Data File Compilation for 2nd Instance of an Investment

[Septaj]

Hi Mark -

As a data source for a 2nd instance of a particular investment I am copying the .dat file I have and opening it as an investment in the 2nd portfolio. I am doing this because the data is damnably hard to come by for some investments not available on quote servers.

Upon opening the 2nd instance the transactions from the 1st must be deleted. If one deletes the Purchases one expects the subsequent Reinvestments to also delete - which they don't.

Also, and critically, the Distributions are deleted when one deletes the Purchases and the Reinvestments! I think this is a bug of sorts in FM.

Re-entering years of monthly distributions per share for each instance of an investment is just not on. Nor is re-assembling the data and importing it into FM each time.

It has been suggested that FM be altered so that Transactions be held in the .mm4 files, not the .dat files!!

This is extremely limiting & frustrating.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Septaj,

If you delete a purchase that is part of a reinvested distribution, that will delete both the purchase line, and the reinvested distribution. This is expected. If the purchase is recorded as a separate item, then it only deletes the purchase. For example, you can record a reinvestment as 1 reinvested distribution transaction, or you can have it recorded as 2 separate transactions, a purchase, plus a distributed distribution.

If you're not sure whether a purchase is associated with a reinvestment or not, just edit it. If it opens up in the Distribution dialog, then it is part of that reinvested distribution.

Maybe you can give me an idea of how you're using Fund Manager? Did you own this same investment in another account. Where are you getting your transaction data for this investment in the other account? Are you manually entering transactions for some reason?

[Septaj]

There is no good source of historical fund data with distributions in Canada. The industry up here is just a bad, fat joke primarily made up of incompetent clowns.

The data must be obtained from each fund company, manipulated in a spreadsheet, and imported into FM.

As far as FM:

When one deletes a Purchase, all of the subsequent re-investments borne of that holding should be deleted. They are not.

When one deletes a re-investment, the associated distribution per share should not be deleted. They are.

And ... Why not hold the transactions in the mm4 file rather than the dat file.

If anyone can prove me wrong on any of these points, please do.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Septaj,

Each transaction is separate in a FM investment. Deleting a prior purchase does not delete all future re-investments.

A re-investment transaction contains the amount of money you received and the number of shares you bought with that money. Deleting it, deletes the whole distribution transaction. This is working as intended. I understand you want it to work differently, but it is working as intended.

The .dat files hold all the information associated with that investment. This includes transactions, pricing, and properties. This allows you to possibly have the same investment file in multiple portfolios (mm4 files). I understand wanting to have a security database, where you just have pricing, property, and maybe distribution data, and then you can add your own transactions on top of this for each holding. This is an improvement we may look into for the future.

[Septaj]

Again,I am faced with this problem. I don't see that there has been any change made to FM.

I am adding an investment to a new portfolio. I have the investment historical data in another portfolio. I am copying the .dat file in Windows Explorer and giving it a new name and opening it in the new portfolio.

I want all the historical prices and distributions in the new portfolio - but none of the transactions. How do I delete the transactions without deleting the distributions per share?

Thx

[Mark]

Hi Septaj,

Sorry, but this is not something you can do. Fund Manager records the distribution transactions as amounts received, and auto-calculates the distribution per share. In response to your question I looked at the possibility of exporting this distribution/share amount, but the generic transaction export unfortunately only exports the total distribution amount, and not the distribution/share, which is optional upon import. This would be a fairly easy improvement we'll plan to make to help out in this area.