Re: Suggestions for improvement

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In Reply to: Re: Suggestions for improvement posted by Mark on May 30, 2002 at 22:19:51:

: : I would like to suggest what I believe would be enhancements for a future release:
: : 1. 'Portfolio value' should be available as a report. I mean here the total portfolio value as it changes from day to day. Currently, it appears the only way to access this numerical information is via export.
: : 2. The export format for 'portfolio value' (as per above) is too rigid. In fact it is set in stone. A more flexible option would be helpful.
: : 3. For greater ease of investment comparison when using 'gain' graphs, I would like the option of being able to use a Y-axis scaled in percentage units, ie the gains/losses are expressed as percentages of the underlying costs. Being restricted to raw values makes comparisons more difficult.
: : As an aside, I am not able to manually set the Y-axis limits for 'gain' graphs where more than one is displayed. My requests are ignored. I can however set these limits for the 'portfolio gain' graph.

Hello Mark

Thankyou for your reply. More below:

: Thanks for the feedback. There is already a Portfolio Value report.
: See "Reports/Portfolio Value" from the main menu. The portfolio value
: also shows up in several other reports, such as the Portfolio Performance
: and the Custom report.

I am aware of the report to which you refer, however this is not what I mean. As I stated, I am looking for the facility to generate a report where the total portfolio value is displayed simultaneously for many days over a specified date range. For eg:

20020501, 50000
20020502, 48725
20020502, 49500
20020503, 49400

Unless I am missing an option, the report to which you refer only generates a portfolio value for a _particular_ day, and if I want to review portfolio value day-by-day over a quarter, I have a lot of clicking to do.

Although the 'Export > Other >Portfolio Value' process is totally inflexible, it writes the information in which I am interested.

: The "Gain" graph type is displayed in dollars, not percentage. Are you
: maybe looking at the "Investment Overlay" graph types that are displayed
: in percentage? The Y axis is adjusted in the same units as the graph is
: displayed.

Sorry, I do not understand this answer. Maybe I was not clear. Assume I am displaying two investments side-by-side as 'gain' graphs. One investment is showing a gain of 1200 and the other a gain of 200. Autoscaling makes these gains difficult to compare visually since the 1200 gain in one graph appears at the same visual height as the 200 gain in the other graph.

Manually scaling the Y-axes to the same limits would address the visual comparison issue but when I try to manually set Y-axis limits (say 1400 and -50) the program ignores my manual limits even though I check 'apply to all open investments'.

A further improvement would allow percentage-scaling of the Y-axis for 'gain' graphs. While this would not further enhance visual comparison, it would deliver additional information. [For eg, the the 1200 gain may be on a 15000 cost base, while the 200 gain may be on a 400 cost base. I know this information is available on a report but it would be nice to read it direct from the graphs.]

In summary, I think it is essential for visual comparison that where multiple 'gain' graphs are displayed, a feature allowing identical Y-axis limits across all graphs is available. This currently does not appear to work. Users should have the option of choosing a percentage-unit or raw-unit scale for the Y-axis, and, where autoscaling is not chosen or explicit maximum and minimum are not given, an algorithm which scans all open investments; picks the minimum and maximum in the selected metric; and applies such limits to all graphs (with a 'pretty' top and bottom margin), would be a very nice touch.

: When setting the Y axis for the "gain" graphs and more than one are displayed,
: are you trying to set them all to the same scale? If so, have you checked
: the "Apply Changes To All Open Investments" option?

Please see above.

Regards
JA

Replies:

• Re: Suggestions for improvement Mark 12:46:29 06/01/02 (0)