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earlier discussion

Our new Watchlist has many new improvements and features to make investing easier and more effective. And we're here to help you discover all that it has to offer.

We're holding a series of regular live discussions to answer any questions you have on the portfolio-tracking tool. The following is a transcript of our last one on Monday, July 18. (For transcripts of earlier live discussions on Watchlist, click on discussion 1 or )

11:29 Darcy Keith - Good morning everyone and welcome to this live discussion intended to answer your questions on using Watchlist, our powerful new investment tracking tool. I'm Darcy Keith, an editor with Globe Investor, and sitting with me is Jonathon Tracy. Jonathon is the web developer in charge of upgrading Watchlist.

11:30 Darcy Keith - We'll be holding these live discussions on a regular basis - specifically, Mondays at 1130 a.m. (ET), except for holidays. Our aim is to make the transition to this new tool as easy as possible for everyone. There are a lot of improvements and enhancements from our earlier Stocklist tool - and we'll be adding new features as time goes on.

11:40 Darcy Keith - Great news for income and dividend investors. Last week, we added two new data columns to our dividends view. They are the dividends EX date and dividend pay date. You can read much more about this in a new blog posting you can see here click on here

11:44 [Comment From Paul]

Does Watchlist work on all mobile devices?

11:46 Darcy Keith - Yes, it does. There's a mobile APP for the iphone and Blackberry coming very soon. And currently there's a mobile web Watchlist available at http://m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/my-watchlist/?service=mobile

11:49 [Comment From Kate ]

I'm a new investor. Brand new, actually. How can Watchlist help me?

11:52 Darcy Keith - It's a great tool Kate for you to track your investments. There are many ways it can help you make better, more informed decisions. To start off, make sure you register as a user, then you can login and use the Watchlist for free. You can simply do a company search and then add a related symbol for that company. It will list everything from stocks and funds, to commodities and currencies.

11:54 Darcy Keith - Here's a link to a page that explains all that Watchlist has to offer. There are many videos and tutorials to help you along.

11:54 [ Comment From Dave7722 ]

I use Watchlist for my portfolio watching (it`s quicker). But it`s not complete as I cannot include cash and GICs. Any possibility of adding a new heading for the more static parts of a portfolio?

11:56 Darcy Keith - It's definitely a good suggestion. We are looking at what static parts of portfolios would appeal to our users and hope to expand these offerings in the future.

11:58 [ Comment From steve ]

With the new my shares feature, we now have to keep updating nav unit numbers when we receive them as a dividend. Is there no way you can anticipate the dividend and update automatically?

12:00 Darcy Keith - Thanks for pointing this out. It's functionality we are currently considering. We are in the process of determining the best way forward. . stay tuned. We certainly understand how this would be helpful.

12:05 [ Comment From Sean ]

I am not a Watchlist user, but wonder whether I could use it for my small (4 member) investment club - can we share a logon id? Any other features suitable for an investment club?

12:07 Darcy Keith - Hi Sean. You can certainly share a loginID if you'd like - though of course this isn't a recommended practice for everyone due to privacy concerns. Another approach: You can export the data from one Watchlist and share it with other users.

12:08 Darcy Keith - We're also looking into the possibility of a share-your-Watchlist feature that will make this easier for you.

12:10 Darcy Keith - There are many features on the Watchlist that will be great for your investment club. You can dig deep into a company's financials, metrics like price to earnings, analyst coverage, and much much more. It can be great for doing research on making the best picks - and for tracking your picks thereafter.

12:10 [ Comment From C ]

I like myshares. Will I ever actually be able to buy shares through watchlist?

12:11 Darcy Keith - Right now, it's a feature that's being considered and we're working out the details before moving forward. Stay tuned on that.

12:12 [ Comment From Don ]

I'm colourblind and have trouble with red and green. Can I adjust the colours on the watchlist console?

12:12 Darcy Keith - No, but we are working on ways to make the data refresh more noticeable. We also have symbols that designate gains and losses in addition to the colours.

12:13 [ Comment From Anthony F Davidson ]

I assume the George Weston special dividend of $7.75 paid January 2011 was really a return of capital and that the YTD Return on investment should reflect this gain. Your figures do not. In addition, investors in Enbridge Inc were blessed with a 2 for 1 stock split in May, 2011 but your Dividend calculations do not take this fact into account. Other than these items I am pleased with your changes and find the new Watchlist a much more useful tool to my long-term investment management needs.

12:15 Darcy Keith - On dividend yields, we notice that some calculations have been incorrect and we've taken measures to resolve those. You can expect these fixes very soon. This should resolve the stock split issue as well.

12:18 Darcy Keith - That's all the time we have today - but we'll be back again next Monday for another live discussion at 1130 AM. Thanks for joining us - and enjoy using the Watchlist. If you have any further questions in the meantime, please click on the comments button on this page - or send us an e-mail, at globeinvestor@globeandmail.com

12:18 Darcy Keith - thanks everybody!

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