Whether your stock portfolio is worth $1,000 or $1 million, tracking its performance is key to successful investing. A great stock market tracking app will help you investigate ideas and put your portfolio into the context of the overall market.
Whether you’re a beginning investor or an investor with decades of experience, stock market tracking apps can help you understand your portfolio better.
These are our top five picks for tracking the stock market and your portfolio.
1. M1 Finance
Most individual stock investors focus too much on the individual stocks and too little on their overall portfolio performance. M1 Finance flips that script on its head. It allows investors to create custom "pies" divided between dozens of positions.
Investors can take advantage of automated investing, easy rebalancing, and the ability to adjust the pie to accommodate new positions. Those who don’t use “auto-investing” can manually buy and sell different positions.
M1 Finance shows the performance of each “slice of pie” along with the performance of the total pie. Investors can also do some research on stocks and ETFs from inside the app. However, the available research isn’t as built-out as many competitors (including Robinhood).
Pros | Header | Cons | Header |
|---|---|---|---|
Free trades within the app | Single stock investors will likely need to research outside the portfolio | ||
Keeps investors focused on the total portfolio | No automated tax-loss harvesting | ||
Unlimited customization of pies | Does not display portfolio Alpha or Beta |
2. Personal Capital
Personal Capital is the most “personal finance” oriented of all the stock market tracking apps. It monitors your portfolio's makeup and its performance over time. Since Personal Capital allows you to connect all your bank accounts, you can also use it to track your budget and monitor your net worth over time.
On the investment side, Personal Capital offers three important pieces of information. First, it helps answer technical retirement planning questions using charts, graphs and other quantitative information. Second, it analyzes fees in your portfolio, so you can find places to cut back. Finally, it allows you to set and track education investment goals for your kids.
The Personal Capital app is geared towards ETF and mutual fund investors. Users can also upgrade to receive personal advice from a fiduciary financial planner. However, even users who don’t upgrade may discover that Personal Capital’s focus on cash flow and budgeting is a great gateway to higher savings rates and more investing potential.
Pros | Header | Cons | Header |
|---|---|---|---|
Evaluates the full financial picture | Not geared towards individual stock investors | ||
Excellent fee analyzer | Limited research functionality within the mobile app | ||
Visualize portfolio allocation and performance. | Cell | Cell |
3. Morningstar Premium
Traditionally, Morningstar has been associated with mutual fund analysis. But the company’s stock and ETF ratings and analysis are also excellent. Morningstar has a “freemium” business model, meaning that it locks a lot of content behind a paywall.
Some of the company’s best content, including the full access to Stock Screener, Portfolio X-Ray Vision (a portfolio analysis tool), and robust personalized portfolio reports require Premium membership.
Despite the high price, Morningstar has great content and excellent tools for active investors who want to keep their portfolio in balance. Investors should note that Morningstar leans heavily on Modern Portfolio Theory in its analysis. But those with a more technical or quantitative approach may need to look elsewhere.
Pros | Header | Cons | Header |
|---|---|---|---|
Personalized portfolio reports | Best features require Premium membership | ||
Deep dive into “exact” allocation of your portfolio | Not ideal for technical investors | ||
Screen stocks against Morningstar ratings | Cell | Cell | |
Not ideal for technical investors | Cell | Cell |
4. ThinkorSwim By TD Ameritrade
ThinkOrSwim by TD Ameritrade is the company’s acclaimed trading app. But unlike other advanced apps, ThinkorSwim also has many options for investors who want to learn the ropes. The app includes tons of videos, quizzes, articles, and other educational content. Plus, it allows new traders to test their skills in a paper trading environment.
ThinkorSwim also has plenty of charts, stock screening tools, reports, and other tools that investors can use to keep tabs on their favorite stocks. The website version of the app is highly customizable so you can use the educational components in the way that makes sense for you.
Even better than the education, users can trade directly in the app for no commissions. This is an ideal environment to test out some more “active” management styles. As a stock tracking app, it's hard to beat ThinkorSwim by TD Ameritrade.
Pros | Header | Cons | Header |
|---|---|---|---|
Easy to test strategies | More focus on individual securities than the portfolio as a whole | ||
Free trades within the app | Interface can lag at times | ||
Loads of research tools | Cell | Cell |
5. Yahoo! Finance
For most “retail” stock investors, the Yahoo! Finance app is Ground Zero for basic stock research. It gives minute-by-minute information on stocks and offers fantastic charting tools.
If you opt to use the My Portfolio feature, you can sync your brokerage accounts with your personalized Watchlists to see the big movers in your portfolio. I think the My Portfolio homepage is well organized, making it perfect for beginners and anyone who doesn’t want to pay for more data.
My Portfolio is free, but Yahoo! Finance also has a paid subscription for $34.95 per month. This upgrade includes special dashboarding features and more in-depth research reports.
Pros | Header | Cons | Header |
|---|---|---|---|
Great stock charting tools | Interface includes many ads | ||
Access to hard financial data and news in a single platform | Can't make trades directly from the app |
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re an active trader, an individual stock investor, or an investor who sticks to index funds, keeping tabs on the market and your portfolio is key. Choose any one of the apps listed above, so you can continue to invest with confidence.
Hannah is a wife, mom, and described personal finance geek. She excels with spreadsheets (and puns)! She regularly explores in-depth financial topics and enjoys looking at the latest tools and trends with money.
