Watchlists are one of the key thinkorswim features, and are virtually omnipresent in the platform. A watchlist is a collection of symbols grouped together along with market data of respective instruments. Sometimes, watchlists include or even completely consist of companies or derivatives that might be interesting to traders. They can also be constituents of an index like NASDAQ 100, the Dow Jones Industrials, or the S&P 500, to name a few. It is also possible to have symbols that are indicators of certain economic trends or industry groups which are not directly tradeable, but have impact on products that are.
Being a very important functionality, watchlists have found application in many of thinkorswim features: Scanner, FX Global Currency Map, Stock Hacker, Use The News, and several others. You are also offered to view the full-scale Watchlist interface available from MarketWatch -> Quotes. In this article, we are going to discuss the functionality of the Watchlist gadget, however, it is similar for other tools where watchlists are present.
In the gadget title, you can find four controls: the watchlist selector, the up/down arrow controlÕÔ, the clip icon S, and the Show actions button [:
- Arrows allow you to easily switch between watchlists in a group: the up arrow will take you to the previous watchlist in the set, and down arrow will take you to the next.
- The clip icon allows you to use the thinkorswim color-coded clipboard; it is a shortcut to link a component to another one. Clicking on the icon brings up a color-and-number selection menu. Each color shows the symbol currently linked to it, displayed on the right-hand side.
In this menu, you can click on a color so that your watchlists will be linked to all other thinkorswim components having the same color code. For example, choosing a green box will link all components that use green, even if they are in a different window.
Tip: consider linking a watchlist to the symbol selector and the Dashboard. This way, clicking through the watchlist will automatically display corresponding symbols in the symbol selector and the Dashboard. - The watchlist selector allows you to configure your watchlists. It is in the configuration menu that you can create, delete, and switch between the watchlists. Beside your personal watchlists, you can switch to any of the public, Lovers and losers, Top 10, and industry-based ones. In the same menu, you can also view your portfolio watchlist, i.e., the watchlist of symbols that have positions in the currently selected account.
After configuring your watchlists, you can customize every single one of them. The customization may include any of the following:
- Reordering the columns. To reorder, left-click on the column header and drag it to the position desired.
- Sorting by column. To re-sort a watchlist, click on the header of the column by which you would like to perform the sorting. An up arrow Õ will appear, which indicates the ascending sort. Clicking again will give the column a descending sort (indicated by a down arrow Ô). To return to the unsorted state, left click on the header a third time or right click on the header and choose No sorting.
- Changing the column set. To add or delete columns, right-click on the header and choose Customize... In the dialog window, you will see two areas: Available items and Current set. To add columns to your watchlist, drag the desired ones to the Current set. If you need to delete a column from your watchlist, find its title in the Current set, select it, and click Remove items. Click OK; your column set will be immediately updated.