Upbeat music plays throughout
Video Introduction Plays
Narrator: You can use the hypothetical gain or loss feature within custom watchlists to help guide your future investment decisions. To begin, navigate to Research, then select Watchlist. Select the watchlists drop-down menu.
Mouse navigates to Research, then selects Watchlist. It selects the watchlists drop-down menu.
Narrator: If you've already created a custom watchlist—that is, a watchlist of securities you're interested in but may not own—it'll appear under My Watchlists. These watchlists can be edited. Schwab's hypothetical gains/losses feature is only available in custom watchlists.
The My Watchlists section of the drop-down menu is highlighted
Narrator: The drop-down menu also has watchlists containing the securities held in your Schwab investment accounts; these will appear under My Positions Watchlists. These watchlists can only display the positions in your accounts, and the hypothetical gain/loss feature will not be available.
The My Positions Watchlists section of the drop-down menu is highlighted
Narrator: If you haven't created a custom watchlist, you can do so by selecting Create Watchlist and following the instructions to add the securities you want to track. For this demo we will proceed with a custom watchlist that has already been created.
The Create Watchlist button is highlighted
Narrator: Open a custom watchlist, and select the Gain/Loss tab.
Mouse opens a custom watchlist and selects the Gain/Loss tab.
Narrator: To simulate a hypothetical trade, select the Customize drop-down menu and select Edit cost basis. Enter hypothetical dates, quantities, and the cost per share for any of your tracked securities. You can simulate trades made in the past or use current market data to simulate a current trade.
Mouse selects the Customize drop-down menu and selects Edit cost basis. We zoom in on the date, quantity, and cost per share fields that are filled with sample data
Narrator: When you're done, select Save Cost Basis. The Gain/Loss tab will now show estimated changes in the value of the security based on your hypothetical information.
Mouse selects Save Cost Basis and the new hypothetical data results in the Gain/Loss tab
Narrator: You can now track how securities perform over time in relation to your hypothetical purchases. Seeing how hypothetical trades perform can be useful if you are experimenting with a specific trading strategy. Remember, all money shown as gained or lost in the Gain/Loss tab of a custom watchlist is hypothetical and does not reflect actual funds.
Narrator: When you are ready to place a real trade on a security in a watchlist, select the corresponding drop-down menu and select Buy Shares. A trade ticket will open and automatically populate with that security's information.
Mouse selects the drop-down menu and selects Buy Shares, a pre-populated trade ticket opens
Video outro plays.