2. The terminal and your workspace

Portfolios and watchlists (PF, AP, AW, RP, RW)

PF shows what you own (positions, cost, profit and loss) and what you follow (watchlists) with live prices, and AP, AW, RP and RW add or remove tickers from anywhere.

  • 5 min
  • 3 questions
  • Lesson 1 of 8

Why you would care

How are your positions doing today, and since you bought them? Every morning starts with the same two questions: what did my holdings do overnight, and what is moving among the names I watch? PF answers both on one screen, and everything else in Gloom (alerts, risk, news, theses) uses these lists as its starting point.

The idea from scratch

  • A portfolio is a list of positions: for each ticker, how many shares you hold and your average cost (what you paid per share, on average).
  • A watchlist is a list of tickers you follow, with no quantities.

From a position, three numbers follow:

  • Market value = shares x current price.
  • Unrealized P&L (profit and loss) = market value - what you paid. "Unrealized" because you have not sold: it is profit on paper.
  • Weight = this position's market value / the whole portfolio's market value.

Day change is how much the portfolio moved since yesterday's close. P&L is since you bought. Do not confuse them.

Two ways to fill a portfolio

  • Manual

    you type tickers, shares and costs (AP NVDA asks for them).

  • Broker

    you connect a brokerage account and positions sync on their own (lesson: Account and brokers). You cannot delete a broker position by hand: the next sync would put it back.

Diagram: AP NVDA: shares, cost leads to Portfolio; Broker sync leads to Portfolio; AW NVDA leads to Watchlist; Portfolio leads to PF pane: value, day, P&L, weights; Watchlist leads to PF pane: value, day, P&L, weights; PF pane: value, day, P&L, weights leads to Used by alerts, PORT risk, news, theses.
Wide diagram: scroll sideways to see all of it.

See it in Gloom

Gloom screenshot: A demo portfolio in PF
A demo portfolio in PF: the header totals, then one row per position with price, change, size and valuation numbers. Historical example.

open ittype PF. Tabs on top switch between your portfolios and watchlists (h / l).

  1. Header Val 316.9k: the total market value, 316,900 dollars.
  2. Day +939.64 (+0.30%): the change since the previous close.
  3. P&L +120.9k (+61.65%): unrealized profit since purchase. The cost was about 196,000 (316.9k - 120.9k).
  4. Row AAPL 335.91 -0.33% ... 150: last price, change today, and 150 shares held. Market value: 150 x 335.91 = about 50,400.
  5. MCAP, P/E, FWD P/E: company size and valuation (P/E is price divided by a year of earnings per share; FWD uses next year's estimate).
  6. AGE and 1M: how old each quote is, and a one-month sparkline (a tiny chart).

The + ticker box at the bottom, or a, adds a ticker to the open list. In newer versions (after 0.15.8), d removes the selected one after a confirmation; in 0.15.8 use RW or RP. s switches to a grid view.

Adding and removing from anywhere

CommandDoes
AW NVDAAdd to the active watchlist
AP NVDAAdd to a manual portfolio, with optional shares, average cost and currency
RW NVDA / RP NVDARemove from the watchlist / portfolio

Practice and recap

Try it3 tasks
  1. In the screenshot, which position moved most today in percent? (META, +4.27%.)
  2. Compute the market value of the TSLA row: 35 shares x 378.27. (About 13,240 dollars.)
  3. In the app: AW SPY, then PF, then find the Watchlist tab.
Common mistakes4 mistakes
  • Reading total P&L as today's gain. Day and P&L are different numbers.
  • Forgetting that unrealized P&L is on paper until you sell.
  • Deleting a broker position and waiting for it to vanish. Change it at the broker.
  • Comparing P/E across very different companies without context (chapter 04).
Check yourself3 questions
  1. What is the difference between a portfolio and a watchlist?
  2. You hold 20 shares bought at 50, now 45. What is your unrealized P&L?
  3. Which command removes NVDA from your watchlist?
Answers
  1. A portfolio holds quantities and costs; a watchlist is just tickers to follow.
  2. 20 x (45 - 50) = -100 dollars, or -10%.
  3. RW NVDA.
Words in this lesson9 words
portfolio
A list of positions with quantities and costs.
watchlist
A list of tickers you follow, with no quantities.
position
How much of one thing you hold in one portfolio.
average cost
What you paid per share, on average.
market value
Shares x current price.
unrealized P&L
Profit or loss on paper, on positions not yet sold.
weight
One position's share of the portfolio's value.
sparkline
A tiny chart inside a table cell.
P/E, forward P/E
Price divided by a year of earnings per share; forward uses the next year's estimate.

Educational material about reading market data, not investment advice.