Opening 'closed' stocks...

[Gillyches]

I had some stocks and sold them and so 'closed' the stock on my list.

A few months down the line and I've reconsidered and bought back in... except now I can't see that stock on the list. Is there a way of opening up closed stocks, please? I can't find how to reverse this action.

Thank you

[Mark]

Hi Gillyches,

Use the Portfolio Editor. Right mouse click on the sub-portfolio where you want to re-open the investment, and choose "Open Investment(s)...". You'll have to go find the *.dat filename of the investment you want to open.

Usually it is best to "hide" an investment you no longer own, instead of closing it. Hiding just removes it from the display, but keeps it in your historical records. See our tutorial on hiding investments.

[Gillyches]

Thank you, Mark... that's great advice.

Gill

[JeanneMarie]

Use the Portfolio Editor. Right mouse click on the sub-portfolio where you want to re-open the investment, and choose "Open Investment(s)...". You'll have to go find the *.dat filename of the investment you want to open.

When I right click on a single account/sub-portfolio and click OPEN INVESTMENT(S), I don't get only the investments in that account. I get all the investments in the entire master portfolio of four accounts. Is it possible to zero-in on a subset of *.dat files for one account?

I can see that many files have the account number as part of the name. But not all. In the account I want to zero-in on, 18 out of 20 files do. It would be sooooo helpful if they all did. Or if FM set up sub-directories for files in different sub-portfolios.

As it is, I've got a pretty large directory of files, some with unfriendly names. They are unfriendly because two of four accounts have a lot of CDs and bonds, and those file names are a compilation of CUSIP + account number. Sorting through that looking for a few closed positions is a bummer and that is compounded when I'm looking at all positions in four accounts instead of just one account. ("autoname_1.dat" just makes this worse. Why would that happen?)

Altho I finally get why I shouldn't close an investment thanks to your stalwart efforts, the fact is that you still have the functionality. If you are going to keep the functionality, some flag would be very welcome. (Auto change the name? the extension? auto move into a subdirectory? something?)

Thanks for listening,
Jeanne

[Mark]

Hi Jeanne,

When using the "Open Investments..." dialog you're just getting a listing of all your *.dat investment files to choose from. This isn't a list specific to what is in the sub-portfolio now (those are already open). You control the filenames of your investments, although usually you never really need to worry or see the actual filenames. If you manually create a new investment, you are prompted for the filename to use. If you have FM automatically create new investments as needed when retrieving or importing, there are a set of options that allow you to control how the files are named. See the "New Investment Options..." button next to the "Create New Investments As Needed" option in the retrieve or import dialog. The default these days is:

<Symbol>_<Account #>.dat

but it used to be just:

<Symbol>.dat

before this new naming convention option was added.

The filename "autoname" was used when there was no symbol. Also, if there is a filename conflict and a new filename is needed, numbers are added to the end.

If you're not sure of the filename you want to open, you might want to create a new empty sub-portfolio (for example: TempPortfolio), and open a bunch into there. This way you can look at the properties/transactions/etc and decide which one(s) you want. You can then drag/drop them to the desired sub-portfolio, and when you're done, close this temporary holding sub-portfolio (TempPortfolio) and any investments you didn't want to place somewhere else.

[JeanneMarie]

Thanks for some very helpful info. Obviously, some things have flown right by me. I'll try to do better.