A basket is essentially a watchlist — a collection of securities that you monitor for trade ideas or investment opportunities. You may be asking, “So, how is a TradeSmith basket different from a TradeSmith portfolio?”

The key distinction is purpose:

• A basket lets you track hundreds of securities based on specific criteria, such as sectors, markets, or technical and fundamental filters. It’s designed for broad monitoring and idea generation, not for tracking performance or setting alerts.
• A portfolio, on the other hand, is where you actively manage your positions, monitor performance, and set up alerts.

In short, baskets are for exploration and research, while portfolios are for management and action.

To access your baskets, navigate to the Baskets page in the top navigation header.

The Baskets page is broken up into two categories: My Baskets and TradeSmith Baskets.

The “My Baskets” are baskets you create by manually adding tickers or pulling from sources such as your newsletters, model portfolios, or saved screeners.

The “TradeSmith Baskets” are system baskets that TradeSmith created to help you track specific categories of securities with pre-built filters.

When selecting one or more of your baskets or TradeSmith baskets, a pop-up menu will appear at the bottom of the screen. This menu allows you to delete or run the Pure Quant or Screener tools for the selected baskets. Please note that your tool availability may vary depending on your TradeSmith subscription.

Clicking the blue drop-down menu next to one of your baskets (not available with the TradeSmith baskets), you can edit your basket name and add a description.

To create a new basket, click the green Add Basket button located at the upper left of the page. You can also make a basket by importing from a CSV document.

From here, start by naming your basket and adding a description if you want to keep track of why you created the basket. Next, select the asset type (stock, cryptocurrency, or option) and enter your tickers. After you enter the first ticker, a second line will populate, allowing you to enter multiple tickers.

You can also add a source from which to pull your basket tickers by selecting from your active newsletters, model portfolios, and saved screeners that pertain to our Screener tools.

When you are ready, hit the Save button.

To view your tickers, click on the basket name. The page provides numerous column headers of information that you can tailor to make it your own based on the data that is most important to you. Similar to your Position Views, you can edit your Basket Views.

To edit the Default View, click the white edit pencil icon. You can also create a new view by clicking the “Add View” link from the drop-down triangle.

Please note that you will not be able to edit the column headers for the System View, which are the views created for each individual TradeSmith basket.

You will see numerous TradeSmith indicators, general, fundamental, and performance-based metrics you can check to include in your basket views. You can then click and drag the grey headers and rearrange their order. When you are ready, hit the Save button.

The Remove All button clears the board, allowing you to start over by clicking on your basket views.

Note: The above screenshot may not accurately represent your available basket views, as this is dependent on your TradeSmith subscriptions. Additionally, TradeSmith continues to enhance its features, so this list may not be exhaustive of all available views.

And that’s all there is to using the Baskets tool. Now it’s your turn — start creating your own baskets to uncover and track new opportunities with ease.

*Note – The tabs and features you see on your TradeSmith Finance site will vary based on subscription(s) and subscription level(s).  Pictures in our Education Center articles are taken from a TradeSmith Platinum account.