Trader Workstation is the stock trading software of Interactive Brokers, my online stock broker. While I was stock trading yesterday, I video recorded the order management window for about half a minute to show you how a portfolio looks like while trading. The order management window of the trading software includes all stocks and currency pairs I had traded, showing long and short orders, bid and ask stock prices and most importantly the number of shares and P/L of each instrument. A stock trader is also able to watch the overall P/L of the day trading either stocks or forex.

During the video, I had the time and date window pop up so that you can check out how stock prices refresh in real-time and also that the video is real! According to the Interactive Brokers trading software, I was long at INTC stock and FCX stock at that moment while I had shorted all other stocks, indicated by the first red cell sorted under Position column. I also held short positions at currency trading, particular at EUR/USD and GBP/USD. The remaining instruments were 6 more US stocks and USD/JPY. Next important columns are P/L, the unrealized P/L and the Realized P/L, depending on whether I had traded out or not in the previous trades.

The video shows that at that moment I had made 9,300JPY (about $80), I had lost $109 in the completed trades, and I was making around $500 in my open trades. Notice how the stock prices and P/L fluctuate during the video.

Interactive Brokers’ trading software includes a lot more windows, charts and features, but this window is one of the most useful and important in my day trading routine. My investment advice is to detach such a window from your own online stock trading software, so that you keep an eye on your portfolio and always be alert of any sudden price drop or rise. You don’t have to watch tens of charts at once, just a quick glance at the order management window will show you in a second what you should do.