How to Effectively Stay Current on Market News

(SALEM, Ore.) - Many people are interested in investing in the stock market, but everyone understands that there are multiple markets and hundreds of companies listed. This makes it a nightmare to stay knowledgeable so that you can properly monitor your investments.

The secret to staying aware of relevant market trends without having to make it your full-time job is to vet your sources until you have narrowed them down to a number that can be monitored effectively.

This article will explore some of the ways to create a time-efficient means of staying in control and in-the-know with your investment portfolio.

Vet Your Sources

The best way to vet your sources is not by having someone else tell you who the good sources of information are. Instead, you need to vet your sources the old-fashioned way.

You have to either take notes or commit to memory what each source stated about certain significant events in the market so you can evaluate their predictions and explanations. You need to compare who ends up being honest and correct.

Local, State, National and World News

People who are successful in investing don’t have their heads in the sand. They seek unbiased and varied sources of information on local, state, national and world news that may affect their investments.

For example, the recent news that all new production of Boeing Max 737 is being shut down will have a ripple effect in the areas where Boeing was producing the plane as well as in the areas where their parts suppliers are located. Savvy investors look at the big picture of all world events.

Videos on Current Market Conditions

You can vet your favorite sources of YouTube investment videos, subscribe to them and have a notification be sent to you every time a new video comes up on the source’s channel. You can also place YouTube subscriptions on your RSS feeds. There is more on RSS feeds below.

Blogs and Articles on Current Market Conditions

Many reputable news sources have columns dedicated to the current state of finance, so you can read insightful updates like these from Fisher Investments. Generally these columns will follow the same standards as the site itself, so you can look for these guest columns on the sites you have already vetted.

If You Use Apps, Have a Very Secure Phone

Be leery of using too many apps on cell phones. They always seem to want access to quite a bit more information than it seems they need. Keeping that caveat in mind, if you do wish to track stocks and information about investments on your phone, you have to realize that you need to have a phone with excellent security features.

MalwareBytes Labs suggests you will want a phone with a touch fingerprint sensor, the ability to lock your screen, data encryption and remote data removal in the event of a lost or stolen phone.

They further suggest only using apps approved in the Google Play store or Apple App Store and avoiding the use of public Wi-Fi when you are conducting any transactions or transmitting financial data.

Apps for Investing

Bloomberg has a mobile app that provides business news, stock market numbers and stock market trends. The Bloomberg app also allows investors to track their chosen securities in a watch list.

Fisher Investments has an app with market news and commentary, videos, and updates to their social media. Their videos include short market news, a longer podcast analyzing the market, and general investment education videos.

Aggregate All Market Information Sources

It would quickly get overwhelming to go to many different sources of information, one by one, every day. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, allows you to go to the website of each trusted source of market information - whether that is a news site, blog or vlog - and get a link you paste into an RSS reader.

Those links will allow you to see all of your market information sources in one location, updated in real time. Then, you can click on the ones you find the most pertinent and interesting.

Set Google Alerts

In order to invest in individual stocks, it is very helpful to get specific information about the company when new information emerges. You also may need to track a news event that may have a strong bearing on your current investment portfolio.

For example, last winter, all eyes were on the Midwest and the historic level of flooding. As an investor, any time a new article was posted on the web about the Midwest flooding, you would have received an email notification and link to the source of the information had you gone to the Google Alerts website and set a notification.

Savvy investors also set links for Google Alerts that will notify them when the conditions were right to either buy or sell a stock.

If you are carefully vetting your market conditions sources and aggregating the trustworthy ones, you can keep track of all of your investment information from diverse sources in one news feed and an app or two that will save you time each day when keeping up on your investments.