Friday, December 11, 2009

Portfolio Monitor Usage Instructions

Installation Instructions:

1. Copy the Portfolio Monitor.xls file to the c:\Program Files\Toteboard directory. If that directory does not exist, create it first.
2. Note: If you are not using the “SMF Lite” version, then the smf_addin.xla addin must be installed first. Refer to the smf_addin group at: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/smf_addin/ for directions on how to install the addin. (The PortfolioMonitorSMFLite.zip file does not require the SMF Addin.)

User Guide: The Portfolio Monitor should be so easy that you don’t need a user guide, which is why I’m trying to keep it all on 1 page.

Step 1: The first thing you’ll need to do is to determine whether you want to input each individual transaction, or just a summary of your holdings. If you want to input individual transactions then:
a. Go to the Setup worksheet, and click on the User Portfolio button.
b. Click on the “Use Portfolio Tracker” check box at the top of the data form.
c. Download and install the Portfolio Tracker workbook.
If you want to enter and maintain a summary of your holdings within the Portfolio monitor, follow the directions below:
a. Go to the Set up Worksheet.
b. Click the button to define your investment types: Upon clicking the button you should see an area of the worksheet where you can add your definition of Investment Types. The Investment Types that you define here are then going to be available to you when you define your portfolio, and when you view your holdings by Investment Type. You can define up to 20 different types of investments.
c. Once done with Investment types, click the button to define your Account List. This will be the list of the accounts that you want to track. For example, 401K, IRA, Personal, UGMA and so on. This account list will then be on your pick list when you define your own portfolio.
d. Once you define your Account List, click on the button to define your target allocations. You can either use the ones pre-defined within the workbook, or you can generate your own. These target allocations are used by the Holdings worksheet to compare to your actual holdings. The difference is then your variance or “drift” from your target.
e. Next, click on the User Portfolio button where you can begin to define the holdings in your Portfolio. (Note: This workbook uses Yahoo for its quote data, so ensure that you use symbols that Yahoo recognizes.) This shouldn’t be a problem for most common stocks and mutual funds, but for preferred stocks and options, you may need to be careful. For things like cash, real estate, or items that Yahoo does not provide a quote for, you can preface the symbol with an “*”, this will ensure that you will not get a match when the workbook tries to get data from Yahoo. Anyways, from here, you can:
1. Type your holdings directly into the worksheet.
2. Run the “Data Form” for data entry (you must use this if you are going to delete any of your holdings.) To use the form, click on the Data..Form menu option. (You’ll lose the referencing otherwise.)
3. Cut and paste your holdings from another spreadsheet or application. Note: There is validation turned on at the field level, so make sure the data you’re cutting and pasting conforms to the column headings.
f. Next, if you want to monitor a “public portfolio” in addition to your own private one, click on the “Public Portfolio” button where you can define various filters to construct your own. Once you select your filters, click on the “Update” button to build your symbol list. (Have a little patience, as depending on whether you are toggled to see your user defined list or not, it may go out to Yahoo and get all the data for your defined symbol list.)

Step 2: Click on the Portfolio Monitor worksheet, and view the results. You will get totals for columns N, O, and P, so if you want to see aggregate data like holdings or P&L for your portfolio, select those column headings in one of these 3 fields. The data that is displayed under the columns can be changed by clicking on the individual column headers. This should then display a drop down arrow that you can click on, which will then allow you to select another piece of data. Selecting the “Auto Update” checkbox will trigger automatic updates from Yahoo into your spreadsheet. These are currently triggered to be run every 10 minutes, and when anything in your symbol list changes. As in, adding a security to your portfolio, or defining a new Public Portfolio. Click on the “User Defined Portfolio” checkbox to toggle between your own portfolio and your Public Portfolio. Click on the down arrow in the “Links” list box to set the hyperlink value within the “Description” column. This will then allow you to link to the corresponding destination using the appropriate context of the security you click on. In other words, if you click on “International Business Machines” for Quotes (Yahoo) it will pull up IBM in a Yahoo quotes page. This is a very, very powerful feature.

Step 3: Click on the Portfolio Visualizer tab to get a visual display of your portfolio or selected Public Portfolio. Change the visualized item by clicking on the down arrow next to the “Item” list box. Change the lower and upper boundary to modify the display. Items above the upper boundary are green, items below the lower boundary are red, items in between the boundaries are white. Min, Max, median and average values are provided to help you construct your boundaries.

Step 4: For your user defined portfolio, click on the Holdings worksheet. This worksheet will then provide you with a “holdings” pie chart next to a “target allocation” pie chart. These charts will then change given what you select to plot in the “Allocation by” list box.

That’s it. Remember, resist the temptation to change your holdings on the Portfolio Monitor sheet, and do it on the Setup worksheet.

NOTE: With the introduction of the Portfolio Tracker workbook you can now monitor 3 different types of portfolios. First off, the publicly defined ones that you can define with various criteria (Country, Sector, Security type, etc.) Secondly, the user defined portfolio or watchlist within the Setup sheet., when you uncheck the “Use Portfolio Tracker” checkbox. Thirdly the user defined portfolio that is c

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