Guide
How to track stocks (and what to use)
To track the stocks you're researching, Brief Equity gives you unlimited watchlists with the columns you choose and one feed of their news, press releases, earnings-call transcripts, SEC filings, insider trades, and analyst ratings, plus an events calendar for earnings dates. That is the setup to aim for in any tool: the tickers, the columns that matter to your thesis, and the events and news attached to each name, so you're not checking ten sites. A spreadsheet works for prices and your own columns, but it won't bring you a company's press releases or its next earnings date. Brief Equity keeps your own notes beside all of it, so the research stays in one place.
By The Brief Equity Team · Published · Updated
What people actually use to track stocks
| Tool | Good for | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| A research tool | Tickers, news, filings, and earnings dates together | One more login to keep |
| A spreadsheet | Prices and your own columns, fully yours | A formula can fetch a delayed quote; you gather the news, filings, and earnings dates yourself |
| A broker watchlist | Quotes next to your account | Belongs to one broker, so the research behind it varies |
A tool aimed at research puts the tickers, their news, and their events in one view, which is the part the other two leave to you.
Most people start with a spreadsheet because it's free and familiar. It's fine for a price column and a few notes, and a formula such as GOOGLEFINANCE in Google Sheets fetches a quote delayed by up to 20 minutes. GOOGLEFINANCE has no attribute for a company's next earnings date or its latest 8-K, so you end up tab-hopping anyway.
A broker's watchlist keeps quotes beside your account, which is handy if you're about to trade. It belongs to that broker, so what sits behind each ticker depends on where you hold the account.
What to look for in a watchlist
| What to check | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|
| The columns | You choose them, so the one or two numbers behind your thesis sit beside the price |
| What comes with each ticker | Its news, press releases, filings, and call transcripts, without a visit to another site |
| Earnings dates | A calendar built from the list itself |
| The number of lists | Enough to keep holdings, candidates, and an industry you are learning apart |
Decide first which list you are building. A list of what you own can stay at your broker or in a free tracker. A list of what you are studying needs the reading attached: the filings, the calls, and the next earnings date.
The roundup of watchlist apps goes through them by name.
How to set up a watchlist you'll actually check
- Pick the handful of names you're actually researching, not fifty you'll ignore.
- Add the columns that matter to your thesis: price, a valuation metric or two, maybe a dividend figure.
- Attach each name's news and filings so updates come to you instead of you hunting for them.
- Note the next earnings date for each, since that's when the thesis gets tested.
- Revisit the list on a set cadence and drop names you've stopped following.
The trap is a watchlist with a hundred tickers you never read. Keep it to the names you're working on now, and let the rest sit in a broader list you check less often.
The point of the columns is to see the one or two numbers that would change your mind at a glance, not to rebuild a terminal.
Keeping the news and earnings in one place
The reason to track stocks in one tool rather than a spreadsheet is what a spreadsheet won't fetch for you: a company's press releases, its SEC filings, the next earnings date, insider trades. When those arrive in a single feed tied to your list, you stop checking ten separate sites for each name you follow.
This is also where research, not trading, matters. You don't need tick-by-tick prices to follow a thesis over weeks or months. You need to know when something material happens to a company you own or are studying, and to have your own notes nearby when it does.
Tracking stocks in Brief Equity
Brief Equity gives you unlimited watchlists, each with the columns you choose: price, valuation, fundamentals, and dividends. Every ticker on them appears in one feed of news, press releases, earnings-call transcripts, SEC filings, insider trades, and analyst ratings, with a tab for each source, and on an events calendar of earnings and US economic dates.
The feed follows your context: across all your watchlists at once, narrowed to a single list, or scoped to one ticker on its stock page. The calendar opens as a month grid, or as an Upcoming list in the right rail. When you want to step out of your own names, the Markets view shows indices, sectors, yields, and the earnings week for the whole market, with the tickers you track still marked.
It is built for equity research: US and international stocks, and everything happening to each company you follow.
Keep reading
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Frequently asked questions
- What's the best way to track a few stocks I'm researching?
- Put them on a single watchlist with the columns that matter to your thesis, then attach each name's news, filings, and earnings dates so updates come to you. Brief Equity does this with unlimited watchlists, one feed with a tab for each source, and an events calendar. A spreadsheet handles prices, but a research tool keeps the context in one place.
- Do I need a trading platform to track stocks?
- No. If you're researching rather than trading, a watchlist plus a news-and-events feed covers it. A broker keeps quotes beside your account; a research tool gathers filings, transcripts, earnings dates, and your own notes.
- Is a spreadsheet good enough for tracking stocks?
- For a price column and a few notes, yes. A formula can fetch a delayed quote, but not a company's press releases, SEC filings, or next earnings date, so you end up checking other sites anyway. A dedicated feed removes that step.
- Can I track international stocks, or just US ones?
- Brief Equity watchlists cover US and international stocks. The feed's SEC filings and insider trades apply to companies that file with the SEC, while news, press releases, and prices are broader.