Alternative sources for daily portfolio position recaps

[Nords]

-10.16%

So now you can calculate the hourly cost of all your data entry and tracking relative to the performance of Vanguard's funds, and you can decide whether the activity still holds value for you.

Or, as William Bernstein has said, "I'd rather live my life"...

 

[justplainbll]

So now you can calculate the hourly cost of all your data entry and tracking relative to the performance of Vanguard's funds, and you can decide whether the activity still holds value for you.

Or, as William Bernstein has said, "I'd rather live my life"...

Since I use FIFO, the lion's share of my data entry time is consumed by entering mutual fund dividend reinvestments. Other than that, the only other regularly occurring manual entries are to record purchases and sales and a monthly cash reconciliation.
All in all it's not too burdensome for someone like me who still prefers to use a fountain pen.

 

[REWahoo]

All in all it's not too burdensome for someone like me who still prefers to use a fountain pen.

While that might be the case, the return comparisons posted here would have me asking myself, "Is my time spent time well spent?"

 

[ERD50]

Since I use FIFO, the lion's share of my data entry time is consumed by entering mutual fund dividend reinvestments.

Why have them re-invested? I agree that becomes a major paperwork job. Have them dropped into a cash account, and apply the proceeds to your next purchases. Zero added paperwork.

Originally Posted by justplainbll
All in all it's not too burdensome for someone like me who still prefers to use a fountain pen.

While that might be the case, the return comparisons posted here would have me asking myself, "Is my time spent time well spent?"

+1. What exactly is the point of all this if it isn't providing excess returns?

-ERD50

 

[justplainbll]

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
When I get burned, I like to know the what and why.
If I relied solely on VWELX type investments, I would have forgone holdings like ED and XOM with cost bases of $5.63 and $4.24 respectively.
Thanks again for all the helpful feedback.

 

[harley]

C'mon folks, leave him alone. He's happy playing with his numbers. It's a free country. I'm sure many of us waste our time in ways that would confuse (or even appall) others of us. Just ask my DW.

 

[Bestwifeever]

-10.16%

This has been an interesting thread, JPB--and I love that you (a) admit your results and (b) don't try to qualify or rationalize them. Why not track 300 stocks yourself if that's what you enjoy doing with your time?

 

[Alan]

This has been an interesting thread, JPB--and I love that you (a) admit your results and (b) don't try to qualify or rationalize them. Why not track 300 stocks yourself if that's what you enjoy doing with your time?

+1. Very refreshing.

Thanks for the thread, I enjoyed reading it.

 

[ERD50]

C'mon folks, leave him alone. He's happy playing with his numbers. It's a free country. I'm sure many of us waste our time in ways that would confuse (or even appall) others of us. Just ask my DW.

... Why not track 300 stocks yourself if that's what you enjoy doing with your time?

I hope none of my comments were interpreted as negative or judgmental. I prefaced one with that caveat, to try to avoid that view.

It is a free country, and even if I wanted to be judgmental, I wouldn't see any 'problem' with what he's doing, if that is how he wants to spend his time. In fact, one side benefit that I saw when I tracked a couple dozen stocks was that it kept me 'invloved' in those industries as I followed the news on them. I was surprised how often it was an 'ice-breaker' - I'd meet someone, and be able to converse about the industry they were in, I knew something about their company and/or competitors.

However, when the OP is making claims that he does this to improve performance, I think it is totally reasonable to offer up evaluations of that performance against the alternatives. Heck, I was hoping he was consistently doing better than the alternatives - I'm open to new approaches. I'd hope to learn something (regardless how slight the odds).

With that in mind:

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
When I get burned, I like to know the what and why.
If I relied solely on VWELX type investments, I would have forgone holdings like ED and XOM with cost bases of $5.63 and $4.24 respectively.
Thanks again for all the helpful feedback.

What good is cherry-picking a few winners? It is your overall average performance that matters.

Let me put it another way, just to recap - what exactly are you trying to achieve? Higher returns, lower volatility, a combination, higher returns regardless of volatility? If this is just a 'hobby', with no specific financial goal, just say so - nothing wrong with that.

-ERD50

 

[Bestwifeever]

However, when the OP is making claims that he does this to improve performance, I think it is totally reasonable to offer up evaluations of that performance against the alternatives.
Let me put it another way, just to recap - what exactly are you trying to achieve? Higher returns, lower volatility, a combination, higher returns regardless of volatility? If this is just a 'hobby', with no specific financial goal, just say so - nothing wrong with that.

-ERD50

I don't see that he said he was doing it to improve performance; his OP:

For the last 10 or so years, I've been downloading the symbols, closing prices, ttm earnings per share, annualized dividends per share, and ex-div dates for all (some 200+) of my equity and mutual fund holdings on a more or less daily basis from Yahoo-Finance. Because these positions are held in over a half dozen accounts, I find it helpful to generate a consolidated position recap report.
What might be some alternative sources for accessing and downloading the above described data to a delimited text file for upwards of 300 equity issues and mutual funds?

I think he's just doing it for his own analysis and interest. Sort of how I like knitting, which is horrendously expensive in materials and time vs. going to Target and buying a perfectly serviceable sweater.

 

[ERD50]

I don't see that he said he was doing it to improve performance; his OP:

I used 'OP' as 'Original Poster' in that context, not as 'Original Post'. I thought his subsequent posts were driving towards improved performance, though he didn't say it in those exact words, so maybe I'm reading into it a bit.

Maybe he will elaborate.

I think he's just doing it for his own analysis and interest.

Perhaps. And I would think (but could be wrong) that he would be interested in how alternatives compare as part of that analysis.

That said, a friend of mine does a lot of trading. He is often trying to run ideas by me and get an opinion, play devil's advocate and such on an individual trade. Yet, every time I talk about measuring his overall performance against some kind of standard, he has a billion excuses, none of which make sense to me. I've come to the conclusion (again, maybe wrongly) that he doesn't want to measure against a standard, he wants to believe that his work is paying off for him. The " don't confuse me with the facts " approach. I'm not saying this applies to the OP, it might not even apply to my friend, but it is an aspect of human nature that I've observed quite often. And that interests me.


-ERD50

 

[justplainbll]

The limited wiggle room for controlling the timing of taxable events can make funds like VWIAX less attractive for non-tax sheltered holdings.
The relative predictability of the income stream from some dividend paying equities can be attractive.

 

[ERD50]

The limited wiggle room for controlling the timing of taxable events can make funds like VWIAX less attractive for non-tax sheltered holdings.

True, a MF can issue an annual cap gain distribution, but I have to wonder if this is significant overall. It's been pretty small for VWENX (the Wellington fund that is closer to 60% eq). You have to take the gains sometime - if you try to defer them, you could be hit with higher future tax rates also. Could be a wash.

The relative predictability of the income stream from some dividend paying equities can be attractive.

Are the VWENX dividends significantly less predictable than a group of dividend paying equities? After all, that's exactly where the divs come from in VWENX (plus some from fixed).


-ERD50

 

[justplainbll]

Quote:
The relative predictability of the income stream from some dividend paying equities can be attractive.








Are the VWENX dividends significantly less predictable than a group of dividend paying equities? After all, that's exactly where the divs come from in VWENX (plus some from fixed).
So what's likely to be VWENX's December dividend?

 

[pb4uski]

You might try using Quicken for a small subset of your portfolio to see if it will provide for your needs.

While I'm not sure if it will get you all the information you are looking for, it may get you a huge chunk of it and you can link Quicken to your stockbroker accounts and automatically download transactions. The reporting is quite flexible and you can always import the data into Excel if you want a particular format for a report and the raw data is available but Quicken reports won't do the trick.

Also, since you seem to be a sophisticated user, there may well be specific investment tracking and reporting software out there that would work better for you.

But even if you could link your stockbroker accounts to Quicken to use Quicken to handle the drudgery of tracking transaction (including dividend reinvestments) and then import the data to Excel for reporting it sounds like you would be ahead of the game.

Good luck.

 

[justplainbll]

You might try using Quicken for a small subset of your portfolio to see if it will provide for your needs.

While I'm not sure if it will get you all the information you are looking for, it may get you a huge chunk of it and you can link Quicken to your stockbroker accounts and automatically download transactions. The reporting is quite flexible and you can always import the data into Excel if you want a particular format for a report and the raw data is available but Quicken reports won't do the trick.

Also, since you seem to be a sophisticated user, there may well be specific investment tracking and reporting software out there that would work better for you.

But even if you could link your stockbroker accounts to Quicken to use Quicken to handle the drudgery of tracking transaction (including dividend reinvestments) and then import the data to Excel for reporting it sounds like you would be ahead of the game.

Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion. Below is a sample of the data for which I am seeking an alternate source (in the event that the Yahoo provided info ceases to be freely available):

Symbol;Close;EPS(ttm); Div/Shr;Ex-Div

-----A;32.12;2.87;N/A;-
-----AA;9.37;0.87;0.12;2011-11-02
-----ABB;17.06;1.33;0.67;2011-05-03
-----ABT;51.11;3.28;1.92;2011-10-12
-----ABX;46.27;3.75;0.49;2011-08-29
-----ACITX;12.9;-;-;-
-----ADM;25.17;3.13;0.64;2011-08-16
-----AHEXY.PK;19.3;1.77;N/A;-
-----AIG;21.36;5.24;N/A;2008-09-03
-----ALU;2.66;0.21;N/A;2006-09-06
-----AOS;32.31;3.35;0.64;2011-07-27
-----APD;79.13;5.37;2.32;2011-09-29
-----ARJ;46.8;2.57;0.8;2011-05-11
-----ASBFY.PK;16.6;1.06;N/A;-
-----ATI;35.4;1.37;0.72;2011-09-16
-----ATK;55.05;9.21;0.8;2011-09-02
-----AU;41.76;1.8;0.24;2011-08-31
-----AXAHY.PK;13.05;-;-;-
-----AZSEY.PK;9.67;1.25;N/A;-
-----BAC;5.77;-1.64;0.04;2011-08-31
-----BASFY.PK;62.85;9.02;N/A;-
-----BAYRY.PK;53.65;2.53;N/A;-
-----BCO;23.95;1.5;0.4;2011-07-15
-----BDX;72.92;5.95;1.64;2011-09-07
-----BEARX;4.89;-;-;-
-----BF-B;69.58;3.95;1.28;2011-09-01
-----BG;57.09;6.83;1;2011-11-16
-----BHP;69.36;8.54;2.2;2011-09-07
-----BK;18.28;2.14;0.52;2011-07-27
-----BMY;32.73;1.93;1.32;2011-10-06
-----BRFS;17.27;0.89;N/A;2011-06-30
-----BRK-B;73.23;7457.95;N/A;-
-----BTU;35.68;3.28;0.34;2011-08-02
-----CAG;24.43;1.76;0.96;2011-10-27

 

[TN_INVEST]

Have you looked at Morningstar's Portfolio report? Once you put in all your holdings, it does the tracking. You can add and subtract columns to give you more info. I can't imagine needing more info that that, and we have pretty busy accounts too.

I too get an email from Morningstar that outlines my holdings and their performance.

 

[ERD50]

So what's likely to be VWENX's December dividend?

That cap gains distribution is variable, as you know. You can get an idea from past years, and I think you might even be able to get an estimate from Vanguard or other sources, prior to the ex-div date (not sure about that). But, what is the consequence of that?

Does the possible tax consequence outweigh the amount you have under-performed VWENX? What exactly is the goal here?


-ERD50

 

[pb4uski]

Thanks for the suggestion. Below is a sample of the data for which I am seeking an alternate source (in the event that the Yahoo provided info ceases to be freely available):

Symbol;Close;EPS(ttm); Div/Shr;Ex-Div

-----A;32.12;2.87;N/A;-

I don't invest in individual stocks, but I did take a quick look at the fields available to view and it appears to me that the information you need is available.

Any individual stock investors on this board who use Quicken who can confirm?

 

[justplainbll]

I don't invest in individual stocks, but I did take a quick look at the fields available to view and it appears to me that the information you need is available.

Any individual stock investors on this board who use Quicken who can confirm?

Is Quicken free?

 

[Rustward]

Let me google that for you

Maybe the online version. They must have felt some pressure from the free competitors.

 

[pb4uski]

Is Quicken free?

Not familiar with the free version but I presume it is probably the basic version and does not do investment tracking.

$60 as I recall. If it can automate what you need (particularly transactions, dividends reinvested, etc.) and upload info automatically compared to uploading data to Excel I would think it would be a small price to pay, but your call.