Checking Investment Prices

[Milkman]

When I am at work and have the computer running, I probably check my stock prices on my Yahoo page 20 to 30 times a day.

Am I being obsessive, or do many of you do the same thing?

Milkman

 

[Deetso]

I dont know about 20-30 but I do check it several times a day. Its just too easy. We are working every month to put our money there- I dont think its all that bad to watch it.

I figure im not daytrading and it doesnt change my investment strategy Im not really doing any harm. I have also found that as it becomes more ingrained that Im just parking my money there for a long time I am not as tempted to keep going back.

Sometimes I hope that I will eventually be able to be like others on this board and not pay any attention to it except for once a year for rebalancing. But for now- with my miniscule amount there I cant help but watch.

 

[runchman]

I do it and it can drive me nuts. I just transitioned from nearly 100% equities to a 70/30 allocation, and at the same time I deleted my yahoo portfolio.

I'm going to update my tracking spreadsheet quarterly now instead of monthly, with the intent to move to every-6-months.

My thought process is that watching it and tracking it like a hawk is great when the market is going up, but is really going to be a pisser when we are in a bear market.

So I'm trying to transition to a set-it-and-forget-it 70/30, quit looking at it obsessively, and just maybe get some work done.

Sounds good in theory anyway, but in my heart I suspect it probably won't work !!

- John

 

[haha]

When I am at work and have the computer running, I probably check my stock prices on my Yahoo page 20 to 30 times a day.

Am I being obsessive?

 

[dex]

When I am at work and have the computer running, I probably check my stock prices on my Yahoo page 20 to 30 times a day.

Am I being obsessive, or do many of you do the same thing?

Milkman

 

[FinanceDude]

When I am at work and have the computer running, I probably check my stock prices on my Yahoo page 20 to 30 times a day.

Am I being obsessive, or do many of you do the same thing?

Milkman

I'll put it this way, I manage money for a living, and check the prices of the stocks I recommend WAY less than that...............

 

[CyclingInvestor]

My job (until 6 months ago) was to design/write the parsers
for real time stock data feeds. Of course I wrote a small, custom
program to watch my portfolio in real time all day

I still check way too often, and am trying to break the habit.

 

[Olav23]

If you really want to get OCD, install this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...d8-9305-4535-b939-3bf0a740a9b1&DisplayLang=en

Excel stock quote plugin. Then you can tie real dollar terms and create all sorts of wacky views of your money to drive you insane

 

[Alex]

When I am at work and have the computer running, I probably check my stock prices on my Yahoo page 20 to 30 times a day.

Am I being obsessive, or do many of you do the same thing?

Milkman

Personally I check my accounts every few weeks, and sometimes I forget and go a few months. OTOH, Live is for living and enjoying, so if you enjoy it and are not making irrational trades based upon short term timing whats the harm?

 

[semtex]

I used to have streamer open all day. No any more.

 

[runchman]

Excel stock quote plugin. Then you can tie real dollar terms and create all sorts of wacky views of your money to drive you insane

Oh man, excel plus dynamic stock quotes?

I think I have to be alone for a few minutes.......

 

[Brat]

I have been getting much to focused on stock price movement, ever since I purchased two ETFs (I don't pay attention to Diana because it is a dividend stock in my mind). It is sooo easy to trade ETFs. Rather like watching a horse race.

 

[saluki9]

I manage money for a living too I never look at prices that much either unless I'm watching specific issues and looking at a point to jump in or out.

In look at my actual portfolio MAYBE once a quarter.

 

[chinaco]

I check prices in frequently. I take a peek at the index prices maybe daily or maybe once twice a week. If there is something happening in the news that may impact the market, I might look at the indexes a couple times a day out of curiosity.

I look at the portfolio about once a qtr.

 

[Siv]

Yeah, I also check Yahoo don't know how many times a day. I can almost get nothing done unless I'm really busy. I think watching over this net worth stuff is getting a bit annoying but can't help being curious.

 

[FinanceDude]

I manage money for a living too I never look at prices that much either unless I'm watching specific issues and looking at a point to jump in or out.

In look at my actual portfolio MAYBE once a quarter.

Sounds like me, and I only rebalance once a year, in December............

Man, I would really SUCK as a daytrader..............

 

[Olav23]

Through my bank, they offer something called Yodlee OneStop. Basically you can link up all your accounts by giving them your passwords/usernames and it polls all your online accounts. One feature I like is that it keeps track from month to month and you get a nice graph of your net worth (assets - all your bills/debts/credit cards).

I like to look at this every month and see how I am trending over time

 

[Alan]

I look once a day tops, in the evening after work. Every quarter I update a couple of spreadheets so that I can track returns, plot trends etc. I only re-balance twice a year if needed.

 

[Darryl]

Couple of times a week and I think I'm over doing it. Only own a couple individual stocks, almost all of it is in good mutual funds. So barring a total meltdown I don't worry much.

 

[CybrMike]

I usually check maybe 4 - 5 times a day unless I'm busy doing stuff. Except when the markets down, then I may not look at all.

 

[al_bundy]

i check yahoo finance a few times a day mostly because i like to look at the volume throughout the day. most times by lunch you can predict the closing volume down to 50-100 million shares or so. if there are differences in the indexes like today where the nasdaq was down for half the day i like to look at the actives to see why.

 

[Finance Dave]

When I am at work and have the computer running, I probably check my stock prices on my Yahoo page 20 to 30 times a day.

Am I being obsessive, or do many of you do the same thing?

Milkman

I would say yes. I consider stocks a long term investment. Watching that often creates stress...always wondering how much money you are making. You don't actually make anything until you sell.

 

[redduck]

I usually check my portfolio once before I go off to work and then again when I come home and the market is closed. However, since I bought dndn (the only stock I own) a few weeks ago, I find myself checking that particular stock way more than once before I go off to work. I've also been calling a friend in the middle of the day to see how the stock is doing (it's not been doing so well lately).

 

[donheff]

I check the Yahoo graph of indexes a few times a day -- particularly when it is going up. When things are down for a while I stop bothering and check in every several days or so. During the 2003-2003 downturn I only checked about once a month -- at that time I was still dripping in so I didn't want to focus my attention on the fact that even some of my recent dollars were shrinking

 

[NinjaPigeon]

I generally check once during the day to see if it's going to be an up or down day. Then I check again after NAVs are updated for my funds. I don't actually worry if it's up or down, but I like to know how I'm doing. If I notice a big down day I might invest more. But in general, I do it out of curiosity.