PROFESSIONAL vs. ADVISOR

[robert1]

Hi Mark,
I currently use the Professional version and I'm running close to the maximum number of investments. The next step up is the Advisor version, but I don't have any use for the Client Management Features it contains. Have you considered an enhanced Professional version that would allow for more investments , but without the Client Management features? I would like to upgrade, but the $1010 is sttep for me. I would appreciate your consideration of this,

Thanks!!
Robert

[Mark]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the feedback. I can understand wanting another step in-between these 2 versions. On the other hand, there is quite a bit of overhead for each version we offer. This is something we can consider.

[robert1]

Mark,
Understood. Please come up with more capacity without the Advisor Client features that i'm sure many of us dont need and I want to be your first upgrade customer to the new version!!

[dbender54]

I too began to see the message "maximum number of investments is currently open". I'm by no means a professional investor, and not an advisor, but now have (excluding the cash accounts) ~120 equities spread across my accounts. Not sure why I began to see this, as even prior to the market sell-off in Jan, I had some higher number of holdings (and didn't see the message).

Any further thoughts to something less than Advisor that would still provide me with the Professional version does (with a higher number of investments)?

If not, what is the impact on the reporting when we see this message. If I click not to abort the download of new transactions, they seem to download fine. What am I missing here?

[Mark]

Hi dbender54,

The Professional version has a limit of 2,000 investments. This investment limit is any open investment located in any sub-portfolio, whether or not you currently own shares in it or not. You can right mouse click on your Master Portfolio, and choose "Properties..." to see the total number of investments currently in use.

We will consider increasing this 2,000 limit in a future update. For now though, you would either need to close some old investments, move them to a new portfolio file, or upgrade to the Advisor version. You can have an unlimited number of portfolio files (*.mm4). Each portfolio file can have 2,000 investments. You can only have one portfolio file open at a time though, so it is usually the most convenient to only use a single portfolio file, but for this case you may consider breaking up your data into multiple portfolio files. You can use copy/paste to transfer sub-portfolios and investments across portfolio files. Use "File / Save Portfolio As..." to create a new portfolio file.

[dbender54]

When I right click on my portfolio at the top level (Master Portfolio) and choose Properties, it shows 500 investments. If I right click on each sub portfolio individually and add up the number of investments in each, the total is 660.

If I'm adding shares to an existing investment (same ticker, just more shares), this shouldn't count as an additional investment, though?

Seems I should be well under the 2000 maximum, so why do you suspect I receive this message?

I didn't see a response in your earlier reply about the message when downloading transactions if I choose not to abort the import-whether this has an impact (and what) on the portfolio reporting.

[dbender54]

Checking the import after the message, it is clear the transactions are not being imported into my portfolio, making the value of the program at this point, questionable.

[Mark]

Hi dbender54,

It doesn't sound like you are near the 2,000 investment limit. Are you sure you're using the Professional version, and not the Personal version when you get this message? What is the exact error message? 500 is the limit in the Personal version, it sounds like maybe you have the Personal version installed. Maybe you have multiple copies installed? See "Help / About..." in the copy of FM you're using when you get this error message.

Adding more shares to an existing investment doesn't increase your investment count.

If you run into the limit of the maximum number of investments, any transactions requiring new investments will not be able to be downloaded, so your data won't be complete.

[dbender54]

You are correct. I am running the personal edition, not professional. I am a bit puzzled that if the number of investments in the personal is limited to 500, that I seemingly ran into this problem in the last month or so, as I haven't had a massive increase in the number of transactions.

If I upgraded to the Professional version, would I need to install in the same or different directory as my current? If a different directory, is there a process to import my Personal edition investments/history?

I assume I'd be able to pick up the transactions that haven't been recorded since I began having this problem if I upgrade.

Since the personal edition is now at 12.8, will there be a new version (Professional) soon? I'd prefer not to buy an upgrade to the Pro version, then have to pay for an major version upgrade that might be forthcoming soon. Or, do you have a policy that if you buy/upgrade within a certain timeframe, the next major version is at no extra charge?

[Mark]

Hi dbender54,

The rate of your transactions is not necessarily the same as your total number of investments. Each time you have a transaction in a new security, a new investment is created. Even if you sell all your shares in an investment, as long as that investment is kept as part of your portfolio, it still counts towards your investment limit. You probably have just slowly been increasing your number of total investments, until you hit it recently.

You would just install the Professional version right over your Personal version. It will read in your same data files, without you doing anything.

Yes, you would then be able to retrieve all your missing transactions that needed to create new investments in order to be imported.

There is no scheduled release date for v13, but it will probably be in the first half of this year. If you purchase within 60 days of a new release, you get that new release for free.

[dbender54]

Thank you for the clarification on how the transactions are created/count against the limits of the application. Question though, if after using the program since version 8 ( I think?), am I going to run into a 2000 limit in a few more years? I can't imagine ever reaching 50k, but I'm at 622 now. Any consideration for increasing the 2k limit in the Professional version to something more than 2k, but way less than 50k would be something I'd like to suggest.

[dbender54]

Thank you for your help. I've ordered the upgrade to Professional.

[Mark]

Hi dbender54,

Thanks for the upgrade and feedback. Yes, you could run into the 2,000 limit. We are seriously considering increasing the limit for the Professional version though, so hopefully that will help eliminate this as a problem in the future.