I have recently created a simple share trading calculator which was created to help traders with making the decision of whether to proceed with a trade or not. It is quick and easy to use and I myself like to use it before proceeding with a trade to calculate whether or not I can make a decent profit out of it.
The spreadsheet is divided into 3 parts: the simple trade, dollar cost averaging and a hold or sell comparative analysis.
The first simply works out the proposed profit in dollar and percentage terms if you were to proceed with a trade. This way you can see whether your expectations make the trade worthwhile or if you need to raise your sights instead.
The second part is designed for the times in which a share you have purchased has dropped in price, and you wish to determine whether or not to use DCA based on your short-term expectations. It will tell you the proposed profit in dollar and percentage terms after you have entered in the new purchase price of the shares.
The third part is the hold/sell comparative analysis. This part is designed to reduce the amount of lost opportunities. Let’s say you buy 400 EXT shares at $8.50 each. Unfortunately they fall to your stop loss of $8.40, and you spot that STO shares are looking like a good buy at the moment sitting at $13.80. Your initial goal had been to sell EXT at $8.90 for a profit of $100.1 (2.89%) after brokerage. You are currently sitting at a loss of $99.9 (-2.89%) given the current market value. You can then use this spreadsheet to put the above figures in. Now let’s say you would expect to sell STO at $15.00 if you bought it. That is a $229.3 (6.63%) improved position from the EXT fall. If you were to ignore the stop loss, hold on to EXT and eventually sell at say $8.90 then that would be an improved position $200 (5.78%) after brokerage. If your expectations were correct then clearly in this case you would be better off selling EXT and buying STO.
So feel free to check it out and use it yourself if you find it useful. Happy trading!