It's been a week since we last talked, and I bet you were waiting with tense anticipation for the final instalment! Well, it would seem that my birthday celebrations, mother's day, and the fact my Bachelors of Arts degree left me with absolutely no artistic ability what-so-ever have come together against me.
So here, in all its glory - but without any cool infographics - is the conclusion. Enjoy!
To summarize what I've discussed over the past couple weeks I've put together the table below. Remember that on line portfolios are offered by portal sites, news outlet's web sites, financial web sites, and your broker's web site. There are different styles of portfolios: Full portfolios let you track holdings and even transactions; whereas Watchlists only let you list a stock. Most of these sites contain ads, but some are less intrusive and others are more.
The rating scale is out of 10 and is highly subjective and compounded by the fact it entirely my opinion, not anyone else's or an average of several people's. Data is an evaluation of the completeness of the data; Use is an evaluation of the ease of use; UI is a first impression of the look & feel of the web site; and Total is the sum of the previous parts, out of 30.
| Type | Style | Ads | Data | Use | UI | Total | |
| Google Finance | Portal | Full portfolio | Bearable | 7 | 10 | 10 | 27 |
| MSN | Portal | Full portfolio | Intrusive | 4 | 5 | 5 | 14 |
| Yahoo Finance | Portal | Full portfolio | Bearable | 5 | 7 | 7 | 19 |
| Bloomberg | News Outlet | Full portfolio | Excessive | 9 | 6 | 4 | 19 |
| Canadian Business | News Outlet | Full portfolio | Excessive | 6 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| Financial Post | News Outlet | Watchlist only | Intrusive | 7 | 6 | 4 | 17 |
| Financial Times | News Outlet | Full portfolio | Bearable | 10 | 10 | 7 | 27 |
| Globe Investor | News Outlet | Watchlist only | Intrusive | 9 | 4 | 8 | 21 |
| MarketWatch | News Outlet | Watchlist only | Intrusive | 9 | 10 | 9 | 28 |
| Barchart | Financial Services | Full portfolio | Bearable | 4 | 7 | 5 | 16 |
| Morningstar | Financial Services | Full portfolio | Bearable | 6 | 4 | 8 | 18 |
| TMX Money | Financial Services | Watchlist only | Excessive | 4 | 7 | 5 | 16 |
| BMO Investor Line | Broker | Live portfolio | None | 10 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Qtrade | Broker | Live portfolio | None | 10 | 8 | 7 | 25 |
| RBC Direct Investing | Broker | Live portfolio | None | 10 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
You can also see this table in all it's Google DocsDrive glory!
What's clear from the table is that Google Finance, the Financial Times, and Market Watch have the best on-line portfolio managers. So if you're going to spend the time to set one up and maintain it, then one of those three would be your best bet.
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Calculating Returns and The Portals
Part 3 - News Outlets
Part 4 - Financial Services and Brokerages
Part 5 - Comparison Table and Conclusion
Cross-posted on 2FatDads
Disclaimer The material in this article does not constitute advice and you should not rely on any material in this article to make any decision or take any action.