thinkTank: Exchange-Traded Funds Analysis, SMA Stock Chart, and Stock Symbol Lookup

Use thinkorswim to analyze exchange-traded funds, find stocks that are trading above a 200-, 100-, or 50-day simple moving average, and look up stock symbols quickly.

From exchange-traded funds, to checking on an index, to a quick symbol lookup, the thinkorswim® platform from TD Ameritrade has many useful nuggets to help you analyze the markets.

Fundamentals: Breaking it Down

With so many exchange-traded funds (ETFs) out there, the trick is to find some that may meet your goals. One way to get started is to find out which stocks make up an ETF using this feature available on thinkorswim:

  1. Select the Analyze tab.
  2. Select Fundamentals. Under Exchanged-Traded Funds, select State Street Global Advisors and then any of the listed ETFs.
  3. You’ll see an overview that shows the current price, a basic, long-term chart of highs and lows, plus other details such as the number of holdings, NAV, dividend yield, and so on.

Below the Overview section is the Industries overview, which lists the different sectors the fund includes and the percentage allocation of each of those sectors (see figure1). Next to that are the Top 20 Holdings in Industry. So if you select a sector, such as Consumer Discretionary, the holdings in that specific industry will be listed on the right. You’ll find data such as weighting percentage, number of shares, average cost, net liquidity, and other info. 

Stocks Trading Above a Moving Average: Market Internals

The S&P 500 Index (SPX) may be up or down, but that doesn’t really tell you what the stocks that make up the index are doing. You could check how many stocks are trading above their 50-, 100-, or 200-day simple moving average (SMA). Here’s how.

On the thinkorswim platform, select the Charts tab and put in any of these symbols (see figure 2). 

  • $SPXA50R to find what percentage of S&P 500 companies are trading above their 50-day SMA
  • $SPXA100R to find out what percentage of S&P 500 companies are trading above their 100-day SMA
  • $SPXA200R to find out what percentage of S&P 500 companies are trading above their 200-day SMA
A Shortcut: Symbol Lookup

It’s impossible to remember every single symbol for equities, mutual funds, ETFs, or futures. There’s a quick and easy way to look them up on thinkorswim (see figure 3).

  1. From any symbol box in the thinkorswim platform, enter a question mark “?”
  2. Select Lookup.
  3. Input the company name, fund name, fund family, or some other clue and a list of matches will populate below. 
  4. Select the one you want and voila!