How To Set Target / Watch Price for Stock - using Google Finance

How To Set Target / Watch Price for Stock

The Need:
Have you been watching and is interested in too many stocks? And do you have an opinion on a stock price that if it falls near $xx.xx then you want to have a closer look again. The problem is you and I can easily forget to look up that stock after a few days since there are other stocks to look at. Or if we remember the stock, then we forget our target price.

Example: BHP is now over $39.xx. I have the opinion that if it falls to within 10% of $31.5 then I should have a renewed look. Problem is after one week, I have been scanning over 50 - 100 other stocks. I have forgotten that I should look at BHP when it is 10% of $31.5.

The FREE Solution:
Use Google Finance at finance.google.com

With this, I can set a target price, and everyday I can scan this webpage and straight away see if the Closing Price is near my target price of $31.5. The figure below shows the example I created for BHP. We just need to look at 2 numbers:
i) Cost Basis column - this number is the target price I set.
ii) Gain Percentage - this number tells how far the current price is to my target price. For this example, today's price of $39.58 is 25.65% above my target price, so I am not interested in BHP yet.
These are the 2 numbers I want. It has other data too for your interest.





How To Do It;
This section now describes in detail how you can achieve this.
1. Create a google account or gmail account (for more details, seek other help).
2. Go to finance.google.com
3. On the website, look for Portfolios or My Portfolio link.
4. Click on the "Create new portfolio" link.
5. Give your portfolio a name.



6. Here's the most important part: In the Add section there should be 3 blank fields:
Symbol(s) --------- Shares -------- Price -------[Add to Portfolio] button

Fill in the fields as below:
Symbol: ASX:BHP (for Aussie stocks, the ASX: prefix is needed)
Shares: 1 (or any number you like)
Price: Target Price (eg 31.5)


I find finance.google updates its stock prices for Aussie shares the same evening our ASX closes.

This technique allows you to have many many shares targeted and you don't need to remember what your opinion was 2 weeks ago about the target price. You can modify the target price anytime you change your opinion about it.