Linking Investments for Yield and Gain Calculations

[jbfm]

Periodically, my 401K provider automatically exchanges my investments to the same fund but different class (e.g. JSCVX to JSCOX). Fund Manager seems to treat these as two separate investments, but, I want to understand what my yields and gains are across both investments since to me, it's still the same investment.

Is there anyway to have Fund Manger link two or more investments into a single whole for the purpose of calculating yields and gains? Perhaps Sub-Portfolios would work somehow?

[Mark]

Hi jbfm,

You can do as you describe and combine investments into a sub-portfolio, and then look at the sub-portfolio yields/gains. This is a little awkward though... Another option would be to just use a single investment. When the conversion happens your 401k provider is probably reporting a transfer out/in or a sell/buy. Just delete these 2 transactions, and close the new investment created. Instead, just change the name/symbol of your currently existing investment under "Investment Properties...". If you end up with a new number of shares, record a split with a ratio of <new_shares> for <old_shares>.

[tommcg]

I have the same problem tracking performance for funds that have converted share classes or merged with other funds. Not all share lots convert at the same time -- different purchased lots and reinvested dividend lots convert on different dates, so I can't just change the symbol or use the split ratio which only handles all shares on single date.

I currently use the sub-portfolio method to group investments of same fund with different share classes in order to see net returns, but it is not an ideal approach. I have some lots that have changed ticker symbol four times and merged with other funds for which I already I owned lots. One fund I now own has lots transfered from four different original funds. It's really hard to tease out the actual long term performance of those original investment purchases.

The Open Lots report shows performance of individual open lots, but cannot show the original ticker symbol for those lots for merged funds. It also does not show sold lot performance or net yield.

Ideally I'd like to be able to see performance of a subset of lots within a fund identified and subtotalled (or filtered) by their original ticker symbol. Perhaps a "lot tag" field on purchase and transfer-in transactions that defaults to ticker symbol for new purchases but carries it's value forward in transfer-between transactions. As long as the lot tag field could be edited, it could be used for any sort of lot grouping or filtering for reporting/subtotalling purposes within an investment.

[Mark]

Hi tommcg,

Thanks for the feedback/idea, it sounds interesting.