How to Monitor a Stock's Performance

You can very easily monitor the performance of any stock or mutual fund by doing the following:

1. Go to the website: www.bigcharts.com

2. Enter the ticker symbol of your stock or mutual fund in the box titled, "Enter symbol or keyword."

3. Click on the red button at the top of the page labelled, "Interactive Charting."

4. You'll see a new page with your stock's (or mutual fund's) details listed. On the left-hand side, click on the button labelled "Compare to," and select the S&P 500 from the pulldown menu labelled "index."

5. On the left-hand side, under the button labelled "Time Frame," choose six months from the pulldown menu labelled "Time."

6. Once you've selected the "Index" and "Time," click on the red "Draw Chart" button at the top of the left-hand menu. You will get a graph comparing your stock (or mutual fund) to the S&P 500 for the period of time you specified.

7. Then, ask yourself these two simple questions:

First, is my stock (or mutual fund) making me any money?

Second, is my stock (or mutual fund) doing at least as well as the S&P 500?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then sell it and don't look back!

If the stock (or mutual fund) happens to turn up just after you've sold it, don't let that bother you because based on the information you had at the time you sold, you made the right decision!

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