Watching The Market Moves

[Dividend Watcher]

Seeking Alpha author "Investing 501" had a very interesting post today entitled "Checking Stock Quotes Regularly Is A Waste Of Time". It was a thought-provoking article about what gain comes from watching stock prices like a hawk. See it here.

I had to ruminate on that for most of the day and reflect on my habits. I still think I need to re-read it to refine my actions.

I admit, once I get into the office, I log into my Yahoo! account and leave my portfolio up on the screen in a window while working. It's not like I'm at my desk for the entire day. Usually I'm gone within the first hour and frequently don't return until late in the afternoon. Mostly I'm looking for big changes in a holding's price that is much larger than the market up or down. Then I'll search for some news to find a reason why. I sometimes like to read the syndicated articles linked on the portfolio pages. In the morning before heading to work, if there's time, I check out the SA headlines, here and also Marketwatch's page.

Now, what I don't do is update my portfolio spreadsheet daily any more. I usually will update it after a couple dividend reinvestments, I have cash waiting to put into the market or I see a dividend increase so that when I do give it more than a cursory look, the information is closer to current values. The humorous part is that, whilst updating less frequently, the prices are often very near to where they were the last time I updated it unless there's been some sustained up or down move.

I'm beginning to wonder if that is too much. After all, most of the companies I hold I plan on holding for a long time through the ups and downs. Yet I'm concerned about missing some detrimental news that could affect the income stream I've been working on for the past 5 years. On the flip side, if I have cash available, I hate to miss a decent entry point because of Mr. Market's psychotic mood swings every once in a while.

One of the habits I think I'm going to try to change is to put an annual report, 10K/10Q or presentation on the screen at work rather than my portfolio. I imagine it's going to be tough not to peek.

So the question is, what do you look at on a frequent basis and how often do you update your portfolio spreadsheet if you have one?

[benjamen]

You will drive yourself nuts trying to time the market and watching every little rise and dip. I update my numbers and buy new stocks once a month.

[earthtodan]

I willingly submit to driving myself nuts. It's funny to call myself a DGI and watch the market every day, but as long as you're receiving dividends and contributing cash that need to get invested, it's hard to take your finger off the pulse.

[fredr142]

I typically take a look every day. I don't panic too often, if at all. I generally do focus on buying any of my "want" list if I see them hit the price I'm willing to pay though.

[daat99]

I look at the stock market every day and almost all day but mostly because I'm learning how everything works and not for trading.

In my IRA account I buy stocks as soon as I have $1000 available and I use market price after filtering them with my filtering rules.
For example I just bought 23 shares of O yesterday using market price of 42.66.

In my real account I sell puts for anywhere between 30 and 60 days in order to purchase the stocks that meet my entry criteria, again ignoring the market as a whole.
For example I decided to purchase DE when it was traded for 89 and after several put trades I currently have an open put with a strike of 84 about to expire this Friday.
This will get me an effective cost of 84.52 (and I'll be eligible for the next dividend) instead of a cost of 89 if I bought it when I made my decision to purchase it (DE dropped a lot more than I expected in the past 60 days!).

I have no intention to sell either of those companies regardless of their price.
My only consideration is the dividend and as long as it isn't being reduced I'm sticking with it regardless of what the market does.

[cannew]

We've recorded the price of the stocks we own every Saturday. Years ago we'd panic when the prices dropped and kept dropping. Now it's just nice to have a record going back for many years. We no longer care where prices go unless we have funds to invest. We record the market prices each week, but it the dividend payments and dividend increases we really monitor.

[rnsmth]

I do not track prices of my dividend growth companies all that closely, but I do look at them on a daily basis - I just do not pay that much attention to them. I do track dividends received, entering those into a dividends received spreadsheet most mornings that they are paid.