Hello, everyone.
My name is Michael Kealy.
And if you're wanting to learn how
to navigate tdameritrade.com, you're in the right place.
We're going to get a basic navigation of the website.
In today's video, we're going to discuss the following--
how to navigate the menus and tabs
to find the information and tools
needed to manage your account.
Then we're going to discuss how to identify
the different trading platforms available to TD Ameritrade
clients.
Following that, we'll place a basic stock trade
on the TD Ameritrade site.
Then we'll choose an education path
to increase your investing knowledge.
And finally, I'll show you how to find the online support
channels to give you the help you need.
So let's jump in.
We're going to begin with the choice of different trading
platforms.
From the Trade tab up at the top of the tdameritrade.com
website, what you'll do is select Trading Platforms.
From here, you'll notice that there are three thinkorswim
trading platforms.
Active traders may prefer thinkorswim,
our innovative trading platform.
This platform can be downloaded to your computer,
accessed through the web, or downloaded
to your mobile device as part of an app.
Traders are drawn to it because it's
a professional-level trading tool.
It's ideal for technical analysis, which
is the study of charts, as well as trading, options,
and futures.
Tdameritrade.com is an all-in-one site
that contains all the tools needed for an investor.
It's available through the classic website, the next gen
website, or through its own app.
It allows you to do things such as place trades,
manage your account, diversify your investments,
research potential investments, and transfer money and assets
into as well as out of the account.
To get an overview of My Account,
I'm going to go to the upper left of my account
into the Overview tab.
When you first log in to tdameritrade.com,
this is likely the first screen that you'll see.
This is the My Account overview.
You've also got positions and balances that
can be loaded from My Account.
The Link Account feature enables us
to link multiple accounts so that you can view the balances
and positions either on each account individually
or to see the cumulative total of all of your combined
accounts.
To view account positions, I'm heading up to My Account
and selecting Positions.
This provides the rate of return for each
of your individual positions.
Highlighting one of the particular ticker symbols
will allow us to see a range of information
about that security.
The menu box at the upper right corner
will provide a convenient summary,
including aspects such as P/E ratio, dividend yield,
and more.
You'll notice a number of gear icons
at the right hand portion of this page.
The topmost gear icon allows us to manage custom views.
This can be done by adding additional categories
of information.
The custom views are specific to different asset classes.
For instance, those that invest in fixed income and bonds
can apply those views that are applicable.
You'll want to load this page up so that you can see how much is
available on your portfolio.
From the next lower gear icon, you
can select up to five different types of balances
to display on the portfolio.
In this case, you can see what I've personally chosen.
Many investors naturally like to see what
they've done in their accounts.
That can be done by selecting My Account, History
and Statements.
Here we can monitor those transactions
that have taken place over a variety of timeTDs.
These include things such as dividends, long-term gains,
purchases, and sales of securities.
Next up is Deposits and Transfers.
This is where you'll both deposit or withdraw funds.
Link a bank account to your TD Ameritrade account for ease
and transferring money.
Verification may happen within the same day
depending on the time of the request and the bank.
While the money appears in the account on the same day,
it still takes up to four days to clear.
However, you may be able to still place trades
on most securities, depending on the market
risks, such as riskier investments like options
or stocks under $5.
Watch Lists under My Account allow
us to create potential investments to monitor.
You can view a stock's profile by simply clicking the ticker
symbol.
Another way of loading the stock profile page
is to use the search box at the upper right corner.
Typing in a ticker symbol, a company name, or other keywords
will allow you to access those stocks.
In this case, we'll load the stock's profile for IBM.
Remember, this is for illustrative purposes
only and not a recommendation.
The doc provides the customization for us
to be able to see the information desired.
Layouts can be arranged by simply clicking and dragging
the various panes.
At the bottom of the website, you'll
notice that there's a collapse panel which
we call the snap ticket.
This allows you to conveniently place trades from anywhere
on the website and then going through the corresponding steps
to initiate that trade.
Let me walk you through an example trade using the Trade
tab up top.
We'll click Stocks and ETFs.
Up top, you'll find the available funds for trading.
We'll begin with the action box.
Actions can include both buying and selling.
Quantity would be the number of shares
or, in the case of options, the number of contracts
that you'd like to trade.
The symbol is the company that you're trading.
In this case, I'll type in IBM.
Remember, this is for illustrative purposes
only to demonstrate the functionality
of this particular page.
There are a variety of order types that can be used.
Hovering and then clicking upon the question mark
allows us to see these different order types.
For more information on an order type,
simply click that order type.
The default is the limit order type,
which would require us to input a maximum price that we're
willing to pay on the shares.
But in this case, I'm going to do a simple market order.
A market order transacts immediately
at the next available market price.
Next up is the time in force.
Click the question mark to learn about the different time
in force options.
But for this example, I'm going to choose
Day, which means the order will try
to fill until the end of the trading day.
At this point, we'd be able to proceed forward down lower
into the review order.
The review order screen allows us to see the estimated total
at the bottom.
And remember that you do have 90 seconds in which you'll
need to place the order for it to take effect.
If you want to make any changes to your order,
click the Change Order link to make updates
before placing the trade.
Doing so will take place through clicking Place Order.
At this stage, we can see that the order has already
been filled at an activation price of $124.99 on the one
share of the example trade that we did on IBM.
Heading up to the main toolbar up top,
hovering upon Research and Ideas,
we'll see that we've got a range of information that
can be accessed off of a single click
on any of these particular items.
In this case, we're heading into the stock profile page.
Toward the top of this stock's profile page,
to the right of the boxes for Buy and Sell
are a range of tabs that we're going
to spend some time addressing.
The first of these is the Charts tab.
Clicking on the Charts tab, it will default
to a particular timeframe.
That timeframe can then be adjusted
to fit the timeframes that you'd like to see.
In this example case, we have three months
of chart action displayed for IBM.
You can instead select something like a one-year chart.
That will automatically present, in this case, a candlestick
chart for a one-year graph on IBM.
The chart style can also be customized in order
to display as a line chart, a candlestick chart, or a bar
chart.
Next, I'd like to show you how to draw
things on the chart itself, such as trend lines.
We'll find a handy Draw Trend Lines
box that allows you to activate this feature.
Once active, you hold down your mouse
once you've selected an area upon the chart
that you'd like to define a trend line.
In this case, I drew a support line on the chart for IBM.
You can display a range of indicators
as they're called either as upper or lower indicators
on the chart.
The upper indicators box include some very popular studies
such as Bollinger Bands.
Now they've been applied to this particular chart.
The next tab over from the Charts tab is the Earnings tab.
This allows us to compare a stock's earnings performance
to its earnings estimates and to additionally
see what those earnings estimates are
into the future, such as the next quarter
or the next fiscal year.
The Fundamentals tab includes a range of financial statements
that can be accessed through simple clicks.
One would be the balance sheet.
Clicking upon the balance sheet, we've now got that accessible
for the stock IBM.
Additionally, you can load the income statement as well as
cash flow statements.
These can be arranged on either a quarterly or an annual basis.
The Valuation tab lies just to the right of the Fundamentals
tab.
This includes an array of fundamental data
that might be applicable to those investors that
use things such as ratios.
The Valuation tab includes a range of different subtabs.
We'll stick with the Valuation tab for the time being.
Just underneath, you'll see that we have
a range of fundamental items.
These include the price earnings ratio, price to sales,
price to book, and PEG ratios.
Not only can you see these applicable to the individual
stock, but you'll also notice that you can compare those
to the industry group averages.
For those investors that would like to compare a company's
performance to its competitors, you'll
notice that you've got a gear icon that, once opened up,
allows us to see which companies directly
compete with the particular company that we've loaded.
In this case, IBM's direct peer group
includes companies such as Cognizant Technologies, ticker
symbol CTSH.
Clicking any of these allows us to update this particular page
to see where those companies land against IBM.
Another helpful tab next evaluation up above
will be the Dividend tab.
This area called Dividend Analysis
allows us to see the annual dividend projected
to be paid by IBM based upon annualizing
the quarterly dividend.
It also provides us a dividend yield, in this case, at 5.25%.
Next, let's talk about screeners.
Investors often make use of fundamental screeners
that can be used to search for stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs.
In this case, I'm selecting the stocks screeners.
Once clicked, there are a range of predefined screens
that have been built into the tdameritrade.com website.
We've landed on the ratings category.
I'm going to show you the fundamental screeners.
These include such screens as positive growth.
Once I've clicked positive growth,
the screen automatically runs and presents
us the resulting stocks.
There's a Modify Screen option up above those resulting stocks
that allows us to customize this screen in a variety of ways.
Gold planning is an essential phase for anyone that's
investing in the markets.
The Planning and Retirement tab up top
allows us to drive into the gold planning area of the website.
One of our financial consultants can help you set your goals
and create actionable plans free of charge.
Another option within Planning and Retirement
is the Retirement tab.
This will help us access a very popular tool called
the Retirement Calculator.
Retirement calculators are used to help you determine
if your retirement savings is on track
and will last you throughout your retirement years.
This calculator allows you to play around
with the various scenarios.
The education center at TD Ameritrade accessed
through its own Education tab up top
provides a variety of learning tools
that will help you explore different types of investments.
Clicking the education center allows
us to see quick and easy videos that dig deeper into investment
strategies with a full-length course
or get real-time application with our coaches
on our webcasts.
Investors can win badges and points
by participating in investor education
and accomplishing various challenges.
A good place to start is in selecting the pathway that
makes the most sense.
You determine your learning goal,
and then we'll line up that education
that helps you achieve it.
Below the pathways are recommended items,
including videos, courses, webcasts, as well as articles.
You can click any video for a quick demonstration.
There's a range of different types of videos.
Some are what we call explainer videos that
discuss a certain topic to help you understand how
an investment works or what would
a certain financial institution like the Federal Reserve be.
Other videos discuss different strategies
and how some investors apply those in the current market.
Finally, there are numerous tool demos
that will teach you how to use certain applications
of the different trading platforms.
We've also got courses which are designed
to help you meet important learning objectives that
cover what you need to know.
The curriculum is reinforced with video examples as well as
insights from our coaches.
Then you can test your understanding
on the activities and quizzes.
Next, we have webcasts, which offer
real-time interactive analysis and explanations
on various topics as well as demonstrations
of various website tools.
There are several webcasts each week
that can help you increase your understanding
and stay on top of recent market developments.
The final tab is the Client Services tab.
We're going to head into the Message Center.
This is where you can both send and receive messages
related to your account.
The Client Services Welcome Center
includes a list of frequently asked questions.
These FAQs include the answers to many questions that
are posed by incoming clients.
From Client Services, I'm now clicking upon My Profile.
Here's where you're going to apply for margin, options,
futures, and forex trading approval.
Clicking Personal Information allows
you to update your contact information.
Clicking Communication Preferences
allows us to select electronic or paper statements.
Clicking on the Help Center, we can explore common help topics
as well as questions.
Listed are a series of questions,
including those that are trending right now.
If you can't find the answers that you're
looking for here in the Help Center,
you can always contact us.
To do that, you'll want to click Contact Us.
You can call or email 24 hours a day, seven days per week.
For immediate questions about products, tools, and services,
you can access Ask Ted, your Virtual
Guide to tdameritrade.com.
Today, we discussed navigating the menus and tabs
to find the information and tools needed
to manage your account, identifying
the different trading platforms available to TD Ameritrade
clients, placing a basic stock trade on the TD Ameritrade
site, choosing an education path to increase your investing
knowledge, finding online support channels to give you
the help you need.
So what's next?
Log into tdameritrade.com and go to the Welcome Center
under the Client Services tab.
Watch the videos at the Welcome Center
to learn how to fund your account.
Then head over to the Education Center
and choose a learning pathway.