Choosing a Stock Tracker

When you finally take the plunge and begin to invest your money in the stock market, depending on the types of stocks you choose you may want to be able to stay constantly updated on what the market is doing. Even if your money is in low risk areas, it's a good idea to check in on the market from time to time in case drastic measures need to be taken. Using a Stock Tracker will allow you easily do all this and more.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet connection. Computer or mobile phone.

1. Think about just how detailed you want your tracker to be. A stock tracker can be bare bones and show only the current price of the stock, or it can be incredibly detailed with graphs tracking the history of the stock, any relevant company information, and much more. Google Finance, for example, provides a comprehensive, detailed stock tracker. Someone who is just starting to experiment with the stock market may want a detailed tracker that will allow them to constantly and easily research their stocks and know the current price all at the same time. Someone who has experience can get away with just knowing the current price of the stock, as they've more than likely already done the research a detailed tracker would provide.

2. Consider using a browser tracker. If you don't want to have to constantly have a Web page open to get your latest stock information, there are a number of available ticker applets for your Internet browser. These are mini-programs that run in any browser window you have open, as opposed to an Internet Web page which is something you would have to continually check. The Yahoo! toolbar, for example, has a built in stock tracker that lets you add and track multiple stocks at once. Mozilla Firefox also has a number of stock tracker add-ons that let you accomplish similar things.

3. Decide whether you want your tracker to be on your computer or on your cell-phone. As cell-phones get more and more advanced, their ability to quickly send and received data over an Internet connection increases. This makes them tremendously useful to double as stock trackers. Depending on the quality of your phone, it may be more convenient to check it than your personal computer. The Apple iPhone, for example, has a built in stock tracker that allows users to enter as many stocks as desired and updates pricing in real-time.

Resources

• Google Finance
• Yahoo!

[mdude]

on 3/9/2009 I found an interesting stock tracker called StockMarketEye. It is a program that runs on your desktop, is easy to use and can track individual stocks or a portfolio. It's much more flexible than a browser and gives you more information right at your finger tips. To see it, go to http://www.stockmarketeye.com or Google for StockMarketEye.