Re: Graph is Broken

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In Reply to: Re: Graph is Broken posted by Mark on December 19, 1999 at 08:21:20:

: : : : Hi Mark, Evil Spirits have taken over my graphs! Everything was going along fine until a couple of days ago.
: : : : I opened up FM in the Portfolio/Investment Overlay view as I usually do and, lo & behold, there's a giant inverted
: : : : square wave dropping down from my "portfolio" line and the portfolio YTD gain figure is off by aprox. 10%.
: : : : All the lines for the individual funds look normal and their gain %'s look normal. Now if I look at the Portfolio Value,
: : : : Portfolio Cost/Value or Portfolio Gain Graphs then averything looks normal - on the exact same portfolio! I've looked
: : : : through the Data Editing box for any errors and I can't find any. I'm at a complete loss.

: : : : What can I look for to fix this bizare problem ?

: : : : TIA,
: : : : kosmo

: : : Hi Kosmo,
: : : What if you turn on all the investments to overlay them, can you find
: : : one that shows a similar large dip?

: : : Thanks,
: : : Mark
: : : --
: : :
: : That's just it, With EVERYTHING "turned on" the only line that's wrong is
: : Portfolio. Now if I remove the CASH ACT from the Portfolio then the
: : Portfolio line looks normal (although the YTD gain figure is about 3% off)

: : If there was a error in the CASH ACT causing this then I should also see an
: : error in the Portfolio Value & Gain graphs and in the Investment Performance
: : YTD Report. But they all look fine!

: : The "leading edge" (down) of this inverted sq. wave corresponds w/ the sale
: : of a fund that was worth aprox. 22% of the Portfolio yet the ISW (inverted
: : sq. wave) drops about 75% of its value. The "trailing edge" date doesn't
: : correspond w/ any (!!) Portfolio transactions and it rises to a point slightly
: : higher than the point at which it dropped.

: : ????????

: : kosmo

: Kosmo,
: If you would like for us to take a look, please zip up your
: portfolio and investment files, and e-mail them to us at .
: We'll take a closer look.

: Thanks,
: Mark
: --
: Mark Beiley
:
: Fund Manager for Windows 3.1x/95/98/NT
:
:

Hi Kosmo,
I received the investment files, and tried to reply via e-mail,
but it bounced back, so I'm posting the results here.

Hi Kosmo,
This stumped me for a while too, but it turns out the problem is that
you have
relatively large dist/share values in both of your cash accounts. Your cash
accounts
are set up as "no load mutuals", rather than "cash" investments. When
recording a
distribution for a mutual fund, FM calculates the dist/share based upon the
shares
owned at the close of the prior day. For cash type investments, this is
calculated
based on the average of shares owned since the last distribution date. The
portfolio
overlay graph looks at the relative movement of the price + distribution,
which is
the true percentage change. If you look at the price + dist graph for your
cash accounts,
you will notice huge percentage changes on certain dates, due to your
distributions.
To fix all of this, I would recommend changing your investment type for your
cash accounts
to "Cash", and then going back and editing each of the distributions, so
they have the proper
date range (distribution date back to date of prior interest income
distribution) and value.
Check the "Dist/share" column to make sure they are all reasonable, and then
look at
the "price + dist" graph to make sure this is also reasonable. You
shouldn't have
a price + distribution increasing 2x overnight...

Thanks,
Mark
--
Mark Beiley

Fund Manager for Windows 3.1x/95/98/NT

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