How Do I Check My Capital Gain on Shares in my CIBC Investor’s Edge Account?

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.

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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.

Astonishing 12 Month Target Prices for CU Reported on BMO InvestorLine: Should I Buy?!

Earlier this year, CU split its shares in a get 1 for every 1 you already own offer. Ever since I’ve been keeping a closer eye on this very conservative stock trying to decide whether to sell part of my position. (It’s up 49% over what I bought it for.) When I looked at the 12 month target prices today, however, I was astonished.

What is Canadian Utilities Trading At?

Today, CU is trading at about $37.95 per share. It’s been in a range of about $34-38 per share since the split.

What are the 12 Month Target Prices from the Analysts for CU?

That’s why I got a shock when I took a peek at the 12 month target prices for Canadian Utilities on InvestorLine.

How to Look Up 12 Month Target Prices on InvestorLine

To see these values,

  1. From the Quotes & Tools tab, select Quotes +.
  2. In the Symbol field, type CU.
  3. Click on the Go button.
  4. Scroll down to the box on the right side of the screen with Recommendations and 12 mo. Target Price.
  5. Select the 12 mo. Target Price tab.

Be amazed!

The target prices listed are $74-$88! Wow! I guess I should hold on for the ride.

Or so I thought until I looked at the Issue Date for each of these pieces of advice. They all pre-date the split. Yep, that’s all it is. BMO InvestorLine didn’t ask the Sources to update their information in light of the split, so the old pre-split numbers are still reported.

Please Use Your Brain (and Common Sense) When Researching Stocks

To me it was obvious what was going on. But another investor might not be so lucky. If you hadn’t already held CU through the split, you might not know that it had happened. After all, the graph of the trading prices for the last year has been split-adjusted so there’s no obvious clue there. The 52-week highs and lows are also reported split adjusted.

All I can suggest is if you see a wild mismatch between price and target price, dig a bit deeper. If you go back through the annual news for CU you’ll find the split. If you look at the Charts you can find the split.

How to Look Up Stock Split History on InvestorLine

  1. From the Quotes & Tools tab, select Quotes +.
  2. In the Symbol field, type CU.
  3. Click on the Go button.
  4. Click on the Charts tab.
  5. Click on the blue Events button with the small down-facing arrowhead.
  6. Select Splits with a click.
  7. On the chart will be an inconspicuous S with a circle around it. If you hover the cursor over it, you will see a comment.
    For example, this one says
    “Stock split
    June 17, 2013
    Executed a 0.5 Split”

(That means that they issued 1 additional share for every existing share.)

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