Build your first portfolio
This quickstart walks you through creating a portfolio and recording your first transactions. Once a portfolio has a deposit and at least one buy, the tracker computes value, holdings, returns, dividends, and gains across the tabs. Free, Pro Lite, and Pro accounts can build portfolios; the number you can create depends on your plan.
Before you begin
- Sign in to your account. Building portfolios is available on the Free, Pro Lite, and Pro plans.
- Have your starting cash amount and a few trades ready to record. You can enter trades by hand, or securely connect a brokerage account on Pro Lite or Pro. For the manual path, see Manual portfolios; for the connected path, see Connect a brokerage.
- Your plan sets how many portfolios you can create. The current per-plan limits appear in the table on Plans and tiers.
Steps
Open the create dialog
Go to the portfolio page and select Create New Portfolio.
Name the portfolio
Enter a name in Portfolio Name (for example, My Portfolio). The name is required. Add an optional Description if you want one.
Optional: set it as default
Turn on Set as default portfolio so this portfolio opens first every time. The toggle is off by default.
Optional: connect a brokerage instead
On Pro Lite or Pro, select Connect Brokerage Account at the top of the dialog to securely connect your brokerage and sync holdings instead of typing them in. See Connect a brokerage.
Create the portfolio
Confirm to create the portfolio. An empty portfolio shell opens with the tab strip and an Add Transaction action.
Record a deposit
Select Add Transaction, set Type to Deposit, enter the Amount of cash you are adding, set the Date, and save. This becomes your starting cash balance.
Record a buy
Select Add Transaction again, set Type to Buy, enter the Stock symbol, the number of Shares, and the Price per share. The Amount auto-fills as shares times price. Set the Date and save.
Review the result
Open the tabs to see your holdings, value, returns, dividends, and gains begin to populate from the entries you recorded.
The transaction Type is one of Buy, Sell, Deposit, or Withdrawal, and defaults to Buy. A stock symbol, shares, and price per share are required for Buy and Sell. The amount is required for every type and auto-fills as shares times price for Buy and Sell.
How your cash balance is computed
After each entry, the tracker keeps a running balance of your uninvested cash. Deposits add to cash and withdrawals subtract from it. A buy subtracts the amount plus any fee and tax withheld, and a sell adds the amount minus any fee and tax withheld.
cash = previous cash − (amount + fee + tax withheld)
In this formula, amount is the trade or transfer dollars in US dollars, fee is the commission in US dollars, and tax withheld is any tax taken at source in US dollars. For example, a deposit of 10,000 followed by a buy of 50 shares at 100 (amount 5,000, no fee or tax) leaves cash of 10,000 minus 5,000, which is 5,000. Dividend income is not added to cash here; it is tracked separately and, when reinvested, is handled through the dividend reinvestment path described in Dividends and DRIP.
Your entries are stored immediately. Holdings are then valued with end-of-day prices from AlphaVantage on the next recompute, which is triggered by your edit and by the daily data refresh.
Limitations and disclosures
Hand-entered data is only as accurate as what you record. The tracker computes every figure from your entries, so an incorrect share count or price flows through to value, returns, and gains.
GNG Research provides equity research and educational tools, not investment advice. Nothing on the platform is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own research and consider your circumstances before making any investment decision.