Sell stops, and especially their tracking, have resulted in a lot of reader feedback. While there are many ways to follow the high price of a fund/ETF you own, reader Kirk had this to say a few days ago:
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am sharing a sample of an easy to use spreadsheet for Trend Tracking.
Once it is set up, it only takes a few minutes each day to view and make any needed changes.
NOTE: To learn the formulas used for each cell, click on “View” and then “Show Formula Bar”. Then, when you click on a cell it will show the formula used.
This spreadsheet updates prices in real time. For closing prices, open after closing.
Each day, I compare the “Today” column (closing price) to the “Cycle High” column and the “StopSell” column. If the Today price is higher than Cycle High, I manually adjust Cycle High to the new price. If the Today price is lower than StopSell, I make a note to “sell” under “NOTES”. I can open the document the next morning to quickly be reminded what needs to be sold.
I use “change colors with rules” to make it easier to spot important information. Under “Notes” you can see different colors for the words “buy”, “watch”, and “sell” as examples. I also use color coding for “Date of Dividends”. If the date is less than one week old, it will be highlighted so I know to adjust my Cycle High by the dividend amount. I just added that function since Ulli wrote about adjusting for dividends.
I don’t know how many of these rules work with Excel. I am new to both Excel and Google Docs but found Google easier to learn because it has many tutorials available for Financial Data Spreadsheets.
While I personally keep all of my data on my computer, Kirk’s idea of utilizing Google Docs makes sense for those who move around a lot as part of their daily work routine. You’ll always be able to find access to a computer with internet connection to review your sell stops and/or to place trades.
Comments 6
Ulli and Kirk,
Great input. Appreciate the Google docs.
Some good ideas here.
Do I need permission to duplicate?
No permission needed…
Ulli…
Kirk's SS seems to utilize the daily closing price to calculate the high price. Is this correct or should the intra day high price be used?
I do note you use the closing price to determine if a stop has been met. This would seem to be valid for funds but with ETFs that trade intra day should the intra day price be used for both calculating the high price and the stop?
Dan
Dan,
As I have mentioned before, I only use day-end closing prices.
Ulli…
Is there a free data set that I can Query by closing price and date?
I use MSN in my spread sheet which has previous close and todays close.My sheet is much more automatic/animated/informative than this example. I just hit the update button and it pulls in the info however I have to manually hit the button at 7pm every night and can only retrieve two prices as mentioned. I like having a column that shows the Stop Status as a plus/minus from the high and another that does a logical test to determine Status for me.As soon as I get it to call me on the phone when the stops are set I will share it with you.