When creating and managing your portfolio, you might want to determine the main revenue sources of the companies whose stocks you are willing to invest in. To do this, and to make sure your portfolio is properly diversified (or, on the contrary, sticks to a single field of industry), feel free to use industry classification available in several features of thinkorswim®. This classification complies with the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), allowing you to quickly identify where a specific stock is positioned on the industry map.
The highest level of the hierarchy is sector; as of September 2018, there are eleven of them. Sectors are broken into 67 industries. Finally, industries are divided into 156 sub-industries, which represent the lowest hierarchy level.
An example of industry classification: a symbol of a company in the Computer Hardware sub-industry will belong to the Computers & Peripherals industry and the Information Technology sector.
Where to find it:
1. Watch lists
You can add industry classification columns to a watch list to view the industries your instruments belong to. To do this:
- Access your watch list.
- Right-click a column header and select Customize. A dialog window will open.
- In the All columns section, select the desired classification columns (Sector, Industry, or Sub-Industry).
- Click Add.
- Click OK to save the changes and add the column(s) to the watch list.
Note that you can also view a watch list of instruments that belong to the same industry classification. To do that, click the watch list’s name, mouse over By industry, and select the desired sector, industry, and sub-industry.
2. Position Statement
You can add industry classification columns to your Position Statement interface:
- Click the gear icon to the right of the Position Statement section. A dialog window will open.
- In the All columns section, select the desired classification columns (Sector, Industry, or Sub-Industry).
- Click Add.
- Click OK to save the changes and add the column(s) to Position Statement.
Note that you can also group positions by sector by clicking the Show actions menu [ button and selecting Group symbols by > Sector.
3. Stock Hacker and Option Hacker
You can add industry classification columns to your search results in Stock Hacker or Option Hacker. To do this:
- Locate the Search Results section.
- Right-click a column header and select Customize. A dialog window will open.
- In the All columns section, select the desired classification columns (Sector, Industry, or Sub-Industry).
- Click Add.
- Click OK to save the changes and add the columns to the Search Results section.
To sort results by any of the classification items, click the header of the respective column. An up arrow indicates ascending order, and a down arrow descending order.
Note that you can use Stock or Option Hacker to filter results by classification. To do this, click Scan in, Intersect with, or Exclude, mouse over By industry, and select the desired sector, industry, or sub-industry.
4. Spread Hacker
You can filter Spread Hacker results by industry classification. To do this, click the Spreads for button, mouse over By industry, and select the desired sector, industry, or sub-industry.
5. Heat Map
When viewing a Heat Map for a watch list, you can restrict it to instruments that belong to the same sector, industry, or sub-industry. To do this, click the arrow button next to the name of the watch list you want to view. This will expand the list of sectors in the watch list. Likewise, clicking the arrows next to the sector names will expand lists of available industries.
Finally, to narrow the Heat Map to a specific sub-industry, click the arrow next to the corresponding industry and select the desired sub-industry from the expanded list. Note that a watch list contains a limited number of instruments, which means some classification items may not be included.
6. Fundamentals
The Fundamentals functionality enables you to research company fundamentals based on the industry they belong to. Clicking on any industry will display a list of instruments that belong to it. Select an instrument from the list to view its fundamentals.