Best fields for custom performance report

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

I am still struggling to find the appropriate columns for a performance report. Basically, I am just trying to see how my portfolio did on a percentage basis. The two fields I am relying on the most are %gain (btw) and ROI (btw), but in looking at the report I just generated for the year (1/1/2010 - 12/31/2010) both seem to have significant limitations.

The %gain (btw) seems to be very sensitive to late redemptions, so if I bought the investment before the year started, make a profit, and then sell a large part of it, but not all, late in the year, the %gain is greatly magnified and appears not to be meaningful.

Since the report is for a 1 year period, the ROI (btw) appears to be annualized whether I set the annualize yields option or not, so investments held for a small part of the year are exaggerated.

What I would like to see is how well each investment did for the period it was held within the range of the report. Is there a way to see this?

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

I don't think we have something like this today. I can give it some thought on how to do something like this.

[Ivan]

Mark,

I'm not at all an expert on these calculations. Would what I'm looking for be the ROI for the time the investment was held within the range of the report?

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

Yes, I believe so, and that is what you're getting now, but as you pointed out, it will be annualized. For example, let's say you made 5% in 3 months, but are asking for a 12 month ROI. The 12 month ROI will report nearer to 20% (if your interpolation range settings allow it to report other than N/A), even though you were only invested for 3 months. The ROI figure is time and money weighted, so for periods where you had zero money invested, the weighting is zero. The yield term you're calculating for is 12 months though, so only 3 months actually affected the yield since you were only invested for 3 months. I think what you're looking for is a case where the yield term is adjusted on a per-investment basis, where it is a 12 month yield if you held it for 12 months, and a 3 month yield if you held if for 3 months. In the Portfolio Performance report, the ROI yield column is for the date range of the report, and is the same for every line item in the report.

It could get even more complicated for cases where you bough and sold it multiple times within the period. Maybe one solution would be to have something like the "Open Lots" report, but have it show both open and closed lots, along with a percentage up/down. In the case of closed lots it would be a percentage gained/lost, but for open lots it would be the unrealized percent gain. You can get this now in the Open Lots report (see % Gain column), but only for open lots, not for closed ones. For closed lots, you would have to use a Capital Gains report, but there is no % Gain/Loss, only a Gain/Loss field.

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

What you describe (ROI where the yield term is adjusted on a per-investment basis) sounds like exactly what I am looking for. If I am not mistaken, this would be the most accurate measure of what each investment has contributed over the date range of the report, which seems very useful to me. If you agree, please consider this a request for a future version.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

Okay, thanks for the feedback.