Welcome to Using the Portfolio Manager

 

The portfolio manager is used to make portfolios to follow the gains of losses for a group of stocks.  It is not meant to be a full portfolio manager like a brokerage account or  Quicken.  This makes the portfolio manager ideal for determining how various strategies are working real time such as how a search is working or how your current trading technique is working. 

 

Opening the Portfolio Manager

 

You can call up the portfolio manager by clicking "Main Menu" ==> "Components" ==> "Portfolio".

 

 

 

This will bring up the portfolio window.

 

 

The portfolios will continue to calculate even when the portfolio window is closed as long as the main program is running.

 

Creating a New Portfolio

 

Click Add New Portfolio to start a new portfolio.

 

 

This will bring up the New Portfolio Account Window. Type in the name of the portfolio, a description if you want to, and the starting cash in the portfolio.

 

 

Enter/Done - Click this to save and open your new portfolio.

 

Cancel  - Exit the window and do not create a new portfolio.

 

Clear - Keep the window open and clear all the entries.

 

Once you have created your portfolio, click on the portfolio name to activate the tabs or right click on the portfolio name for the right click menu

 

 

There are three options for a portfolio.

 

Delete Portfolio - This will delete the portfolio under the mouse when you right clicked and will delete all its trades.

 

Edit Portfolio - You can use this to edit the name, description, or starting amount of cash.

 

Add New Portfolio - This will create a new portfolio like we did in the above example.

 

Adding Trades to a Portfolio

 

Now that we have a portfolio created, we need to add some trades.  Right click on the name of the portfolio and select "Add Trade" or click on the portfolio to highlight and select "Add Trade" from the  toolbar at the top of the portfolio window.  This will bring up the Trade Editor.

 

 

Trade Type - Click the pull down arrow to get one of four choices.

 

  • Buy Shares Bought - This is used for buying shares on a new long position or closing a prior short position.
  • Sell Shares Sold - This is for selling shares from a prior long position or for opening a new short sell.
  • Cash In - Select this to add cash to the account.
  • Cash Out - Select this to withdraw cash from the account.

 

Transaction Date - This will be the time and date when you opened this editor.  You can change this by clicking the date and time and typing in new values or use the pull down arrow on the right to change the date with a calendar.

 

Symbol - The symbol of the security you are buying or selling.

 

#Shares - The number of share you are buying and selling.

 

Price - The price the shares were bought or sold at.

 

Commission - The commission for this trade.

 

Total Cost - This should be automatically calculated from the values you entered in.  If you chose Cash in or cash out, this is the amount of cash you are moving.

 

Memo - This is not required but you can enter a memo that will poop up as a tooltip when you hover the mouse over the trade.

 

Cancel - Exit the trade editor and do not create a new trade.

 

Clear - Clear all the fields in the trade editor and keep it open.

 

Enter/Done - Click this when all the information on the trade has been entered.

 

If you wish to delete or edit a trade right click on the trade your want to modify

 

 

Edit Trade - Bring up the trade window and edit the parts of the trade.

 

Delete Trade - Remove the trade form the portfolio

 

Add Trade - Another way to add a new trade to the portfolio.

 

Monitoring a Portfolio

 

Click on a portfolio name in the left part of the portfolio manager to activate its tabs

 

 

Transactions - This will list all the trades and cash in/out you have entered since the portfolio was created.

 

Holdings - This lists the total holdings in each stock and then lists at the bottom the current cash and gain/loss.

 

  • Symbol - The symbol of the security
  • Shares - the total number of shares being currently being held in the symbol.  If it is negative it means you are net short.
  • Initial Price - The average initial price of the current holding.
  • Last Price - The last price received from the data feed.
  • Value - The current value of the symbol, if it is negative it means you are short the issue.

 

At the bottom of the window are summary statistics.

 

  • Value - The total value of the portfolio
  • Profit/Loss - The dollar profit/loss of the portfolio
  • Percent P/L - the percent profit or loss on the portfolio.
  • Available Cash - The cash available for new trades.
  • Cash - The total of the available cash plus reserve cash from short sales.

 

Charts - Chart swill update once per hour while the program is up unless the update time is changed in  preferences.  You can change this value in "Preferences" ==> "Portfolio" ==> "Portfolio History Update Interval".

 

Total Value Chart - This chart tracks the total value of the portfolio over time. 

 

 

Profit Chart - This charts tracks the percent gain or loss on the portfolio.

 

 

Allocation Chart - This chart show how much of your assets are in cash and how much is invested.

 

 

Holdings Chart - This Chart shows the dollar holdings of each issue.