Portfolio tracker columns are data metrics about your investments, and EquityStat just gave you two more to work with. You can now display the Ex Dividend Date and the Dividend Paid Date for every investment in your account, right alongside the rest of your holdings.
To add these columns to your portfolio, open the Options menu and choose Change Columns. A panel will drop down showing your Available Columns on one side and your Displayed Columns on the other. Find the column you want in the Available list, move it over to Displayed, and click Change. Your portfolio will refresh right away with the new metrics displaying in the portfolio grid.
These two additions join a long list of columns already built into EquityStat. Some show basic details about each investment, while others surface performance metrics you would otherwise have to calculate yourself. You can mix and match freely, adding or removing columns until your portfolio view matches exactly how you like to review your holdings.
The flexibility is really the point. No two investors track their portfolio the same way. Some want to display dividend information and others care more about cost basis or annualized return. Because EquityStat lets you reconfigure your columns whenever you want, your dashboard can shift along with your priorities instead of forcing you into one fixed layout.
Ex Dividend Date and Dividend Paid Date Columns
If you own dividend stocks, these two dates answer two very different questions. The Ex Dividend Date tells you the cutoff for owning a share and still qualifying for the upcoming payment. Buy after that date and you will have to wait for the next cycle. The Dividend Paid Date tells you when the dividend is paid, which matters if you are planning around cash flow or timing a reinvestment.
Having both sitting in your portfolio view means you no longer have to look them up one holding at a time on an outside site. You can scan down the column and see exactly where every position stands.
Other Popular Columns to Add
Ex Dividend Date and Dividend Paid Date are new, but there are other columns as well. Depending on how you like to evaluate your holdings, you might also bring in these columns.
- Cost basis, to see what you originally paid for each position
- Annualized return, to compare performance across investments held for different lengths of time
- Current yield, to gauge how much income a holding is generating relative to its price
- Unrealized gain or loss, to check where each position stands without having to sell first
None of these are required. They are simply available, and you can turn them on only if they fit how you already think about your portfolio.
How This Fits Into Tracking Your Dividend Income
Column customization pairs well with EquityStat’s Portfolio Analysis page, where you can already view dividends received over time, dividends year to date, dividends for the current quarter, and expected dividends, at either the account or the portfolio level. Adding Ex Dividend Date and Dividend Paid Date to your columns gives you the transaction level detail, while Portfolio Analysis gives you the bigger picture. Used together, they make it much easier to keep tabs on your dividend income from every angle.
Getting the Most Out of Your Column Settings
Since your column choices are not permanent, it is worth revisiting them every so often, especially after EquityStat adds something new. A quick trip to Options and Change Columns takes only a moment, and it can save you real time every single day you check your portfolio.
If you have not looked at your column settings in a while, it is worth a quick visit. You might find a metric sitting in the Available list that would save you a step every time you check your portfolio.