Personal vs. Professional versions limits

[tvalley]

Hello & Merry Christmas Eve to all!

I have searched the forums, and I am still confused as to what the investment and portfolio limits are in the two versions, and which one I should purchase. I am an active swing trader. I seldom have more than 25 or so active positions at any one time. Does this mean that I can easily get away with the personal version? Or is an investment anything that you have bought and sold in the past, in which case I might go through 10-20 "investments" in just a week? And the limits on Portfolios - can I use additional portfolios (i.e. one for each month, quarter, whatever) to help out with the investment limit per portfolio? I'm just very confused here, I don't have a problem laying out the $$ for the professional version if I need it, but I don't want to buy it if it's just gross overkill either.

Also, am I correct in assuming there are no other differences in the two versions other than the database limits?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

Alan Salls
Temecula, CA
alan@tvalley.com

[Mark]

Hi Alan,

There are other differences, besides just the number of investments you can track. See the version comparison table here:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/versions.html

Scroll down to see the "Advanced Trading/Analysis Features" section.

The 500 or 2,000 investment limit is per security. You can have an unlimited number of transactions, but only the 500 or 2,000 open investments. If you buy something, and then sell it, that still counts towards the investment limit. You could "close" the investment and that removes it from your portfolio, but it will no longer be included in any historical performance calculations or anything once closed. Usually it is recommended to keep the investment open, but hidden if you no longer own it. This way you have a historical record, and it is included in any historical portfolio based performance figures.

You can have multiple portfolio files (*.mm4). You can only have one portfolio file open in Fund Manager at a time. Each portfolio file remembers which investments to open, so you could have an unlimited number of investments and portfolio files, but just have the 500/2,000 open at one time. The most common usage model is to just have a single portfolio file though, and keep all your investments in that one portfolio file. If you want to do the multiple portfolio files, and dedicate one per month or whatever works for you, you can definitely do that, and just realize that any performance reporting would need to be limited to that time period for the open portfolio/investments.

If you end up buying the same security multiple times it isn't necessary to create a new investment each time. You can enter as many transactions per investment as you want.