, click "Add Security To Portfolio". A new window will open where you need to enter a company name or ticker, then click on "Search". Once the look up tool has located your security, check the box and click "Select" (or in some cases "search again"). Your security will then be in your portfolio.

To add holdings click on "add shares" on the right hand side, opposite each security in your portfolio. Enter your details and click on "Save Trade" The page will then confirm what you have entered and allow you to edit your details. To return to your portfolio click on "View Portfolio".