So, you've started charting with the indicators and overlays that you want to use, and you've saved a few at least one new ChartStyle in your account. You're getting ready to put those beautiful new charts to work!
The next step is to save a few charts of the stocks and funds you own using a feature we call ChartLists. ChartLists make it quick and easy to review the stocks in your portfolio, the funds in your retirement account, or any other group of securities you're interested in.
Once you've created a chart, you can store it in what we call a ChartList. Think of them as online folders or "watchlists" stored inside your account. ChartLists allow you to save and organize your important charts to make analyzing the market and managing your investments a breeze.
For example, you can create a list for the major market indexes, one for the stocks in your current portfolio and another for the charts you're keeping a close eye on. Basic members get 1 ChartList, Extra members get 250, and Pro members get up to 350 ChartLists. Each ChartList can hold up to 1000 charts.
The quickest way to create a new ChartList is on Your Dashboard. In the panel titled "Your ChartLists", look for the button in the upper right corner that says "New", or find the green "Add New List" button below the ChartList table. After naming your new list, you'll be taken to the Edit page. From there, you can add new charts, remove unwanted charts, edit the list's settings and more.
While you can save new charts into a ChartList directly from the SharpCharts Workbench, the quickest and easiest way to add charts for several ticker symbols to your list is from the Edit View page for that ChartList.
Each symbol you add on this page will be saved as a chart with the default ChartStyle you created in Step 2.
Once you've added symbols to your ChartList, you can view them in a variety of interesting ways. Here's a sampling of some of our more popular ChartList views:
To choose a different view, simply use the "View List As" dropdown at the top of the Edit page (or whichever view you're in), and choose the view you'd like to see.
To further enhance your use of ChartLists, one a helpful option you'll want to try is our "ChartList Reports" feature. With the simple click of a checkbox, you can turn on daily or weekly ChartList Reports for any of your saved lists. After the market closes, we'll automatically email you a performance summary for all the stocks, funds, indexes or other securities saved in that ChartList.
The concept is simple, but many of our members have found it to be quite powerful. For instance, you can use these ChartList Reports to monitor your portfolio(s), track your own unique set of market indexes, follow specific groups like the S&P Sector SPDRs or Dow Industries, and much more. Anything you're watching in a ChartList could be a candidate for our ChartList Reports feature.
Especially if you've got your email on your phone – as most of us do these days – we've found that these ChartList Reports are wonderfully helpful and seriously convenient. As a time saver, these simple reports can help you stay true to your routines and never miss a beat in the market, even while you're out on the go.
To turn on daily and/or weekly ChartList Reports for any of your lists, first pull up the Summary View for the list. Just above the summary table, you'll now see two new checkboxes that say "Send Daily Report" and "Send Weekly Report". Click to turn 'em on – simple as that! You'll start seeing report emails in your inbox the next day.
As you probably guessed, the daily report includes a performance summary for the most recent trading session, while the weekly report includes a performance summary for the most recent trading week.
When you first turn on a ChartList Report, you'll see a dialog box pop up that allows you to select the timing of your reports for that ChartList – i.e. US, Canada, UK, India. Reports for different ChartLists can be sent at different times, so if you have one ChartList focused on Canadian equities and another focused on the UK, the reports can be delivered at the appropriate hour. Good news there for all you global marketwatchers or international investors!
David Keller, Chief Market Strategist here at StockCharts, gave a recent rundown of the ChartList Reports feature during his daily StockCharts TV show, The Final Bar. The quick clip below will give you a sense of how the new tool works and will provide some helpful insights into how David is using these reports for his own account.
In addition to your own custom-built ChartLists, StockCharts offers ChartPacks for Extra and Pro subscribers - pre-created ChartLists that you can install into your account with just a couple of clicks. ChartPacks can contain a single list with a few key charts or many ChartLists with a wide variety of charts.
The free "Market in a Nutshell" ChartPack, created by our own Arthur Hill, contains 160 general-purpose charts stored inside 4 ChartLists. Its goal is to help new members get started quickly with their accounts.
To install this ChartPack, click on your name at the top of any page and choose Your Account from the dropdown menu.
In the ChartPacks section of the Your Account page, you can see which ChartPacks you already have installed. Click the "Manage ChartPacks" link to add a new one.
Find "Arthur Hill's Market in a Nutshell ChartPack on the list, and click the green "Install" button next to it.
Below the description for this ChartPack, click the big green "Install ChartPack" button, and confirm that you want to install by clicking "OK".
Once the ChartPack has been installed, you'll be able to see the four Nutshell ChartLists alongside your own custom ChartLists on Your Dashboard.
Whether you're assessing the market as a whole or tracking your own portfolio, ChartLists are a great way to monitor a large number of securities at a glance. Alongside SharpCharts, your ChartLists will become your secret weapon and help you use StockCharts to make better investing decisions. As you populate these lists with the stocks, funds, indexes and custom charts that you care about, they will become an invaluable resource for you.
Now that you've got a ChartList or two set up in your account, you're ready to really make the magic happen by saving more charts. In the next article, we'll show you how to add some annotations to your charts and save them into your ChartLists for later review.
Happy Charting!
Bring your chart analysis to life by adding some annotations and saving them in your account