StockMarketEye - Blog

StockMarketEye Reviewed on CNET

July 27, 2010

The Editors at CNET have written a review of StockMarketEye, giving it 5 out of 5 Stars!

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

StockMarketEye’s simple dialog-based interface is one of the clearest, cleanest displays of securities market data we’ve seen.

And this quote from their conclusion sums it up well:

This is not only one of the cleanest-looking but also one of the easiest stock trackers we’ve used … We recommend it.

Here’s the link to the full review.

We can’t say we were surprised by the 5-Star rating (of course :-) ), but we are proud that someone like CNET finally came out and said it.

StockMarketEye v2.4.2 Released

July 4, 2010

We are proud to announce the release of StockMarketEye v2.4.2 for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

With this release, StockMarketEye has added Bollinger Bands to the list of Technical Indicators available in the charts. We had hoped to have Bollinger Bands available for the v2.4.1 release, but we ran out of time. Fortunately, we found more time this release, so enjoy the new indicator!

We have also improved the column configuration process. Now, StockMarketEye tries to take the column sizes from the old columns, if possible. This should make things more consistent when you are configuring your views.

Finally we’ve fixed a number of bugs in this release, notably regarding column configuration and QIF import.

Below is a complete list of the additions and changes in this version of StockMarketEye.

What’s New In StockMarketEye v2.4.2

New Features

  • Bollinger Bands. This is a new Technical Indicator type in the chart area.

Changes

  • Column Configuration will now try to use the old column sizes (rather than the default sizes) if possible.
  • Sell Stock window now does not allow you to sell more shares than were included in the selected lot.

Bug Fixes

  • Fix for column configuration when having fewer than 2 columns.
  • Fix for QIF import that made importing freeze during last stage.
  • Various small fixes.

There is no charge for this upgrade so we recommend that all users (trial and licensed) download and install this new version.

You can download the latest version of StockMarketEye here.

Tracking Bonds, Preferred Stock and other Non-Quoted Securities

June 7, 2010

StockMarketEye can automatically download recent quote data for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds from most major world exchanges.

For some securities, however, StockMarketEye may not have access to recent quote information. Securities such as bonds and preferred stock as well as items such as real estate will not have quote data available. Some mutual funds (such as Canadian mutual funds or some UK mutual funds for example) also do not have quote data available.

You can still include these securities and investments in your StockMarketEye portfolios, however. Here’s how.

Example #1 – Corporate Bond

Example #1: Citigroup Inc issued bond, 5% yield, maturing in 2014.

As our first example, let’s take a corporate bond issued by Citigroup.

The first thing to consider is what ticker symbol you want to use in StockMarketEye to represent this bond in your portfolio. As StockMarketEye does not have access to quote data for this bond, using the Symbol Search will not turn up any symbols. So we need to invent a fake symbol that will represent the bond in our portfolio. For example, in the case of the Citigroup bond above, we might choose CITI2014.

Another option for our example is to use the CUSIP number. In this case we would use 172967CQ2.

You are free to choose any symbol you want, but the key is to choose a symbol that is meaningful to you and one for which StockMarketEye does not already have data. You can verify this by typing your chosen symbol into StockMarketEye’s Symbol Search field. The search results area should be empty.



Now that we have our ticker symbol, we can add it to our portfolio as we would add a normal stock. Click on the “Buy Stock” button in the toolbar to open the “Buy or short-sell a stock” window. Then enter the choosen ticker symbol and other pertinent data.



In the image above, the important fields are highlighted with a red arrow. You can see that we set the “Number of Shares” to be 5, meaning that we are purchasing 5, $1000 par bonds. The “Price” field we set to the purchase price, which in our example is $986.05 per $1000 par bond. Click OK to add the bond to your portfolio.



StockMarketEye warns us that it does not have access to any data for the symbol, CITI2014. We can safely click OK as we will enter the current price quote ourselves.

Your portfolio will now look something like this. We’ve also added a holding of Citigroup stock to our portfolio.



You’ll notice that the “Name” column is empty for our bond. We can add our own name by editing this field. To do this, with the CITI2014 item selected as it is in the image above, click in its “Name” cell.



Then type the name you want to give this item. In our example, we’ve choosen “Citigroup 5% 2014″.



When you’re done typing the name you want, press Return to have StockMarketEye remember it.



Now let’s say that the price of the bond changes. StockMarketEye won’t be able to update the price automatically, but we can edit it manually.

As we did to change the “Name” cell, we can edit the “Last” cell to change the current price and compute the value of our holding. Select the CITI2014 line and click in its “Last” cell, then type the new price. In our example, let’s say the new price is now $989.50.



As you can see in the next image, the prices have updated to reflect the new value of our bond holding.



Update the “Last” cell like this any time you want to bring your bond holding up-to-date.

Example #2 – Canadian Mutual Fund

The same principles from our bond example above can be applied to other security types. Let’s take the Canadian mutual fund, Fidelity Canadian Disciplined Equity Fund. This fund has a “Fund Code” of FID224 so let’s use that as our ticker symbol.



In the “Price” field we entered the NAV.



Now we’ll edit the “Name” cell and set a new “Last” value for the fund.



You can update the “Last” cell value every day or whenever you want to bring your portfolio up-to-date with the lastest prices.

StockMarketEye v2.4.1 Released

May 27, 2010

We are proud to announce the release of StockMarketEye v2.4.1 for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

StockMarketEye now allows you to print your Portfolio. Use the menu, Portfolio -> Print to PDF to get started. StockMarketEye will generate a PDF file of your current Portfolio and display it. Once it is displayed, you can print it on your printer, or save it for later viewing. The printing feature allows you to either use a pre-configured set of columns or use the current columns that are visible in the Prices view.

We have also added a couple of new column types, notably the “Name” column in the Transactions view and the “Dividend Value” column for use in Portfolios. The “Dividend Value” column is useful to see how much dividend income your portfolio or stock is likely to generate based on current dividend yields.

With this version, you can now easily reset an overridden column value. For example, overriding the “Last” column value can help you visualize price changes. To undo the change, simple re-edit the “Last” column, removing the current value and press enter. The current “Last” price will then become visible again and will update whenever your Portfolio’s prices update.

Last but not least, we have fixed a few bugs related to the creation of Portfolios and hanging startups.

Below is a complete list of the additions and changes in this version of StockMarketEye.

What’s New In StockMarketEye v2.4.1

New Features

  • Portfolio printing. StockMaketEye can print your Portfolio to a PDF file for printing or later viewing. It can be found in the menu: Portfolio -> Print to PDF
  • New ‘Name’ column in transactions available
  • New ‘Dividend Value’ column in Portfolio prices and/or fundamentals view available. This column show the current, yearly dividend income generated by a given lot. The total of all lots is shown in the Totals line.
  • New ‘1W %’ column in Portfolios and Watchlists. Represents the percentage change in the share price over the last 1 week. Compliments the existing percentage change columns.

Changes

  • Improved column edition for overriding values
  • Set the Symbol field in the Buy Stock window automatically based on the current selection in the Portfolio.

Bug Fixes

  • Fix for creating portfolios when certain columns are visible.

There is no charge for this upgrade so we recommend that all users (trial and licensed) download and install this new version.

You can download the latest version of StockMarketEye here.

Tracking a Canadian Investment Portfolio

May 17, 2010

In this post, we’ll show you how you can setup StockMarketEye to use Canadian Dollars and track your stocks from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

Tracking your RRSP

StockMarketEye can track an unlimited number of portfolios. As a help to get you started, StockMarketEye will automatically create a portfolio called “My 401K” for you. You can delete this portfolio or create others, as needed. For this post, however, we’ll simply rename this portfolio from, “My 401K”, to “My RRSP” to represent your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), the Canadian equivalent of the US 401K. If you don’t have an RRSP, you can rename it to something else, such as the name of your brokerage.

To rename this portfolio, double-click on the “My 401K” Portfolio in the list on the left-hand side of the StockMarketEye window. You can also just select the “My 401K” Portfolio there and go into the menu called “Portfolio” and choose Settings. This will open the “Portfolio Settings” window as shown here.

Now change the “Name” field from “My 401K” to “My RRSP”. You can also write something in the description if you are so inclined.

You should also change the currency of this portfolio from US Dollars to Canadian Dollars. Select the Currency tab in the “Portfolio Settings” window. Then scroll up and select Canadian Dollar (CAD) in the list.

Click OK for the changes to take effect.

Default StockMarketEye Currency Settings

By default, StockMarketEye creates portfolios with US Dollars as the currency. You can change this as well as the currency used in the Portfolio Totals view to use Canadian Dollars.

Open the StockMarketEye “Preferences” window. On a Mac you can do this by going to the “StockMarketEye” menu and choose “Preferences…”. On Windows or Linux, go to the File menu and choose “Preferences…”.

In the “General” tab, you’ll see the “Currency Settings” block. There are 2 settings here you can change. The first is the “Currency for ‘Portfolio Totals’ view”. Click on the button labeled “Choose…” and the “Select Currency” window will open.

As you did in the Portfolio Settings dialog, scroll up in the list and select Canadian Dollar (CAD), then click OK. Now do the same for the “Default initial currency for Portfolios”. Finally click OK in the Preferences window for the settings to take effect.

If you now click on the “Portfolios” item in the list on the left-hand side of the StockMarketEye window, you’ll see the Portfolio Totals view. Note that it now uses Canadian Dollars (C$), rather than US Dollars ($).

Finding Canadian Stock Ticker Symbols

You can use StockMarketEye’s built-in Symbol Search technology to find the ticker symbols of the stocks you want to track from the Toronto Exchange (TSX). Just click in the “Symbol Search” field in the upper right corner of the StockMarketEye window and start typing the name or symbol of the stock you want to add. The search results are displayed just below the search field. You can double click on one of the search results to start adding it to your Portfolio.

In StockMarketEye, ticker symbols of stocks that trade on the TSX are suffixed with “.TO”. For example, Suncor, whose ticker symbol on the TSX is “SU” in StockMarketEye is “SU.TO”. Canadian Western Bank on the TSX is “CWB” but in StockMarketEye is “CWB.TO”.

Another change to be aware of is that tickers symbols from the TSX that contain a “.” (period) have the period converted into a “-” (dash). For example, Penn West Energy Trust on the TSX is “PWT.UN” but in StockMarketEye is “PWT-UN.TO”.

StockMarketEye also supports the Canadian Venture Exchange (CNDX). Ticker symbols of stocks that trade on the CNDX are suffixed with a “.V” in StockMarketEye. For example, Alange Energy Corp, which on the CNDX trades as “ALE”, is “ALE.V” in StockMarketEye.

You can read more about finding stock ticker symbols in the StockMarketEye User’s Guide.

A Note About Canadian Mutual Funds

StockMarketEye can track Canadian stocks and ETFs from both the TSX and CNDX. Unfortunately, StockMarketEye is not able to track Canadian mutual funds.

Try StockMarketEye Now

Get StockMarketEye Now, and start tracking your Canadian investments today!

StockMarketEye v2.4.0 Released

April 26, 2010

We are proud to announce the release of StockMarketEye v2.4.0 for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

StockMarketEye now supports Technical Indicators within the chart area. We have initially added 6 different indicators and have plans to add more in future versions. We provide the indicators in pre-configured, standard settings such as the 50-day EMA or the 14-day RSI, while also allowing you to input your own preferred settings. The indicators you use in the chart are saved when you quit StockMarketEye and are re-loaded the next time you start up.

With this version we have also added a number of other useful chart features including Open/High/Low/Close tracer values, Click-to-Trace cursor settings and chart markers for the Watch Start or Buy Price values of the stock being viewed.

Another notable addition in this version is the ability to move stocks from one Portfolio to another via drag-and-drop. You can also drag an item from a Watchlist and drop it on the name of a Portfolio to start adding it to your Portfolio.

Also new in this version is support for tracking stock option prices. You can find available stock option symbols on Yahoo! Finance and simply copy-paste them into your Watchlist. New options related columns, such as Strike Price and Expiration Date, are also now available.

Below is a complete list of the additions and changes in this version of StockMarketEye.

What’s New In StockMarketEye v2.4.0

New Features

  • Technical Indicators in Charts. Indicators available in this version are:
    • Simple Moving Average (SMA)
    • Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
    • Relative Strength Index (RSI)
    • Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)
    • Slow Stochastic
    • Fast Stochastic
    • Volume

    All indicators come with pre-defined, standard settings as well as the possibility to use custom settings.

  • Open/High/Low/Close/Volume chart tracer values.
  • Click-to-Trace feature for the chart cursor.
  • Watch Start / Buy Price marker in the charts.
  • Options Support – StockMarketEye can retrieve option quotes using the new option symbology. New options related columns: Contract High, Contract Low, Expiration Date, Open Interest and Strike Price
  • Move/copy portfolio items and transactions between portfolios using Drag-and-Drop.

Changes

  • In-Chart data loading indicator.
  • New menu item: Get All Quotes (menu File -> Get All Quotes or F5) to manually update quotes in all Watchlists and Portfolios.
  • Drag-and-Drop a Watchlist item onto a Portfolio to add it to that Portfolio.
  • Allow for editing of the Name column. Value is saved and will be visible the next time StockMarketEye is run.
  • Improved keyboard usage in Watchlists and Portfolios
  • New Portfolio Column: Days Held
  • Windows installer and executable are now code signed for easier and more secure installation.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixes for candlestick charts.
  • Fix sorting by “Date Added” and other date columns.
  • Fix for Watchlists with more than 200 symbols.

There is no charge for this upgrade so we recommend that all users (trial and licensed) download and install this new version.

You can download the latest version of StockMarketEye here.

Changing A Symbol’s Pre-Defined Currency

April 20, 2010

StockMarketEye assigns a currency to each symbol you enter based on the symbol’s exchange suffix. A symbol’s exchange suffix is any part after a “.” at the end of the symbol.

For example, the symbol LLOY.L is Lloyds Banking Group. We know that this company trades on the London Stock Exchange because the symbol has a “.L” suffix. Because it trades in London, StockMarketEye assigns it the currency, GBP (British Pounds).

The symbol BNP.PA is BNP Paribas. Because of the “.PA” suffix we know that it trades on the Paris Exchange. So StockMarketEye assigns it the currency, EUR (Euro).

Assigning the symbol’s currency based on its exchange suffix works 99% of the time.

But what happens if StockMarketEye gets it wrong? What happens if the currency assigned to a symbol is different from the actual currency in which the stock trades? For example, if a security trades on the London Exchange, but is denominated in USD (US Dollars), how can you change it in StockMarketEye from GBP to USD?

Changing the Currency

We’ll use PHPD.L as our example symbol. PHPD.L is an exchange traded fund (ETF) for physical paladium. It trades on the London Exchange, but is actually denominated in USD rather than GBP.

  1. First, we’ll need to add the Currency column to our Portfolios. The easiest way is to open the Preferences and select the Columns tab. Then click on the Prices button.
  2. You’ll now see the “Configure Portfolio Prices Columns” window as shown below. Select the “Currency” column name in the Available Columns list on the left. Then click on the right-arrow to move it to the Configured Columns list on the right. Now click the OK button to re-configure the columns.
  3. Close the Preferences window.

  4. Now select PHPD.L in your Portfolio.

  5. Then click in the Currency cell to start editing.

  6. Delete the “GBP” and enter “USD”, then hit return.
  7. You’ll see that StockMarketEye now shows the PHPD.L position in US Dollars, rather than British Pounds.

As securities normally trade in the local currency of the exchange, you will probably never need to change its currency in StockMarketEye. But if you’re interested in investing in physical paladium via the PHPD.L ETF, you now know how to set the proper currency in StockMarketEye.

StockMarketEye v2.3.6 Released

March 25, 2010

We are proud to announce the release of StockMarketEye v2.3.6 for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

This release contains a number of new features, changes and bug fixes that will improve your investing experience. One particularly useful new feature is the display of an alert window when adding a ticker symbol for which StockMarketEye does not have any data. StockMarketEye may not have data for this symbol because it does not correspond to any known company (a typo, perhaps), or perhaps the symbol is from an unsupported exchange. In any case, StockMarketEye will actively inform you of this fact before adding the symbol to your Watchlist or Portfolio. You can still choose to add the symbol, which leads us to another useful new feature…

The ability to track non-quotable items in your portfolio. For those users who want to include investments such as Certificates of Deposit (CDs) or Money Market funds, you can now add these investments using an arbitrary symbol (“CD-2015″ for an example CD that matures in 2015).

Below is a complete list of the additions and changes in this version of StockMarketEye.

What’s New In StockMarketEye v2.3.6

New Features

  • Display an informational window before adding invalid ticker symbols
  • Database folder may be relocated. This allows the StockMarketEye database to be stored on removable media such as flash drives (for security) or on a backup disk (for peace of mind). More information available here.
  • New columns: Gain % YTD, Gain YTD, Gain YTD Converted
  • New column: Watch Yield (for Watchlists only: Dividend per Share / Watch Start Price)

Changes

  • Editing sell transaction data flows changes back to existing portfolio item
  • Saves “Last” price for items with an unknown symbol. This provides support for including non-quotable items in a portfolio (example: CDs, Money Market Funds, assets from unsupported exchanges, etc)

Bugs Fixed

  • Fixes in QIF import for Scottrade QIF files.
  • Fixed issue with changing currency associated with a stock.
  • Fixed issue with Total Return calculation and multi-lot portfolio items.
  • Fixed issue with Gain calculation and multi-lot portfolio items.
  • Fixed issue caused by empty column settings being saved in database.
  • Fixed some issues with rounding of values.
  • Editing dividend, capgain or RoC transaction correctly sets the transaction type in the edit window.

There is no charge for this upgrade so we recommend that all users (trial and licensed) download and install this new version.

You can download the latest version of StockMarketEye here.

Posted in Releases | 3 Comments »

StockMarketEye v2.3.5 Released

February 21, 2010

We are proud to announce the release of StockMarketEye v2.3.5 for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

The main new feature of this release is the Portfolio Totals view. To see the total of all your portfolios, select the “Portfolios” item in the folder’s list (first item in the list of Portfolios and Watchlists on the left hand side of the StockMarketEye window). You’ll see the total market value of all your Portfolios along with the percentage gain, day’s gain and many others. You can even configure the columns you see by right-clicking on the column headers and selecting “Configure Columns”. Alternatively you can open the column configuration window via the Preferences, “Columns” tab.

There are a number other important new features such as support for recording stock splits, capital gains and return of capital transactions. Below is a complete list of the additions and changes in this version of StockMarketEye.

What’s New In StockMarketEye v2.3.5

New Features

  • New Totals view displaying sum totals of all Portfolios.
  • Support Capital Gain and Return of Capital transactions.
  • Support stock splits.
  • New transparent bar chart cursor.
  • Support for changing the default currency used by new Portfolios.
  • Ability to configure the columns of the Portfolio’s Transaction view.
  • New preference: Display the thousands separator.

Changes

  • Improved startup time and smaller splash screen. Splash screen can be turned off in the Preferences (off by default on Mac OS X).
  • Internal support for new Yahoo option symbols (see http://biz.yahoo.com/opt/symbol.html).
  • Display Total Return values for portfolio item sub-lots.
  • Display a dialog after a successful CSV export that contains a link to open the newly exported file.
  • Allow an empty Transaction Costs field in Portfolio dialogs.
  • Allow editing of an item’s Currency.
  • Chart now also updates based on selection in the Transactions view.
  • Reorganise and improve the Preferences.

Bugs Fixed

  • Fix for improper detection of splits in chart data.
  • Fix for candle-stick and OHLC values used in charts.
  • Updating the cash balance incorrectly used the transactions base amount rather than the rated amount. Caused cash balance to be incorrect when the transaction was not in the same currency as the portfolio.
  • Add missing “Add Transaction” pop-up menu item to some Portfolio pop-up menus.
  • Connection handling improvements with multiple simultaneous requests.
  • Minor corrections in QIF import.

There is no charge for this upgrade so we recommend that all users (trial and licensed) download and install this new version.

You can download the latest version of StockMarketEye here.

Website and Download Speed Improvements

February 1, 2010

We have upgraded the StockMarketEye website, moving to a faster server with much faster download speeds.

You’ll see that the website is more responsive and pages load faster.

Downloading StockMarketEye will be noticeably faster. From our tests it’s now 6x faster to download the latest version of StockMarketEye than before. You’ll most notice this during upgrades when many users are downloading the latest version at the same time.