a method and apparatus for monitoring a items such as stocks and other securities , suitable for use in portable devices , such as personal organizes , wherein instead of separate watch lists , a pool of items being watched is maintained , and the total number of items which can be contained in the pool is intentionally limited to a predefined number , and further wherein each of the items in the pool includes an associated tag which defines a watch list to which it belongs , and the pool of the items being watched can be viewed simultaneously as one coherent collection , or specific watch lists can be displayed .