Same Security in different portfolios

[spogoli89]

I have various portfolios at different brokerage houses. Some portfolios contain different amounts of the same security. I.e 100 Shares of IBM in portfolio A. 250 shares of IBM in portfolio B. 100 shares of AAPL in portfolio B and 150 shares in Portfolio C.
In Fund Manager it seems that for each portfolio I have to create a separate Investment of IBM which is saved with different name. I.e IBM.dat for shares in Portfolio A and IBM2.dat for shares in Portfolio B.
The consequence of this is that each time I want to add IBM to a portfolio I have to create a new investment called IBM which is time consuming and prone to error as there are complex setting for each investment.
The second inconvenience is that when I want to create a Report that aggregates all my investments irrespective of the porfolio they are in, so that I can have snapshot of how many IBM or AAPL I own in aggregate FM considers each IBM and AAPL investment in different portfolio as different security so does not aggregate.
Surely that does not make sense and someone must know a way to quickly include existing investments in other portfolios and allow them to be aggregated.
I Cannot beleive that smart developers have not thought of this.
Please can anyone help ?
Many Thanks

[Mark]

Hello spogoli89,

You are correct that you need a separate investment file for each holding, so that the transactions are kept separate. It would be good to make this simpler and less error prone, especially when you already have an existing investment with the same symbol. Maybe we could make the symbol field a drop-down, and if you select an existing symbol we could auto-fill the rest of the properties in the dialog.

You can get an aggregate of all your IBM by creating a report that "Lists By" "Symbol", instead of listing by "Investment". Notice in the Report Settings dialog the "List By" drop-down choice. If you choose "Symbol", all investments with the same symbol will be combined into a single line item.

Also, if you want, you can still list by investment, and filter by symbol. With this method you will get a line item for each investment, but only investments with the specified symbol will be listed. This can also be useful sometimes.

[spogoli89]

Thank you.
It would be very helpful to have a drop down menu so that one can enter a symbol only once and avoid error entry for multiple symbols.
I have tried creating a report listing by Symbol and indeed it does work. The problem though is that if I list by symbol then can not use the very useful filters as function is disabled.
Also if I want to do a report on master portfolio and have subtotals by asset class there is no ability to list by symbol. In this case if I want to aggregate all my portfolios and have subtotals by asset (bonds equities etc) I get many IBM listings in the equity list instead of what would be useful which is an aggregation of each position.
Having tried many programs I do like yours but I find the limited ability to aggregate same investments in different portfolio a big limitation especially for people that have many accounts or advisors who have many clients.
As you know Microsoft Money is no longer in the market and there are many people such as me looking for a new home for their portfolio software. I think your business would benefit from this enhancement.
Many Thanks

[spogoli89]

Also if one lists by symbol there is not the ability to add a column with instrument name in the reports. As you know symbols often difficult to remember would be useful to have name of investment next to the symbol.
Thanks

[Mark]

Hi spogoli89,

Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully we can make improvements in these areas.

[nismith]

I understand you must keep separate data file for same security in different portfolios.

You use the example of IBM and IBM1 and IBM2. However this gives no indication in which portfolio the data actually belongs. I went in and renamed the datafile to include the initials of the relevant portfolio but it is a slightly clumsy process.

Could I instead just put the initials in the description field and if I restore to the wrong folder instantly recognize it and drag and drop to the right folio?

I may say I have more than once closed all the investments and had to reassemble the portfolios

Nigel

[Mark]

Hi Nigel,

Yes, you could do that. Also, in the just released version 12 we changed the default investment file naming methodology. Previously, the default filename was <symbol>.dat. Now, it is <symbol>_<account #>.dat, so that it is easier to see where a particular investment belongs.

You can rename an existing investment's filename from within Fund Manager by selecting it in the Portfolio Editor, and choosing "File / Save Investments As...". It is better to rename them from within Fund Manager than using Windows. If you use Windows, Fund Manager would not know which investments to include in each sub-portfolio the next time you open it.

[mkappa74]

I think that the entire system could be revised.
I mean that could be better to have one single file (or database location) for investments, where all data related to that specific investment are registered (type, composition, ecc. ecc. )
There are many data/inor related to investments that are account indipendent.
Then you can have other files related to accounts: every account has special "relationship" with investments (buy, sell, transaction etc...)
I think this could be a solution. And this limits potential errors.
Marcello

[Djobydjoba]

Hello,

The way I've found to manage the investment files: I've created the same folders tree in my hard disk that in the sub-portfolio tree in FM.

Much simpler I think. Pros:
- Different investments files of a same security can have the same name (because they are in different folders)
- Simpler (IMO) when I want to reorganize my sub-portfolio tree. Just close the investments in FM, reorganize (in the hard disk first, then in FM), reopen the investments from each hard disk folder in their respective sub-portfolio.
- In graphs and reports, Windows paths are displayed in the status bar when the cursor is on a report or graph line. So I know immediately in which sub-portfolio it belongs.

Cons :
Some operations in FM are not designed for this. IE: Backup/Restore (the restore puts all the investments in the same folder), Portable mode...

Just curious what Mark thinks of such an organization. I've always be surprised that nobody in the forum seems to work like this.

Sorry my English is poor,
Regards

[Mark]

Hi Marcello,

I agree with you, it would be better structured where common information (pricing, symbol, investment type) are stored once, in a common location, rather than with each investment, which must be duplicated for each account holding that investment. This is something we've been hoping to improve for a while, but haven't yet unfortunately.

Hi Djobydjoba,

I like that approach, and I know others use this method as well. I think the reason most people don't use it though is because of the extra work/maintenance. It is easier to just dump all your data files into a single folder. Using this method will also still work with the new portable/cloud mode. In that mode your data files can still be in multiple folders, they just need to be under the same directory as the program. For example, if you install Fund Manager to:

E:\Fund Manager

You can put all your data under:

E:\Fund Manager\Data

and have multiple folders underneath the Data folder where you organize your investment files as you've described.

[Djobydjoba]

Using this method will also still work with the new portable/cloud mode. In that mode your data files can still be in multiple folders, they just need to be under the same directory as the program.

Haven't tested portable mode yet. Good news !

Thanks.