YTC, YTW, preferred stocks report

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

As I invest in bonds, I would very much like to see the calculation of the YTC (Yield to Call) and YTW (Yield to Worst) in the bond summary report.

I would also like to have some kind of a bond summary report for my preferred stocks to calculate the current yield, YTM, YTC, YTW, dividend rate, annual income, maturity date, first call date, frequency etc. for my preferred stocks. Because these preferred stocks act like some kind of bonds rather than as regular stocks, this would be a great addition to your software in my opinion.

Thanks, Silvan

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

Okay, understood, thanks for the feedback.

[silvan]

Thanks Mark,

By the way, I think you did a great job making your Fund Manager software and I like your support and quick responses!

Silvan

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

Any (expected) updates on these questions/wishes?

Thanks, Silvan

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

No update. Any new features like this wouldn't be included in the 2016 version, as new features are mostly only added to new major updates.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

Thanks, can we expect any major updates in the coming months with new features like this?

Regards, Silvan

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

We can't promise any certain features will get implemented. However, ideas/feedback from users is the primary factor in what gets added into new releases.

There won't be a major update for a while. We just released Fund Manager 2016 in October of 2015. I can't say for sure when the next major update will be, but a rough guide is probably 1.5 to 2 years from the last major update.

[Bruce]

(I'm still evaluating the pro version): I just spent the day entering existing bonds so I could evaluate this aspect. Later, I found this post. So ... question and observation:

question: I didn't see anywhere to enter the "call" date. Did I miss that?

observation: assuming I didn't miss that, just providing the call date as an entry field in one of your minor revisions would allow us to export the bond data to excel so we could do the calculations discussed above. It would also facilitate the creation of the more important (in my use) income generation risk analysis (threats to income stream via "calls" and "maturities"). Without that entry in the data export, I think I'll need to keep a second set of books for bonds. Particularly in this part of the economic cycle, analyzing against rising inflation and "calls" are a must.

observation 2: I wanted to say yet again that I find FM pretty easy and straight-forward to use. I spent months on one of your competitors. I never did get the bonds entered correctly. I'm sure their way is obvious to them. FM's way resonates with me. Thanks for that. I did small portfolio of 5 illiquid (no online data) bonds, a fund, and cash, and got a year of data entered (correctly!) in about 3 hours.

[Mark]

Hi Bruce,

There is no built-in "call date" field for bonds. You could however make use of Custom Investment Properties to track these. There are 10 user-defined fields you can use for investments. You control the data type and label. See "Options / Custom Investment Properties...". Set one of them to a data type of "Date", and give it a name like "Call Date". You can then record this for your bonds under "Investment Properties... / Custom". Custom investment properties can be displayed in a Custom report or in the Portfolio Editor window. Custom investment properties are also available for use in User-Defined Custom Report Fields.

Thanks for the feedback on ease of use, that is good to hear. We're always trying to make the program more intuitive and easier to use.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

It would be great if you could add the YTC and YTW calculations for bonds and the YTM, YTC and YTW calculations for preferred stocks (and baby bonds) in your next major update. I still have to make these calculations in Excel, which is a lot of work.

For fixed income investors it is very important to calculate the yields to the call dates of all your investments.

Just tracking these dates using the Custom Investment Properties is not enough, because you still have to make the calculations of the YTC (and YTM for preferred stocks) manually.

Thanks,

Silvan

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

Okay, thanks for the feedback. I agree these would be a good improvement.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

In addition, often there is a specific call price for the bond or preferred stock. A call price is the price at which a bond or a preferred stock can be redeemed by the issuer.

For example the first call date is 04/01/2019 at 107,875%. So you would also need the call price as an input for the calculation of the YTC.

I am looking forward to the next major update of the great FundManagerSoftware

Thanks, Silvan

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

Okay, makes sense, thanks for the help.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

I was hoping to see these features in the new FM 2018 release, but I don't see them in the list of new features...do I have to wait for the FM 2020 release?

Silvan

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

I'm sorry we weren't able to implement many of the requests you made. It doesn't mean we won't ever implement them, but I can't say for sure if/when they will be implemented. I try to never promise a feature, as I just don't know until it has been implemented. We keep a list of feature ideas, and there are many factors to consider when deciding which get implemented. Unfortunately we can't do all of them. As you can see from the list there were many things we did implement, but many of your bond related requests didn't get added unfortunately.