Investing word of the day : Chart

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If you go to the PSE website and look up a stock it will lead you to the stock information page of that stock. 

To better understand this section let us define what chart means which in investing is called price chart:

(information taken from http://stockcharts.com/)


A price chart is a sequence of prices plotted over a specific time frame. In statistical terms, charts are referred to as time series plots.

On the chart, the y-axis (vertical axis) represents the price scale and the x-axis (horizontal axis) represents the time scale. Prices are plotted from left to right across the x-axis with the most recent plot being the furthest right.

While technical analysts use charts almost exclusively, the use of charts is not limited to just technical analysis. Because charts provide an easy-to-read graphical representation of a security's price movement over a specific period of time, they can also be of great benefit to fundamental analysts. A graphical historical record makes it easy to spot the effect of key events on a security's price, its performance over a period of time and whether it's trading near its highs, near its lows, or in between.  


Layman's explanation: 

A chart is a picture that an investor can see how the price of a certain stock move over a period of time. 

This is important because it is where one can see the trend. Also one can use this as basis on how a stock react to certain events in the company. Knowing this information gives you an idea how will the trend be in the next couple of days , weeks or months and thus help you in your investing decisions whether to hold, sell, or buy.

Updating yourself about the PSE listed companies you are interested in

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One way to keep yourself updated regarding the companies you are interested in is through off course reading the PSE website daily and watching TV programs like CNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN among others.

But if you don't have the time to catch up with these TV shows or if your only time you get to read is through your email then Google Alerts would be a great tool for you to use. All you need is a Google account which is basically free. If you don't have one create a Gmail account and you automatically have a Google account. 

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and log in using your Gmail account info.

In the Search field type in the name of the listed company you want to be keep updated. Select the source of the information in the Type field. You can customized how often the alerts would be like daily, as it happens, or weekly. You can also specify the maximum results you wanted to appear in your email  and last but not the least the email address you want this to be sent to which off course your Gmail address.

You can create a folder in your email to segregate this updates for quick view just like what I did to my Outlook.

 

Google alerts are formatted like feeds thus you can see a short info about the news report or blog and you just chose that interest you. To have a broader perspective I have included in my alerts "Philippine Stock Exchange" to get news regarding the stock exchange itself. Also I have added alerts on the stocks that I have in my portfolio to give me a heads up about any significant information that may cause a rise or drop in their trading price.