Key Takeaways

Explore the charting and analysis tools available on the thinkorswim® Mobile app

Learn the importance of beta-weighting positions or overall portfolio risk

Stress test your portfolio by looking at performance simulations under various market conditions

When COVID-19 struck, we saw how life can change quickly. There’s no way to know with certainty what might happen in the future, which is why it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for the unexpected.  

You could say the same for the stock market. And one way to prepare for unexpected market volatility is to make sure you have access to the stock market through different platforms. Can’t sit down at a computer or pull out a laptop to check in on the day’s action? This is where the thinkorswim Mobile app from TD Ameritrade can help. It’s a powerful mobile trading platform with many features, including charting; trading stocks, options, futures, and forex; beta weighting; and portfolio stress testing. With thinkorswim Mobile, you can do all this anywhere you can get cell or Wi-Fi coverage.  

Chart and Sync

If you love a little technical analysis, powerful charting tools are available in the palm of your hand. Apply regression channels while waiting for your favorite handcrafted hot beverage. And the cool thing is, the next time you visit your computer, your caffeine-inspired technical analysis you did on your mobile trading app will be waiting on the thinkorswim desktop platform. The charts sync with all your mobile devices as well.  

When you find the setup you want, you can choose from a variety of conditional orders to enter a position in stocks, options, multi-leg options, futures, or forex. 

And remember, with thinkorswim Mobile, you’re never on your own. There’s a whole suite of straightforward and easy-to-follow tutorial videos that’ll walk you through each section of the app to help you get started. Plus, live text support gives you real-time access to a trading specialist for help with accessing tools, placing trades, or other specific questions.

Unleash Your Inner Chart Artist

Say you’ve pulled up a chart and are ready to add some tools. Maybe you want to draw a trendline or channel, or add Fibonacci retracement levels (see figure 1). Or perhaps you want to leave yourself a note. You can do it all with thinkorswim Mobile. Yup, it has a robust suite of charting tools that make exploring technical analysis on your mobile device time well spent. 

FIGURE 1: TECHNICAL ANALYSIS ON THINKORSWIM MOBILE. Bring up a chart from a watchlist, select it, and then use the icons on the left side to apply technical analysis indicators or drawing tools. Chart source: thinkorswim Mobile app. For illustrative purposes only.

Virtually anything you can do on your desktop, you can do in the mobile trading app. Run market scans, analyze positions, and monitor watchlists using more than 300 technical charts and indicators.

Beyond Charts: More App Features

When you’re ready to pause the hands-on charting and do some studying or research, you can access the latest in trading education. You’ll find webcasts and online courses, plus live market news and programming on the TD Ameritrade Network*. Live-stream news from CNBC, get in-depth company profiles from Trefis, communicate with other traders, and listen to real-time, third-party market data.

Even if you’re not ready to trade on the go, you can still use real market data to test your theories and strategies at no cost—with $100,000 in virtual funds—using the paperMoney® platform on your mobile device.

And you’re not limited to charting and trading. You can also analyze your portfolio anytime, anywhere. 

In today’s market, managing a portfolio can be a complicated task, especially if it consists of different assets and multiple positions. And these days, when volatility makes its presence known—sometimes in the blink of an eye—immediate access is key. You can get it with thinkorswim Mobile.

Can’t Stress This Enough

The elements that make up your portfolio may exhibit radically diverse characteristics under market stress and incongruously divergent levels of volatility. We’re not just talking proverbial apples and oranges here; depending on the size of your portfolio, it could be an aggressively disharmonious medley of fruit, plus a few exotic berries thrown into the mix. Now, wouldn’t it be nice to distill all this complexity into one standard measure? 

Well, there is one approach, and it’s called “beta weighting.” Beta weighting lets you assess all your positions against one standard by focusing on one essential characteristic underlying all assets: volatility. Volatility also happens to be a factor that stresses out many investors. But what if you could get a visual handle on volatility? What if you were able to tinker with it under different test scenarios? Perhaps you might be able to transfer some of that stress over to your portfolio, running it through a few stress tests and analyzing how it might respond. If anything, you might make clearer portfolio strategy decisions, which can ultimately take a great deal of stress off your shoulders.

Hold On—Beta What-ing?

Beta measures the volatility of an individual asset or an entire portfolio as compared to a benchmark, say, the S&P 500 Index. Beta can help assess your portfolio’s systemic risk, which refers to risk borne by the market as a whole. In other words, beta weighting can be an integral part of pursuing your financial goals.

Beta weighting takes all your positions—stocks, ETFs, and options—and converts them to one standard unit. With a single metric for reference, you can better understand how your portfolio might move or change in relation to a benchmark or the broader market. Beta weighting can help you think like a trader but act like an investor.

Figure 2 shows beta weighting in action. It takes a portfolio of stocks and options and normalizes the profit and loss to changes in the S&P 500 Index (SPX). 

FIGURE 2: BETA WEIGHTING A PORTFOLIO ON THINKORSWIM MOBILE. The beta weighting tool standardizes all positions to a single standard such as the S&P 500 Index (SPX), Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX), or Russell 2000 Index (RUT). Chart source: thinkorswim Mobile app. For illustrative purposes only. 

Beta weighting can provide you with important information about your portfolio’s size, diversity, and general risk as a single unit relative to your benchmark. That’s why it can be a key component of portfolio risk management. Beta weighting can be particularly valuable during periods of volatility. But it can also be a complex topic. If you’re new to the concept, you can start by watching a beta weighting video in the thinkorswim Learning Center.  

Portfolio Stress Testing

A stress test is a simulation designed to analyze how an asset or portfolio might perform under conditions of volatility, market declines, or a general economic crisis. No one can predict the depth or breadth of an unfavorable market scenario, nor the outcome of holding a specific mix of assets during such a period. But running simulations may help you strategically design a portfolio that might withstand certain levels of market stress (hence, the term “stress test”).

Stress testing and beta weighting your portfolio may sound like a rather laborious task involving lots of mathematical calculations. And it was—before the advent of modern trading and investing tools and apps.

TD Ameritrade clients already had the ability to beta weight and stress test positions via the thinkorswim trading platform. Today, the power to analyze potential profit and risk is available on thinkorswim Mobile as well.  

And if you’re looking for real-time ideas to help you manage your portfolio, consider tuning in to the TD Ameritrade Network. 

*TD Ameritrade Network is brought to you by TD Ameritrade Media Productions Company. TD Ameritrade Media Productions Company and TD Ameritrade, Inc. are separate but affiliated subsidiaries of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation. TD Ameritrade Media Productions Company is not a financial adviser, registered investment advisor, or broker-dealer.

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