Depending on what brokerage firm you’re using to make your investments, they may not have the best UI or tools to help you make your next investment, or perhaps the performance tracking features aren’t quite there yet and are a pain to navigate. For a while, I’ve been using Google Finance. It’s web-based and had all the features I’ve wanted without compromising the UI much with advertising and irrelevant stuff. I say “had” because they have stopped services for now. Another web-based solution is Yahoo Finance but the UI using a browser fails big time – stay away. It’s cluttered with advertising and feels slow as a result. Yahoo’s Finance App on iOS, however, is a dream come true! More on that later. For me, a web-based solution or an App solution has to “feel” good and has to be intuitive in order for me to navigate and utilize.
There are lots of Apps out there that do the job of tracking stocks fairly well. As much as I’d like there to be a way to do that on iOS and macOS seamlessly on one App and be able to sync using iCloud or something similar, there isn’t one I’ve come across yet that does all that – this would be the ideal solution, preferably developed by the brokerage firm themselves so there wouldn’t have to be any data to input or export. One may link to a brokerage account within the Yahoo Finance app but I’m not sure I trust it just yet. In the meantime, I use a combination of Apps to be able to track my favorite stocks depending on which Apple device I’m using.
Solutions
I use the Yahoo Finance app on iOS, it’s native and does a good job tracking my various portfolios. You can add and edit transaction directly on the app without ever having to visit the website. A really neat feature that I like is being able to pull up relevant summarized news articles on any stock I choose. It’s free to use which is nice and the ads are minimal. I wouldn’t shy away from a paid version if they ever introduced it.
On macOS, I use an app called Stockfolio. Its clean UI makes it easy to look at and navigate. Adding transactions is very intuitive and what I love the most about it, is how easy it is to see your portfolio’s value which breaks down 3 important stats in a simple graph.. the market value, acquisition cost, and unrealized gain. I love this feature! There is no import feature yet but the developers have listed this feature as “Coming soon” so looking forward to that. Like the Yahoo Finance mobile app, Stockfolio gives you easy access to relevant stock news. As a bonus, you get easy access to relevant StockTwits and Twitter action. There is a 14-day free trial you can try before deciding to purchase a license for $24.99.
Stockfolio achieves a seamless and intuitive experience by combining functionality with great design.
Another app for macOS which is worth mentioning but have not personally tried yet is Stock + Pro. They have a free version (Stock +) which is worth checking out first. The features and even the UI look fairly similar to those of Stockfolio with the exception that Stock + Pro allows you to create custom alerts and RSS feeds – this is their edge I feel they have over Stockfolio. One can import watchlist feature but it’s unclear if there is an import from Google Finance, Yahoo Finance etc. feature. The pro version is also available as a 14-day free trial and if you decide to buy, it will set you back $29.99.
Moving forward…
I’d really like to see all these stock tracking apps have the ability to link to any brokerage account. This would eliminate the need to import any data at all! As I’ve mentioned, the Yahoo Finance app allows this already – I have my own paranoid reasons why I haven’t done this yet but the feature is there. So that’s potentially one less import action I need to manage.
Sources:
- Yahoo Finance’s (App) website: https://mobile.yahoo.com/finance
- Stockfolio’s website: https://stockfolioapp.com
- Stock + Pro’s website: http://www.chimpstudios.com/stockplus.html