How to audit transfer in/transfer out

[flight]

Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size

[Mark]

Hi flight,

Which mail server rejected it? Yours? If so, you might try sending it from another account, like a gmail account. You can send up to 25MB files using gmail. You could also zip the file if it is over 25 MB. If you aren't able to send it, you can call the office next week and we can help you email it to us.

[flight]

server plato.junkemailfilter.com

I will try gmail or something else

[Mark]

Hi flight,

I received the file, thank you. The reason is accrued interest. You can optionally include accrued interest in your yield calculations. When you include accrued interest this is factored into both the beginning and ending values. If you run a Custom report for Oct 2009 with these fields:

Value (beginning)
Accrued interest (beginning)
Value (ending)
Accrued interest (ending)
Time-weighted return (between)

You will see that if you add the beginning value/interest this is the BMVi, and if you add the ending value/interest, this is the EMVi. Your sample data had $311 of accrued interest at the beginning, thus the difference in the market value and the BMVi value you observed. You can turn on/off the inclusion of accrued interest in your yield calculations at "Options / General Preferences... / Yields / Include Accrued Interest in Yield Calculations".

[flight]

I am closing the loop on this message string that I originally started.

After spending many hours "auditing" my returns (which I define as reviewing/questioning/checking) -- probably 10-15 hours -- I uncovered quite of few instances of inaccurate data (transactions, prices, etc) in my FM.

This was well worth the time as I certainly learned a lot about using the program and now know how to spot and resolve performance calculation problems.

And the good news is I uncovered an additional 15% of portfolio performance over a 6 year period, or about 2.5% annual boost to my returns.

So, special thanks to Mark for his help and being patient.

The main culprit was the Transfer In/Out function, in conjunction with prices on the dates of the transfers.

And just to pass along, an easy way to "audit" your returns -- beyond checking the external in/outs for the account - is to put the monthly Portfolio Values into excel and calculate the % change from month to month. In periods where you have a cash deposit/withdrawal, you can make an adjustment to the ending value. When you don't have a deposit/withdrawal, the returns should match FM to the decimal point. When you do have cash flows, they will not match perfectly obviously but represent a quick logic check to verify accuracy of TWR in FM. When there is different of 50 basis points or more, I would investigate.