Positions/Watch Lists

Watch lists are a great way to track stocks that catch your eye and track them all in one easy-to-follow location. You can access both custom watch lists and positions from the same tool, found in two locations:

  • Positions in the Accounts menu
  • Watch List in the Quotes & Watch List menu

You can use the tool's dropdown menu to switch between your watch lists and your positions. There will be varying information and options available, depending on whether you've selected an account or a watch list.

  • Predefined Watch Lists

    Two predefined watch lists are available in Active Trader Pro®:

    1. The Indices Watch List provides access to streaming real-time quotes for a predefined list of index securities. To launch the Indices Watch List, use the dropdown menu from within the Watch List tool to select Indices. This predefined list of indices cannot be customized, but any index symbol can be added to one of your custom watch lists.
    2. The Futures Watch List provides access to delayed streaming quotes for 29 predefined front-month futures contracts. To launch the Futures Watch List, use the dropdown menu from within the Watch List tool to select Futures. The streaming quotes provided are delayed by 10 minutes. The front-month contract will automatically roll to the next month's contract upon expiration. It will also roll to the next contract month when the next contract month has an open interest that is more than twice that of the current month, or where the next contract month has a larger trading volume than the current month.
  • Custom Watch Lists

    You can create up to 15 custom watch lists, tracking up to 50 securities per list. Your custom watch lists are accessible across all Fidelity platforms, including Fidelity.com, the Active Trader Pro®, and Fidelity Mobile®.

    Watch lists can include all quotable securities, including stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, money market funds, indices, and options.

  • Creating and Editing Watch Lists

    It's easy to create a custom watch list. Just use the Manage dropdown menu and select Create New Watch List.

    To edit an existing watch list, simply right-click on any row and choose Insert/Delete Row. You can also select Edit Watch List from the Manage dropdown menu. You may also change the order within your watchlist using your mouse to drag and drop. Drag and drop is available when you are viewing symbols in user-entered order; click on the Symbol header row until the watch list is back to unsorted state so that you may utilize drag and drop. Only custom watch lists can be edited.

    You can quickly add a symbol to a custom watch list from the Quote, Option Chain, Filters, or Chart tools. To do so, use the Action or right-click menu and select the watch list you'd like to update from the list that appears when you hover on Add to Watch List.

  • Inline Watch List Editing

    Within any custom watch list, you can edit entries in the Symbol, Price, and Quantity fields by selecting them, making it easy to add new information on tracked securities.

    You can add or remove a symbol from your watch list inline by using the right-click menu to Insert Row or Delete Row.

  • Positions

    Use the Positions tool to view the open positions you hold in your accounts. To launch Positions, select Positions from the Accounts menu. To navigate to your positions from a custom watch list, select the account you'd like to view from the dropdown menu.

    Quick Tip: If you hold Hard to Borrow securities, identified by the HTB icon next to the symbol, use the right-click menu for a link to a detailed Hard to Borrow summary.

  • Positions Summary

    The top and bottom lines of the Positions tool provide two sets of summaries for the selected account:

    • Topline Totals – Located at the top of the Positions list, this shows the total account value, gain/loss since previous close (Today's Gain/Loss), and gain/loss since purchase (Total Gain/Loss) for positions in the account. Hover on the Total Account Value balance field to get the Total Market Value balance and to view any pending activity (e.g. Cash Debit or Cash Credit from Unsettled Activity, Margin Debit or Credit Balance, etc.).
    • Bottomline Totals – The totals displayed below your positions show Today's Gain/Loss, Total Gain/Loss, Basis, and Market Value. The bottom line totals may differ from topline totals if you've elected to hide a security type. For example, if you've excluded your cash position from the Positions list, the total value at the bottom will not include cash.
  • Show/Hide Security Types

    You may want to hide security types from the positions display, such as cash or mutual funds. To do so, select the Manage menu located at the top right corner of the Positions tool, choose Show/Hide Security types, uncheck the security types you want to exclude, and select Apply.

  • Viewing Lots

    If lot information for a position is available, there will be a View Lots selection in the right-click menu or from the Action menu, located to the right of the symbol. Select View Lots to see detailed lot information for your position.

  • Wash Sale Treatment

    If there was a wash sale for a transaction, a W will be displayed to the right of the symbol, with disallowed loss information displayed when you hover on the W. To show unadjusted cost basis information for your open positions, go to Settings or right-click on a column header and select the desired fields:

    • Unadjusted Purchase Price
    • Unadjusted Basis
    • Unadjusted % G/L
    • Unadjusted G/L

    If you are missing some information in the unadjusted fields, please call us at 800-544-6666 to fully enable this feature.

  • Positions/Watch List Heatmap

    You can use the heatmap to visualize securities based on Today's Gain/Loss (Positions only), Total Gain/Loss (Positions only), Volume, Yield and P/E Ratio. Select the icons located to the right of the account dropdown to switch between traditional list (Grid) and Heatmap views.

    On Positions, the size of each individual security box is based on the account concentration (the percentage of your account it represents, by value) of a position. The color scale is dynamic with the brightest colors being assigned to the securities with the highest/lowest value. For example, the position with the brightest green on Today's Gain/Loss % heatmap represents the security with the largest percentage gain since close. Some additional features to keep in mind:

    • Hover on a security box to get a tool tip with quote and other relevant information. (This is particularly helpful if the box is too small to display the symbol.)
    • Use the filter located above the heatmap to group securities by symbol or sector. Group by Symbol to organize your equity and option positions for an underlying symbol in one area of the heat map. Group by Sector to organize your positions, or watch list securities, by sector; this may help give an indication of your overall portfolio exposure to each sector.
    • Select the Show/Hide Security Type feature from the Manage menu, located at the top right corner of Positions, to control the security types displayed in the heatmap. For example, let's say you have 50% of your account in Cash. This would take up 50% of the real estate on the heat map. Hide the cash position to get a better visual on your other holdings.
    • Use the right-click menu to take additional actions, such as seeding a trade ticket or charting the security.
  • Positions/Watch List Features

    Use the Action menu next to each symbol to open a new tool with the symbol in context, such as a seeded trade ticket or chart. You can also use the right-click menu to view research options on Fidelity.com for that particular security type or open a new tool with the symbol and additional fields in context. Double-click on a symbol or row in a watch list to send it to your linked tools.

    You can customize your view by dragging a column to reorder it or dragging a column's edge to change its width.

    You can also add, remove, or reorder columns by selecting Add & Remove Columns from the Manage menu. You can also right-click on the column header to add and remove specific columns.

    The symbol column is locked by default so you can easily scroll to the right without losing sight of the symbols on the left side of the tool. You can also drag and drop columns in and out of the locked position to keep other fields locked and in place for easier viewing.

  • Export/Print

    To export your Positions or Watch List data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or a CSV file(.csv), right-click on the tool and select the file type from the Export option.

    To print, right-click on the tool and select Print.

  • Sort

    You can sort the information in the Positions/Watch List tool by selecting the column headers.

    From Positions, selecting the column header will toggle between descending and ascending order.

    For your custom watch lists, symbols will automatically be saved in the order in which they were entered, but selecting the symbol column header will sort them by ascending, descending, and the originally entered order.