PCRA Getting Started
Transcript of the video:
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How to research, monitor and trade with PCRA
Gentle music plays throughout.
Someone opens a dresser drawer and pulls out a piece of clothing. In a kitchen, a woman wearing a robe reaches for a mug, fills it with coffee, and takes a sip.
Narrator [off-screen]: When you have more choices, you have more freedom with your decisions. That's one of the great things about having a Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account, or PCRA.
The woman, now dressed and with her hair in a ponytail, sits on a couch, using a laptop; a dog sits next to her.
Narrator: As you already know, your PCRA gives you an expanded list of investment choices, including $0 commissions on online listed stocks, ETFs, and base options—allowing you to build the retirement plan you want. Now we're going to show you how to use PCRA to make the most of your efforts.
The web page the woman is viewing rises above the laptop to reveal it's her personal Schwab dashboard. The page enlarges to fill the screen, showing metrics of the woman's personal accounts at Schwab. From the top navigation bar, under "Accounts," "Balances" is selected. From there, the narrated instructions are followed, revealing the different details of the woman's PCRA account.
Narrator: Let's start by logging in to your account at Schwab.com. You'll see your entire relationship with Schwab on the summary screen. From there, you can launch into your PCRA account. Go ahead and click the "Balances" tab. This will show you your account balances for a selected period and give you a detailed view of cash available to trade or withdraw back to your core retirement plan. Okay, now—let's get into the fun stuff.
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Chapter 1
How to research
A man and a woman lounge on couches in a living room. The man has a laptop in his lap, while the woman reads a book. The web page the man is viewing rises into view.
Narrator: If you love to do your research before you make decisions, PCRA comes with lots of resources to help you out. Let's take a look at what they are and how you can use them.
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Schwab Select Lists and Stock Lists
From the man’s personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: A good place to start is Schwab Select Lists for ETFs and mutual funds and Schwab Stock Lists for stocks. Let's look at one example. Click the "Research" tab, then "Exchange Traded Products," then "Select List." Here you can find expert-selected, commission-free listed ETFs to add to your portfolio. You can also screen your choices yourself using our online screener tools, like for identifying socially responsible investment funds.
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Schwab online screener tools
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Click the "Research" tab, then the type of investment, like "Stocks," then click "Screeners." You can use our predefined screens or input your own criteria. The custom screens you create can be saved and rerun at any time.
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Schwab Equity Ratings
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Schwab Equity Ratings can help you narrow your search even further. Click the "Research" tab; then, under "Stocks," click "Schwab Equity Ratings® Performance." Schwab Equity Ratings provides ratings for approximately 3,000 U.S. stocks and 4,000 international stocks each week. Use these ratings to help you decide whether you want to buy, sell, or hold a particular stock. Ratings of A through F make it easy to identify stocks that may outperform or underperform the market in the next 12 months. Lists of rated stocks can be found at schwab.com/schwabequityratings.
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Lists of rated stocks can be found at schwab.com/schwabequityratings.
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Chapter 2
How to trade
A woman wearing a button-front shirt works on a laptop. From her personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Ready to take action? If you're still logged in, click "Trade," then select the type of investment you want to trade, or click "All-In-One" to trade multiple types of securities at the same time. Enter the security information, such as symbol; the action you want to take; share quantity; and order type. Then click "Review Order" and complete the other two steps: "Verify Order" and "Order Received." If you want to follow a specific stock before you trade it, click "Watchlist" and then "Create List." Click on "Show positions for account," or enter the ticker symbol to begin. You can review the watchlist based on various criteria, including analyst ratings, price performance, and valuation ratio.
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Trading Tools
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Not really sure what you want to trade? We have tools for helping you figure that out. Click the "Trade" tab, then "Trading Tools." Here you can find helpful trading educational materials and information on trading platforms.
If you're looking for a good place to start trading, go to "Trade Source." It's like your trading command center. Let's look at some of the features. The "Portfolio" tab shows your account balances, positions, news, and more. The "Markets" tab provides various market information, including data on global indices, stock market updates, and heat map views of the market based on criteria you set. The "Ideas" tab is where you can find stocks based on specific trade strategies you can screen. As you can see, Trade Source gives you virtually everything you need in one dashboard.
Your plan may also allow you to work with your own investment advisor. Talk with the plan administrator to find out what your options are.
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Your plan may also allow you to work with your own investment advisor. Talk with the plan administrator to find out what your options are.
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Automatic Investing
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: As you begin thinking through trade ideas, you'll want to plan out your investing strategy. If you'd like to use dollar-cost averaging as part of your strategy, our Automatic Investment Plan can help you with that. Click "Trade" in the top menu bar, then "Mutual Funds," and select "Automatic Investing." You can make regular investments of $100 or more in a fund that qualifies for the investments from Schwab's Mutual Fund OneSource® service. To enroll a qualifying mutual fund, click "How to Get Started" in the "Automatic Investing" tab.
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Stock Slices
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: If you're looking for a low-cost way to invest, you can try Schwab Stock Slices™. Click "Products," then "Investment Products." Then, select "Schwab Stock Slices™" from the list of options. This trading option lets you purchase shares in America's leading companies in the S&P 500® for as little as $5 each, even if their shares cost more. Purchase a single stock slice or up to 10 different stock slices at once, commission-free, online.
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Chapter 3
How to monitor
A man wearing glasses is sitting outside and working on a laptop. The man's screen enlarges to display the Asset Allocation part of his dashboard. The specifics of his asset allocations appear in pie charts.
Narrator: Once you start buying and selling securities with your PCRA, you'll want to monitor your investments to make sure you're on track for what you want to achieve. Let's look at some helpful ways to do that.
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Schwab Portfolio Checkup
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Want an easy way to evaluate your portfolio performance? Subscribe to the Schwab Portfolio Checkup. Click "Accounts" then "Portfolio Performance." This tool analyzes your portfolio to make sure your target asset allocation matches with the goals you set.
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Positions and history
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: To see where you stand and review past performance of your investments, first click "Accounts" in the menu bar, and then click "Positions," then "Settings." You can customize your settings by selecting what you would like to see in your Positions report. Click "Apply" to save any changes you make. Now click "History." Here you can get detailed transaction history of your selected accounts and review realized gain/loss information. Click the "View Unrealized Gain/Loss" link to switch your view to the unrealized gain/loss data.
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Gain/Loss Analyzer
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Speaking of gain/loss data, a helpful monitoring tool is the Gain/Loss Analyzer, which can be found in Trade Source. Click "Trade" in the menu bar, then click "Trade Source." Then, look for "Gain/Loss Analyzer." This view lets you evaluate the gain/loss performance of your stock and ETF trades over a given timeframe. You can view and interact with a more graphical representation of transaction details with the bubble chart.
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Alerts and portfolio security
From a Schwab client's personal account page, the narrated instructions are followed.
Narrator: Staying on top of activity within your account can be a little easier to do if you know when it happens. Under "Service" in the menu bar, click "Alerts." Here you can set up the types of information you want to be notified about. Just make your selections and click the "Update" button to confirm. You can even set up how you want to be notified. Click "Edit Delivery Options." Make your edits and click "Submit" to confirm your changes.
It's important to note that Schwab takes account security very seriously, and our security measures are designed to keep your personal information safe. You can learn more at schwab.com/schwabsafe.
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Our security measures are designed to keep your personal information safe. You can learn more at schwab.com/schwabsafe.
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Chapter 4
How to go Mobile
A man with a gray beard and holding a coffee walks down a street, smiling down at his phone. The content the phone is displaying appears next to the man—details of his account activity that he is viewing via the mobile app.
Narrator: A lot of what you can do on your desktop, you can do on your mobile devices. Download the Schwab Mobile App, available through the Google Play Store and Apple Store, so you can manage your PCRA and stay on top of your portfolio while you're out and about. With the app, you can make trades, view market data in real time, set up watchlists, get breaking news, and monitor specific orders and positions with tools optimized for mobile. You also have quick access to more commonly used features, such as Personal Performance and History—all right on your device.
The man with the beard continues to walk down the street and smile down at his phone.
Narrator; So, that's it. Now you have a small taste of what's available to you with your PCRA.
Hey, everyone loves having choices. We hope you're now more excited than ever about decisions you get to make with yours. You can reach out to your company's plan administrator for help, or call us at 1-888-393-7272. Learning workshops can also help; visit Schwab.com to find one near you.
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Call 1-888-393-7272 for assistance 24/7.
PCRA Registered Representatives are available Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m. ET.
Visit Schwab.com for more information
The Charles Schwab logo appears. Schwab brand music plays.
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Own your tomorrow®