Canadian stocks and mutual funds - symbol troubles

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I'm a newbie to Fund Manager and have had my share of troubles trying to find the best way to handle historical and daily updates for Canadian stocks and mutual funds. I have a lot of data to enter and before embarking on that journey I would like to check my understanding with those of you who have already solved these problems. Any help you could give me would sure be appreciated - please do not be gentle with your advice!

Thanks, Phil

Here is my understanding, which I wrote in the form of 'instructions to myself':

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Daily price data on Canadian investments is retrieved from an Internet quote server; historical data is obtained from a different, 'Historical', Internet quote server. Yahoo and Stockwatch each have both daily and historical servers, but Yahoo uses different symbols than Stopwatch, so the choice of server has to be made before initially entering porfolio investment data. Which server do you choose?

The choice basically depends on your requirement for historical data. Only Yahoo Historical provides both historical price data and dividends and income trust distributions. The automatic (rather than manual) application of dividends and income trust distributions is the most efficient way to develop investment performance reports. The historical price data is useful for technical analysis.

So if historical data is important to you, use the Yahoo symbols, retrieve historical data from the Yahoo Historical quote server and daily data from the Yahoo quote server.

However, Yahoo cannot provide data for Canadian mutual funds. So Stockwatch symbols, and the Stockwatch servers, must be used for these investments.

How do you set up investments in your portfolio(s) accordingly?

Daily prices - all stocks: Yahoo

Provides daily prices for Canadian and US stocks, but not for Canadian mutual funds.

Use Yahoo symbols for all stocks (eg. XXX.TO for Canadian stocks, XXX-UN.TO for income trusts, and US symbols for stocks traded in the US).

Set the default quote server to Yahoo: 'Options/Internet Setting/Default Quote Server - Yahoo'.

Daily prices - Canadian mutual funds: Canada Stockwatch

Provides daily price updates for Canadian mutual funds.

Use the Canada Stockwatch symbols (eg SSI*CEF for Sprott Canadian Equity Fund) when entering Canadian mutual fund investments. Then change the quote server for this investment: 'R-click/Properties/Internet Retrieve/Quote Server - Canada Stockwatch'.

Historical prices - all stocks: Yahoo Historical

Provides dividends and income trust distributions for US and Canadian stocks (except for new TSE symbols like TEK-SVB.TO, see note below).

To periodically retrieve the historical information (eg. before analyzing Performance Reports) change the default server to Yahoo Historical: 'Options/Internet Setting/Default Quote Server - Yahoo Historical'; update all investments: PRC button on toolbar; when the update is complete reset the default quote server to Yahoo: 'Options/Internet Setting/Default Quote Server - Yahoo'. The investments will then reflect dividends and distributions for the period retrieved.

Note: Until Yahoo Historical learns to handle the new TSE symbols, manually update the historical data for each of these investments using Canada Stockwatch (only three months available): Change the symbol from Yahoo to Canada Stockwatch: 'R-click/Properties/General/Symbol - (eg. for Teck Cominco enter TEK.SV.B)'; change the quote server for this investment: 'R-click/Properties/Internet Retrieve/Quote Server - Canada Stockwatch 3M Historical'; update the historical data: 'R-click/Retrieve Selected Prices'; then change the symbol back to the Yahoo symbol and the quote server back to default. (This is all basically just a big pain in the neck!)

Historical prices - mutual funds: Canada Stockwatch 3M Historical

Provides historical price data for Canadian mutual funds.

To periodically retrieve the historical information (eg. before analyzing Performance Reports), for each Canadian mutual fund investment: Change the quote server: 'R-click/Properties/Internet Retrieve/Quote Server - Canada Stockwatch 3M Historical'; update the historical data: 'R-click/Retrieve Selected Prices'; then reset the default quote server to Canada Stockwatch. The investments will be updated with price data for the last three months.

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Replies:

• Re: Canadian stocks and mutual funds - symbol troubles Mark 14:00:08 02/11/05 (2)
  • Re: Canadian stocks and mutual funds - symbol troubles Phillip 23:29:25 02/11/05 (1)
    • Re: Canadian stocks and mutual funds - symbol troubles Mark 13:04:10 02/12/05 (0)