With the emergence of applications to track your portfolio, there are many options to explore. One of the kings still out there is the spreadsheet. With many integration options offered by Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheet, you can build a real-time dashboard tracking your holdings. The downside? You need to build it yourself or use someone else’s foundation, with the security risks that come with it. Stock tracker applications could be a better option. These applications come in different shapes and sizes and are slowly taking over the field of personal finance. In this article, we will learn why.
More asset classes to cover
The case for traditional financial instruments is still there but is strongly complemented by news types such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Investors are adding these options to their portfolios, and want to have them in a single overview. Often, it is quite hard to get real-time prices of all coins and NFTs inside a spreadsheet. A tracker integrates with platforms through APIs and can retrieve that information directly.
The need to be informed
The age of holding on to a stock for extended periods is changing. Within the information age, sentiment can change fast and stocks become more volatile. This especially holds for technology stocks and crypto. With a tracker, you receive notifications with news that matters to you. It ranges from general market news to specific industry and company information. Combined with analyses, this forms a strong foundation for your investment decisions.
Grow your wealth with automated reflections
This is considered the biggest hurdle that spreadsheets cannot yet overcome: portfolio changes. When you buy new stocks and crypto, you need to manually reflect it in the spreadsheet. Some like this action, but it also comes with downsides. For example, you need to enter the complete transaction data to have the best analytic options for the long term. Instead, people are often only adding the amount of stocks and the purchase price in an overview.
Integration and dividends
Tracker applications have integrations with dozens of brokers, exchanges, and crypto-wallets. Through APIs and other means (e.g., Public Key for wallets), they receive real-time data on transactions and holdings. Hereby there is no need to update prices and transactions. Additionally, dividends received are also reflected in the overview. This allows you to perform analysis across the portfolio and re-balance where you deem fit. The tracker becomes more than a tool to track and can be considered a go-to place to analyze and improve your financial decision-making.
Crypto transaction reflections
Some trackers even reflect on your transactions. For example, there are crypto trackers that provide you with details on your trades. Did it turn out well? What is a lesson learned? This helps you to become a better crypto trader overall.
Delta.app: an advanced tracker
A good application that you could use is the delta.app. This application provides access to a wide variety of investment tracking such as stocks, bonds, crypto, EFTs and NFTs. This enables a holistic overview of your assets and combines it with news and analyses.