The TGI watchlist doesn't run itself. Here's what the infrastructure looks like, how the data flows, and what's available for you to use — all of it free, all of it built on daily proof of work.
Every day, the Data Entry sheet gets updated. The oldest ten positions in the watchlist — sorted by the date they were last refreshed — get pulled up on Seeking Alpha, and the following data points are entered for each one: 4-year average yield, dividend growth rates for 1, 3, 5, and 10 years, payout ratio, dividend amount, payment frequency, price growth for 1, 3, 5, and 10 years, and total return for 10 years (or 5 if the stock hasn't been public long enough).
That's ten stocks per day across a watchlist of over 900 positions — meaning the full list cycles through in roughly four months. But the cycle doesn't run evenly. A few times each month, the list is sorted by TGI score, HII score, and Balanced score, and the top ten by each ranking get updated out of order. The best-ranked stocks get more frequent data refreshes because those are the ones driving active buy decisions — for this portfolio and for a family member's accounts, every paycheck.
This has been running since 2019. The data is real, the updates are manual, and the methodology is tested against an actual portfolio every two weeks. That's what makes the rankings worth trusting.
The system is built on Google Sheets connected by reference formulas. Data enters in one place, calculations happen in another, and the ranked lists are the output. Nothing downstream is edited manually — if a score changes, it's because the underlying data changed.
The Data Entry and Calculated Rankings sheets are publicly viewable but not editable. The scored output flows automatically — no manual intervention between input and ranked result.
The AppSheet app is the best way to search the watchlist. It surfaces the full dataset — more data than either of the list files — in a format that works on any device. Search by ticker or company name, and see all three ranking scores alongside the underlying metrics that drive them.
Enter any ticker symbol or company name to see all five ranking scores — Total Growth, Healthy Income, Balanced, Price Growth, and Dividend Growth — alongside dividend growth rates, price growth, payout ratio, yield, and more.
This is the tool used in the community when someone asks "is this stock worth buying?" — a quick search shows exactly where it sits in the rankings and why. No spreadsheet required.
Open the App →The ranked watchlists are Google Sheets sorted by score — the cleanest view of which stocks are leading the rankings at any given time. Open one, sort by the column that matches your strategy, and you have a buy list.
Each list contains 673 stocks — a curated subset of the full 900+ stock dataset in the AppSheet app. The AppSheet contains everything; the lists contain the stocks worth tracking most closely.
Ranked by the Total Growth Investing score — dividend growth, price growth, and payout ratio combined. Best for investors focused on building portfolio value with a growing income stream over time. Lower score = higher priority.
Open TGI Watchlist →Ranked by the Healthy Income Investing score — dividend growth, price growth, and proximity to a ~4% yield target. Best for investors who need a meaningful income stream now, or who are approaching retirement.
Open HII Watchlist →Enter ticker symbols to see scores side by side. A simpler tool that predates the AppSheet app — useful for a quick snapshot comparison when you want to evaluate a short list of specific stocks.
Open Compare Rankings →The two foundational sheets — Data Entry and Calculated Rankings — are publicly viewable for anyone who wants to see how the sausage is made. You can see the raw data, the formulas, and how scores are calculated. You can't edit them, and that's intentional: a shared dataset that anyone could overwrite would be useless to everyone.
If you want to build your own version — your own criteria, your own formulas, your own list — these sheets are a reasonable starting point to study. That's what open source looks like in a Google Sheets context.
The raw input: every data point collected from Seeking Alpha for every stock on the watchlist. Dates show when each position was last updated. Sorted by oldest-first to drive the daily update workflow.
View Data Entry Sheet →Where the math happens. Reference formulas pull from Data Entry and compute the TGI, HII, and Balanced scores for every position. The ranked watchlists and AppSheet app draw their data from this sheet.
View Calculated Rankings →A portfolio tracker template modeled on the one used for this portfolio is available to community members who want to track their own holdings using TGI and HII scores. The template connects to the same ranked data and is structured to support the same buy-decision workflow.
What this means in practice: you get a copy of the template, configured for your accounts. Keeping it updated — entering trades, DRIP events, new positions — is your responsibility. The data in your portfolio is yours, and only you have access to it.
If you're interested, reach out through the community channels. The template is free. The work is yours.
The tools make more sense once you understand the strategy behind them.