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Want to track your stocks, funds, ETFs and other investments using our convenient Watchlist tool? Perhaps you're a longtime Watchlist user with some questions on how to customize it to see particular data. Or maybe you're thinking of using it for the first time but are unsure about how it works.

Either way, we're here to help. We had a live discussion at 9 a.m. (ET) on Monday, June 27th. To replay it, click on the live blog box below. A transcript also appears below. (You might also want to take a look at the tips for using Watchlist that we've attached at the bottom of this piece.)





<iframe src="https://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=fc99995fd1/height=650/width=460" scrolling="no" height="650px" width="460px" frameBorder ="0" allowTransparency="true" ><a href="https://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=fc99995fd1" >Watchlist: Your questions answered</a></iframe>


Monday June 27, 2011

9:00 Sonali Verma: Good morning! Thank you for joining us with your questions on Watchlist. I'm Sonali Verma, deputy investment editor at the Globe and Mail. I am one of the people who runs the Globe Investor website.



9:02 Sonali Verma: Sitting with me is Jonathan Tracy, who is the web developer in charge of upgrading Watchlist -- in other words, the person who will incorporate your best ideas into Watchlist!

9:04 [Comment From jana hafez : ]

Where is my watchlist? I created one a while ago, it was a little bit pain (I have about 30 stocks) and soon it disappeared. Bummer! You know, I hate, how you change things around. It's not broke, don't fix it.

9:05 Sonali Verma: Hi, Jana. Did you register and sign in and create a Watchlist? Or are you referring to a Stocklist?





9:06 Sonali Verma: The reason I ask is that Stocklist, our old tool, depends on your having cookies, and you may have wiped out your cookies, which means you can't access it.







9:07 Sonali Verma: The joy of Watchlist is that you don't have to worry about cookies. Once you've logged in and set it up, you can access it from any computer anywhere. (You can't do that with the old Stocklist.)





9:07 [Comment From Bill: ]

Hi, is there nay way you could provide P/E ratios for ETF's and World Indices? Thanks





9:09 Sonali Verma: Hello, Bill! Thanks for the suggestion.



Jonathan tells me that we're currently working on a service to provide that data for world indices.







9:09 Sonali Verma: As for ETFs, you can already access P/E ratios. What you need to do is go to your Watchlist and set the view to Ratios.



If you have ETFs in your Watchlist, you'll see both the P/E ratio and forward P/E ratio pop up.





9:12 [Comment From Bill: ]

Actually, I have a number of ETF's and I usually see "n/a" for both the PE and Fwd PE. Just for example, look at CBQ-T and COW-T.



9:13 Sonali Verma: Thanks for that! I'll point that out and we'll look into it.





9:13 [Comment From Bruce: ]

Just wanted to say that the new watchlist is (finally) great. I have been using globeinvestor and globefund for years. the last attempt at a revised site was terrible. but this one is really good. I cant think of any questions per se but wanted to give you feedback.





9:14 Sonali Verma: Much appreciated! Glad you're enjoying it.





9:16 [Comment From Garry Curran: ]

On the Funds report it says on the 1YR 3Yr 5YR etc that it will be updated Monthly. On the OLD fundlist on the Report it would give you the end of month date. How do we know when the monthly update has taken place? Thanks Garry





9:17 Sonali Verma: Thanks for your question, Garry. We normally update it at the end of the month, so nothing's changed there.





9:17 [Comment From Guest: ]

Will I ever be able to get my watchlist on my iphone?







9:18 Sonali Verma: Yes! The mobile app is coming soon, and we're pretty excited about it! (You're not the first one to ask for it.)





9:18 [Comment From Steve: ]

I have Claymore ETFs. For the last few months, in the News screen, it has not been picking up the Monthly Distribution Press Release. I've been going to their site daily to find it.

9:19 Sonali Verma: Thanks for that. We've heard that before and have figured out that some of the information is not reaching our Watchlists. We're working on fixing it.





9:20 [Comment From GCS: ]

When will you be adding a condensed simple print option, like the old stock list, which doesn't take more than 2 pages to print 50 stocks etc.



9:22 Sonali Verma: If you want to be able to print from the browser, rest assured that our team is working on getting an easily printable condensed Watchlist. You'll probably be able to do it in a few months.



In the meantime, you could export your Watchlist in CSV format to an Excel spreadsheet and print it from there. You can customize that data you want printed there.





9:23 [Comment From jana hafez: ]

O.K. I never registered, because I never had to with the old stocklist. I tell you, I will miss it (the old stocklist). Has all the info I need. One more question: I invest in US companies, too, but when I need more info (e.g. company profile, I have to go to Yahoo or Nasdaq, sometimes.





9:25 Sonali Verma: Hello again! I'm sure you already know this, but just in case you don't, you can click on the name of a stock in your Watchlist and pull up all kinds of detailed information on the company.

Watchlist tip #6: How to dive into more research





9:26 [Comment From jana hafez: ]

sorry, one more thing... G & M does not bring all the info on US/Int'l companies. Have to use Yahoo. Why's that?





9:27 Sonali Verma: We're exploring our options on getting more information on international companies. Thanks for letting us know that you're interested in it -- that's a great way to help us figure out what our readers and Watchlist users want.



9:34 Sonali Verma: This comment was left by a reader on our article page:

A couple questions:

- will there be an easy way to move companies from one list to another ?



- there appears to be a problem with some dividend yield values not showing in the list when there is indeed a dividend.





9:35 Sonali Verma: There is an easy way to import stocks to your Watchlist from your old Stocklist.



Watchlist tip #2: How to import and export

9:36 Sonali Verma: If you want to move them from one Watchlist to another, we're working on different options to ensure that it is a smooth process. We have a few ideas that we are trying and hope to have a solution for you in a couple of months.





9:37 Sonali Verma: We're aware of the dividend yield problem and are working on fixing the calculations.





9:37 [Comment From Brian: ]

I see how to add to my Watchlist but I can't see where I can delete a stock that I no longer want to track.



9:38 Sonali Verma: Hi, Brian! The last column in your Watchlist has grey xs. If you click on the grey x for the stock that you want to delete, that will get rid of it.





9:47 [Comment From Guest: ]

How can I put the original amount/shares in so I can track YTD





9:49 Sonali Verma: You can input the number of shares. Use the My Shares view and go to the Shares column. Click on the +Add Shares link to put in the number of shares.







9:51 Sonali Verma: That will track only today's change in price.



If you want the YTD change, you can go to the new Per Cent Performance view. There is a YTD column there.



Also, if you want your information all in one place, you can go to the Build Your Own view and customize your Watchlist to track several variables of your choice.





9:52 [Comment From Guest ]

1) I would like "Ticker" and "Company" also customized;



9:52 Sonali Verma: Thanks for that -- I'll pass it along for our team to review.



9:52 [Comment From Guest: ]

Thanks Sonali, is there a way to track from inception ie from the initial transaction so I can tell the actual performance



9:54 Sonali Verma: Are you talking about a fund's inception?



If you go to the Cumulative Return view, it shows you the return since inception in the last column.





9:55 [Comment From William: ]

2) Can all stocks, say Stock1, Stock2, Fund1, Fund2 all in one single page?





9:56 Sonali Verma: Hi, William. Currently, I'm afraid you can't put them all together.



You can use the Display option to display up to 100 securities (depending on your browser) per section.





9:57 [Comment From Guest: ]

No sorry, I meant from the date of transaction when I actually bought/sold them



9:57 Sonali Verma: At the moment, I'm afraid not.



9:57 [Comment From Marc Daigneault: ]

Sonali, great work so far. The only bug I see is accessing the Watchlist on a mopbile device (iPhone 3GS), I can see the funds, but I can't see all the data related to the # of shares I own that I entered such as the



...such as the "Total My Shares"





9:58 Sonali Verma: There's an iPhone and BlackBerry app in the pipeline that should take care of that.



9:58 [Comment From Lloyd Arsenault: ]

is there a way to get ETF holdings in your watchlist



10:01 Sonali Verma: Hello, Lloyd!



You can simply add tickers to include ETFs in your Watchlist.

Watchlist tip #1: Quick and easy ticker searches



And you can track the number of shares/units you hold as well. Go to the My Shares view and the Shares column. You can input the number of shares you hold by using the +Add Shares link.





10:01 [Comment From William: ]

Thank you!



10:01 [Comment From Guest: ]

Can you freeze laft most column and title row in the display. The feature would be very useful when you have to scroll horizentally to get to other data and verticaly to get to the other stocks or funds at the bottom





10:02 Sonali Verma: Great idea! It's something that we've looked into and are still working on. This particular feature has turned out to be more challenging than you might expect.





10:12 Sonali Verma: Thank you all for joining us with your questions and your feedback. Keep it coming!



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