Watchlists are one of the key thinkorswim® features. A watchlist is a collection of symbols with their corresponding market data. They often include companies, derivatives, or constituents of an index such as NASDAQ 100, the Dow Jones Industrials, or the S&P 500. Watchlists may also contain symbols that represent economic trends or industry groups, these symbols are not directly tradeable but are comprised of instruments that are.
Watchlists appear in many thinkorswim features, including Scanner, FX Global Currency Map, Stock Hacker, and Use The News. The full-scale Watchlist interface is available under MarketWatch > Quotes.
In this article, we'll focus on the Watchlist gadget. Its functionality is similar to other instances of watchlists throughout the platform.
In the gadget title, you can find the following controls:
- Watchlist selector. Click the watchlist name to create, delete, or switch between watchlists. In addition to your personal watchlists, you can access public watchlists from categories such as Lovers and losers, Top 10, and industry-based lists. You can also view your portfolio watchlist, which displays symbols that have positions in the currently selected account.
- Arrows. Use the up and down arrows to move through watchlists in a group. The up arrow takes you to the previous watchlist, while the down arrow takes you to the next.
- Symbol link. Use the color-coded clipboard to link components. Clicking the icon opens a color-and-number selection menu. In this menu, select a color to link the watchlist to other thinkorswim components with the same color code.
Tip: Consider linking a watchlist to the symbol selector and the Dashboard gadget. This way, clicking through the watchlist automatically displays the corresponding symbols in the symbol selector and the Dashboard. - Show actions menu. Detach, switch, or delete the watchlist gadget. This menu also provides print and screenshot options.
You can also add or edit securities in a watchlist directly:
- To add a security: Click the empty cell at the bottom of the Symbol column, type a symbol, and press Enter.
- To edit a security: Click the security’s name in the Symbol column, type a new symbol, and press Enter.
After configuring your watchlists, you can customize them in the following ways:
- Reorder the columns. Click and drag a column header to the desired position.
- Sort by column. Click the column header to sort the watchlist. An up arrow Õ appears for ascending order, clicking again switches to descending order (indicated by a down arrow Ô). To remove sorting, click the header a third time or right-click and select No sorting.
- Change the column set. To add or remove columns, right-click a column header and choose Customize... In the dialog window, you will see two areas: All columns (left pane) and the current set (right pane).
- To add a column, select it in the All columns and click Add.
- To remove a column, select it in the current set and click Remove.
- You can also drag and drop columns between panes or double-click to add or remove them.
- Click OK to save your changes.