Tag Archives: prices

How to Check the Current Real Time Price for Shares or ETFs at RBC Direct Investing

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

When I signed up for a RRSP account at RBC Direct Investing I was rewarded with 25 “free” trades. That’s not enough for me to suddenly morph into a day trader, but it may be enough to make me want to try some dollar cost averaging on a “buy the entire index” ETF. (Especially since I expect to add some new money to this account over the next few months as we save it. Some analysts have concluded dollar cost averaging does not have an advantage over investing a whole chunk at once—but it might if you are adding to your savings over time. I’m not sure if their analysis is correct or not. ) Before I buy any shares or ETFs at RBC Direct Investing, however, I want to know what the current real time price is.

To Check the Price for Shares in a RBC Direct Investing Account

  1. Sign in to your RBC Direct Investing account.
  2. Go to RBC Direct Investing at http://rbcdirectinvesting.com/
  3. If Direct Investing is shown in the drop down list of Online Services, click on the Sign In button.
  4. To sign in to your account/s:
    1. In the Client Card Number: field, type your card number.
    2. In the Password: field, type your account password.
    3. Click on the Sign in button.

How NOT To Get the Real Time Quote

  1. From the tabs listed across the top of the screen, click on the Trade tab.
  2. In the small Quotes & Research box on the right side of the screen, in the Enter Symbol or Name field, type the ticker symbol for the stock or ETF you are interested in.
    For example, for the Bank of Nova Scotia (to see how much it has dropped so far today; I own some so you know it will therefore plummet often) I typed: BNS
  3. Select which country you are checking the price in by clicking to select the radio button beside the Canadian flag or the American flag.
  4. Click on the Get Quote button.

Rats. This is the 20-minute delayed quote. It does provide all the research and charts for review, however.

OK, starting again to get the Real Time quote.

To Really Get the Real Time Quote

  1. Click on the Trade tab.
  2. In the large Place Order block, in the Symbol: field type the ticker symbol for the stock or ETF you are interested in.
  3. From the Market: drop-down list, select Cdn or US.
  4. Click on the Show Quote button.
  5. The real time information is displayed in a narrow bar above the top of the Place Order block.
    The information provided includes:

    • The name of the company. That’s important to check so you don’t accidentally buy shares of a Tweeter Home Electronics TWTRQ instead of Twitter TWTR.
    • The date and time in hours and minutes of the quote.
    • The Last Price.
    • The Change to the nearest cent.
    • The Bid/ Size.
    • The Ask/Size.
    • The High.
    • The Low.
    • The Volume.

The Size of the Bid and Ask appears to be the number of lots at that price. Excuse me for a minute while I check on BMO InvestorLine. Yes, it is.

You have to click on the Refresh Quote button each time you want to see the current price. For an actively traded stock like BNS, the price can change several times a minute.

To Check the Real Time Price of an ETF

Next I checked the price for an ETF. From the Canadian Couch Potato’s Global Couch Potato model portfolio, I decided to look up the BMO S&P TSX Capped Composite ETF, ZCN.

  1. So, in the Symbol: field, I typed: ZCN
  2. From the Market: drop-down list, I selected: Cdn
  3. I clicked on the Show Quote button.
  4. Up popped the line listing the current price (17.89) and the fact it’s up 0.08 today. (I always buy high and sell low, consequently losing thousands of dollars, so this is no surprise to me.)
  5. If you’re done, click on the Sign Out button.
  6. For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

That’s it. It’s that easy to check the real time prices for stocks and ETFs.

Does a Regular RBC Direct Investing Account Provide Streaming Quotes?

No. With a regular RBC Direct Investing account like mine you cannot get streaming quotes that automatically change to show you the most current price for a stock or ETF.

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How do you check real time stock prices? Do you even look at the current price before you place an order? Have you seen any Snowy Owls this winter? Please share your views with a comment.

How to Review the Price History of a Stock Using CIBC Investor’s Edge

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Before I buy a stock, I always like to review how it has been trading. Sometimes shares are only traded in small numbers and their price tends to jump around unpredictably like a frightened leopard frog. For example, LNF trades around the $13 point. It can go up or down a dollar on a whim but only seems to trade a few hundred shares at a time. Other stocks, like CNR can bounce up and down $0.75 every day while trading tens of thousands of shares. Here’s how I check the price history for shares of a company using CIBC Investor’s Edge.

Checking the Price History for an Equity Using CIBC Investor’s Edge

  1. Go to CIBC Investor’s Edge at: https://www.investorsedge.cibc.com/ie/
  2. To sign in to your CIBC Investor’s Edge account/s:
    1. In the User ID field, type your User ID.
    2. In the Password field, type your password.
    3. Click on the Sign On button.
  3. From the list on the left side, click on Quotes and Research, then click on Market Centre.
  4. In the Symbol text field, type the ticker symbol for the company of interest.
    For example, I typed LNF for Leon’s Furniture.
  5. Click on the View button.
  6. Review the information for today about the open, range, bid, bid lots, previous close, 52-week range, and ask, ask lots.NOTE that all price information on this screen is 15- to 20-minute delayed. You can see the current price when you are in the Stock Order Entry screen.You can also look at the P/E, EPS and Market Cap.
  7. There’s a handy little chart to the left that shows how the stock has been trading today.
    I can see at a glance that LNF took a 50 cent per share dive after the opening of trading but has since rebounded and is now trading down about 25 cents
  8. Click on the 5 dy; 3 mo; 1 yr and 5 yr tabs to see the chart for the various time periods.For example, a review of the chart for LNF for 1 year shows that last year it climbed steadily all year, with a brief upwards spike and retreat in December and January.A look at the five year price history shows this stock has climbed from a 2008 crash of less than $10 to about $14 with a few swings up and down along the way. It’s currently trading near its all time high.
  9. Looking at this history, I will have to decide whether I’d prefer to wait for a pullback, since it does seem to have them fairly often, or go ahead and buy now.I could just by part of a position now, and pay a second commission to buy another part a few months from now. But is it worth paying two commissions? I need to choose before I submit a buy order.
  10. When your review is complete:
    1. Click on the Sign Off button.
    2. For increased security, close your browser session.

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Has reviewing the pricing history for a stock ever saved you a bundle? Please share your experiences with a comment.