hows | Financial Crooks

UPDATE: This article is historical, from 2013. I no longer invest with RBC Direct Investing.

I don’t invest most of my money in individual stocks but I do invest a portion of my savings in shares of individual companies. Usually I want to know when the price of a stock reaches a certain value because I plan to sell some if it reaches a particular percentage gain. I firmly believe that no one ever went broke taking a profit so I do take part profits as stocks climb. Here’s how I set a price alert for shares of stocks held in my RBC Direct Investing Self-Directed RRSP Account.

Why Would I Want to Set a Stock Alert for my RBC DI Account?

Common reasons to set stock price alerts include

Monitoring when to buy more shares of a stock particularly to buy if the price suddenly pulls back
Monitoring stocks being held for the long term to be notified quickly if they drop abruptly
Checking whether a stock has risen to a price at which you plan to sell all or some of your shares
Watching whether a “bellwether” stock is signaling a change in the overall market or in a segment of the market
Checking whether a stock is trading at a much higher volume or lower volume than usual

How Does RBC DI Advise Me of a Stock Price Alert?

You can opt to receive stock price alerts to

An email address, in HTML format; or
A wireless device, in SMS text format

How to set a Stock Alert for a RBC Direct Investing Account

Sign in to your RBC Direct Investing account.
Click on the Markets tab.
From the horizontal link list, click on: Alerts

Skip the fields in the Create a New Alert section until after you set your Delivery Options. Otherwise the program will not properly set up and save your Alert.

In the Delivery Options section
You can provide an email address or a wireless address but not both.

To receive the alert by email, in the Email text field type your email address.
If you would like to see an example of the email message format, click on the HTML Format link.
To receive the alert by SMS message to your Wireless device, in the Wireless field, type your Wireless device’s address.
If you would like to see an example message, click on the SMS text format link.
In the Delivery Status section, click to select the radio button beside On.
Click on the Save button.

Now you can create a specific alert.

In the Create a New Alert text box, type the ticker symbol for the stock or ETF.
For example, I typed: TD
Click to select the radio button beside the desired stock exchange, CDN or US
Click on the Go button.

A new window opens presenting a long list of options for the alert. You can select from the following list

In the Price & Volume Alerts section

Price drops below $ ___
or rises above $ ___
(Last price $98.85)
Price
select:
[rises above]
[drops below]
the previous day’s close by ___%
Price reaches a new 52 week
select:
[High]
[Low]
[High or Low]
(52 Week High $100.56 on 31/12/13)
(52 Week Low $76.59 on 18/4/13)
Price gaps
select:
[Up]
[Down]
[Up or Down]
___ % or more at opening trade
Price outperforms / underperforms
select:
[SP500]
[DJI]
[NASDAQ]
[TSEA]
by
select:
[1%]
[2%]
[3%]
[4%]
[5%]
over
select:
[one week]
[two weeks]
[three weeks}
Trading volume exceeds daily average by
select:
[50%]
[100%]
[150%]
[200%]
Price crosses its
select:
[15]
[30]
[50]
[60]
[90]
[200]
[15, 30, or 60]
day moving average
Price/Earnings ratio
select:
[rises above]
[drops below]
___
(Current P/E 14.3x)

In the News & Events Alerts section

You can select and customize from the following choices:

Reuters News Stories
Morningstar Research Reports (Be notified when a new report is issued)
Earnings Announcements
select:
[Annual]
[Quarterly]
[Annual or Quarterly]
Dividend Announcements
Split Announcements
Morningstar Rating
select:
[Increases]
[Decreases]

For each type of alert you wish to set:

Click on the box to check it beside the type of Alert
Fill in any required text fields
Make any required selections from the drop-down lists
When your choices are complete, click on the Save Alerts button.
If you are finished, click on the Sign Out button.
For increased security, clear your cache and close your browser session.

How To Review, Edit and Delete Alerts for your RBC DI Account

To see a list of all of your Alerts, click on the Markets tab, then click on the Alerts link.
In the Stock Alerts section, all of your current Alerts will be listed.
- To Edit the alert, click on the Pencil icon under the Edit column; or
- To Delete the alert, click on the X check box under the Remove column.
  1. If you click on the Remove icon, you will be prompted with a message.
    For example, “Remove 2 alerts for Toronto-Dominion Bank?”
  2. To delete the Alert, click on the Confirm button.
If you are finished, click on the Sign Out button.
For increased security, clear your cache and close your browser session.

What Other Alerts Does RBC DI Offer?

You can also set Market Alerts by email only for the TSX, NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. For more information see How to Set a Market Alert for a RBC Direct Investing Self-Directed Account.

What I’m Watching for in My Stock Alert

Right now, I’m watching what happens as TD prepares to split in January 2014. Should I buy more now? Just after the split? Or sell now? Decisions, decisions! (Whatever I do, I suggest you strongly consider doing the opposite: that way you’re much more likely to make a profit.)

Related Reading

Join In
Have you used RBC Direct Investing’s Alert function? Did you find it useful? Please share your experiences with a comment.

Back in November I listed some of the financial chores to consider completing by year end. Of course, I forgot one. You can check your credit file annually for free; if you’re like me, you probably have forgotten to do that: It’s not yet too late! You can check your credit report for free once per year with TransUnion and Equifax.

Why Should I Check My Credit Report?

This check will not tell you your credit rating or credit score. It will only tell you information about what credit products you are using and whether there are any problems such as late payments. For people who use credit responsibly and always pay off their balance at the end of the month, the purpose of the check is to make sure no identity mix-ups or identity theft has taken place.

For example, if your name is a fairly common one, it’s possible a mistake can happen and someone else’s credit card can be listed as yours. If they aren’t managing that card well, it’s your credit history that will get damaged.

If you find an item on your file that isn’t yours you can get the problem corrected before it becomes a major problem, such as when you go to renew your mortgage or purchase a car.

A less common but more frightening prospect is that your identity may have been stolen. Again, seeing the problem on your report will give you the tip to start fixing it.

Earlier this year, my credit card was compromised and used without authorization for a number of online purchases. (Ironically it was the card I only use about once per month, so I hope the police determined the source of the information theft and could use it to catch the fraudsters.) I think I should check my credit report to make sure nothing else has happened because of this security breach.

Does a Free Credit Report Include My Credit Rating or Score?

No. This check will not tell you your credit rating or credit score. You have to pay money to retrieve those. In general if you’ve been living within your means and paying your bills you don’t need to know the number anyway!

(Some RedFlagDeal users will play the system by signing up for a year’s service to check their score, and then cancel after they receive the first report for their “first month free” trial offer. I don’t encourage this, personally.)

How to Order Your Annual Free Credit Report for Equifax

You can order your Equifax “Credit File” for free by calling their toll-free number or by submitting a request in writing.

To Order Your Equifax Free Credit File by Phone

WARNING!
First, don’t trust any phone number given on a secondary website, including this one, to be correct!

Someone could hack my site and change the phone number. Then when you call, some fraudster will get your full name, address and Social Insurance Number: plenty of information to start stealing your identity!

The toll-free number for Equifax is provided on their website.

Here’s what I had to provide to the automated service to order my report by phone:

my Social Insurance Number (you can’t use the automated service without giving this)
my date of birth
my house number, but not street, city, or province
whether I have an apartment number
my postal code

***Interesting Bit***
The automated system asked for my credit card number, after explaining nothing would be billed to me. It then asked if I had a major credit card from MasterCard, VISA or American Express.

I said “no.”

The system responded that it will mail my report.

I actually DO have a major credit card in my name. It’s slightly possible that some internal check will compare my response with my file and reject my request for the credit report, but I doubt it. After all, people must call in who like me are (a) reluctant to give their credit card number out where they might be overheard or via cell phone transmission or (b) who don’t have their card with them at the time they make the call and who haven’t memorized their card number. If the request is rejected I will update this post, of course.

The automated system said I could expect my report in 3-5 business days. Knowing the postal service here and given the weekends and stat holidays coming up, I’ll expect it sometime in the New Year.

To Order Your Equifax Free Credit File by Mail or Fax

To request your free credit report from Equifax, print the form provided on their site.

You will need to provide

a photocopy of 2 different government-issued identification items
for example a driver’s licence, birth certificate or passport
if your current address is not on one of the photocopies of your id, you must also provide a copy of another document with your address
for example a utility bill, bank or credit card statement. You can black out the details if it still clearly shows the date of the document, the sender, your name and address and your account number.
your full name/s
address
any previous addresses within the past 3 years
at your option, you can provide: your Social Insurance Number, this is useful if you have a very common name
at your option, you can provide: your name and the last four digits of a major credit card

Sign and date the form.

The information you provide will

be used to update your file; it may also be disclosed to customers requesting your credit report
be used to issue you the correct report

Mail or fax the completed request form to the address or fax number listed on the Equifax.ca form.

So Do I Have to Give My SIN and Credit Card Number to Get a Free Report

As mentioned above,

you can order a free report by phone without giving a credit card number but you must provide your SIN.
you can order a free report by mail or fax without giving a credit card number or SIN but you must provide copies of two pieces of government id, your full address and date of birth.

Pick your poison!

When Will I Get My Equifax Credit Report?

The file will be sent by mail. It should arrive within 5-10 business days after the request is received.