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
- Sign in to your Investor’s Edge Account.
- From the list on the left side of the screen, select Account Holdings.
- 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.” - 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. - Click on the Get Holdings button.
- Check the Gain/Loss and Gain/Loss % information displayed in the column on the far right of the screen.
- 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.
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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.