%Gain-F / Basic Points

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

One more feedback/request and I'll probably be quieter for a while after that.

I have some investments for several 10Y government bond yields, and I have created some spreads of these investments with the Create investment from investments command (for example 10Y Germany yield minus 10Y US treasury yield). Bond yields and yield spreads are useful for market analysis.

In the custom report I've created in order to follow the daily/weekly performance of the markets (indexes, currencies, and yields), the %Gain-F can return N.A., if the spread is negative.

%Gain-F is not really suited for yields and yield spreads. The Basis Point (BP) is used instead.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/basispoint.asp

What I would like to achieve is having in a unique column of the report the performance of the investments, depending of their type:
indexes, stocks, currencies..: %Gain-F
yields, yield spreads : basic points

Is there currently a possibility to achieve that? And if not, a possible evolution for a future update?

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

The %Gain-F is based on share price, and the change in share price over a date range. Instead, you're looking for interest rate metrics. You can enter the coupon rate for each investment under "Investment Properties... / Income". You can then report on that in a Custom report with "Coupon Rate". The coupon rate is fixed for an investment, so you can't do calculations on its change over time. I'm not clear on what you're asking for here. Maybe you could provide an example calculation you'd like to see.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

Sure, here are additional explanations:

The 10Y government bond yield for a country is basically like an index. The daily quotes can be downloaded/imported. For example:
for the US: http://quotes.wsj.com/bond/BX/TMUBMUSD10Y
for the Germany: http://quotes.wsj.com/bond/BX/TMBMKDE-10Y

These government yields are like indices, and they are monitored by the financial actors as important indicators.

There are multiple benefits to monitor these yields. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/i ... matter.asp

For example, when a country becomes more risky, its 10Y yield increases.
The spread between the 10Y government bond of two country has a big impact on the exchange rate too. For example: 10Y Germany yield minus 10Y US yield is highly correlated to EUR/USD exchange rate.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/f ... 041305.asp
Anyway, government bond yield analysis is a big topic.

So, basically the 10Y US yield (for example) is treated as an index in Fund Manager (an investment we don't invest in). But because the share price represent a yield (percentage) and not a value, Basic Point is more appropriated than %Gain-F to describe the performance of the share price for this type of investment. And especially with spreads, than can have negative values.

I hope that with this explanation the request in my first post will be clearer.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Thanks, I understand better. Currently there is no way to change how a field is calculated based off the investment type. We could create a new field that calculates differently based on the assigned type, or maybe add a new user-defined function that changes the calculation based on investment type. Another option would be to allow "Investment type" to be entered into an IF statement, changing the calculation based on type.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Actually, there is a way you could accomplish what you're looking for now by using a user-defined custom report field, and the custom investment properties. Instead of basing the calculation decision on investment type, it would be based off a custom investment property. Define a custom investment property to have the "Number" type under "Options / Custom Investment Properties...". You could assign this number to be different for your investments that you want to use a yield basis calculation. For example, set it to 100 for these yield investments, and set it to 0 for all others. Then, write a user-defined equation like:

IF(CIP_number < 100, PGainF_btw, NAVchange_btw)

where "CIP_number" is the name of the custom investment property you're using.

[Djobydjoba]

Thanks Mark, I will perhaps try this for now (changing the properties in bulk would be helpful here!)

I'm interested in this possibility to change how a field is calculated based off the investment type. No opinion on the several solutions you've mentioned... The fastest for the computer / report rendering?

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I've really only given you one solution to be able to do what you're describing with the current program. I'm sure if we designed a built-in field it would be faster than a user-defined field, but this user-defined field should be quite fast, and I don't think you'd really notice the difference in speed in this case.

[Djobydjoba]

No opinion on the several solutions you've mentioned here:

We could create a new field that calculates differently based on the assigned type, or maybe add a new user-defined function that changes the calculation based on investment type. Another option would be to allow "Investment type" to be entered into an IF statement, changing the calculation based on type.

Thanks for the solution for the current program!

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Just a quick update here... Fund Manager 2020 will have the ability to use Investment Type or displayed Currency as fields when defining user-defined Custom report fields.

[Djobydjoba]

Great news, thanks!