Using custom fields

[dlapish]

Hi Mark,
It would be useful for me to display prices and investment value in both the base currency and default currency simultaneously on the Portfolio Editor view. It would make it easier for me to check back to my broker reports. Is this something I could use the Custom Investment Properties for? I know I can use Ctrl-X to toggle the currencies, but that's a lot of effort - right?

So, my default currency is Sterling but three of my sub-portfolios are in USD. Could I define Custom1 field to be price in dollars and Custom2 field as value in dollars so that when I select those columns in the Portfolio Editor they display the price and value in USD. So when Exchange Rate Adjusted is selected I would see the prices and valuation in both GBP and USD in one screen.

And can I do the same in 'user-defined custom reports field' for showing prices and valuation in both currencies on reports?

Thanks,
David

[Mark]

Hi David,

Unfortunately, no, you can't do this with the Custom Investment Properties... The Custom Investment properties are not something where you can write an equation. You must enter the value for these properties. For example, if there is some number (like maybe P/E ratio) that you want to remember for a given investment. You can't say, make this property equal to the current value and have that number automatically updated.

You can write equations for the user-defined custom report fields, but there is no function that allows you to write an equation to control the exchange rate display on a per-field basis. You could however, write an equation for calculating the price and value by multiplying the price/value by the exchange rate field. See:

Exchange Rate (ending)
Share price (ending)
Value (ending)

to write your own equations. For example, you can write this equation:

End_Exchange*End_NAV

and display your data without the exchange rate adjustment turned on. You can then see your price in the native currency by just displaying the built in price field, and also this user-defined field.