When I sign in to my BMO InvestorLine account and look at My Portfolio Holdings, I see at a glance how each of my stocks is doing today against the price I paid for them. For example, I am reminded daily that BNS is significantly underwater if I don’t consider the dividends I have earned. When I look at the Account Holdings summary for our Investor’s Edge account, however, I noticed our CGX was down a few dollars. That didn’t seem likely to me, so I looked more closely. What I was looking at was the daily change in value from the last trading day to today. Where could I check the actual capital gain (or loss!) for shares purchased in our CIBC Investor’s Edge account?

Investor’s Edge Doesn’t Make It Easy to Find the Book Value for Shares

As I mentioned before, when I sign in to my BMO InvestorLine account, every day I have to see how much money I’ve lost on an oil stock I bought in a weak moment. It’s a grim reminder for me to be more careful before buying. Right on the My Portfolio Holdings screen is the Unrealized gain/loss for each investment both in real dollars and as a percentage.

Investor’s Edge, however, prefers to display the $ Change and % Change for the stock as compared to the previous day’s close on the first Account Holdings page that opens. It does have a tab called Last Business Day selected at the top of the display.

I suppose if you are in the habit of flipping stocks often, this might be useful. Personally, I don’t focus that much on the short-term changes in a stock’s value.

Since I wanted to gloat about how much our Cineplex stock had increased in value since we purchased it, I decided to check which view displays the Unrealized Gain. I was rather surprised to find that none of them do, at least not instantly. Here’s what I had to do to find the information.

How to Lookup Your Unrealized Capital Gain on Shares in Investor’s Edge

1. Sign in to your Investor’s Edge Account.
2. From the list on the left side of the screen, select Account Holdings.
3. From the tabs across the top of the display, click on Portfolio/Book Value.
   An error message will display that states:
   “Book value totals are only available at the sub-account level. Please select a sub-account to view book value totals.”
4. Even if you only have one type of account with Investor’s Edge, you must select that account from the Sub-Account(s): drop-down list near the top of the screen.
   This is not intuitive to me as all over the screen it is reporting that I am looking at the information for our RRSP account. However, lo and behold, the default Sub-account(s): choice is “Combined Holdings.” So I selected our one account as required.
5. Click on the Get Holdings button.
6. Check the Gain/Loss and Gain/Loss % information displayed in the column on the far right of the screen.
7. Click on the Sign Off button. For increased security, close your browser session.

Yay! We have made a tidy little gain on our Cineplex stock. About 10% in the 2.5 months we’ve owned it. That’s what a summer of popular 3D movies will do for you. (That said, I fully expect it to plummet if the new Batman really is Ben Affleck. I guess I should sell now, right?!)

Conclusion: BMO InvestorLine Makes Checking Unrealized Gains and Losses Easier than Investor’s Edge

Overall, I think I like InvestorLine’s account summary screen better than Investor’s Edge’s. I need to have my losses flaunted in their horrible red ink in my face every single day I sign in to our accounts. It’s a great way to remind myself that I am not an investing genius and that I could lose our life savings if I start thinking that I am.

Related Reading

• How to Buy Shares in a CIBC Investor’s Edge Account

Join In
Does your brokerage screen flash your losses (and your gains!) at you as soon as you sign in? Do you think Ben Affleck will make a good Batman or should I sell CGX? Please share your views with a comment.