Custom Benchmark

[bwessely]

I am trying to use a stock/bond custom weighted index for comparisons. While I was able to put various indices into the platform, the custom index weighting floats - so a 60% stock weighting at 1/1/09 is much higher at 9/30/09.

What I'd like is to have a monthly rebalanced custom index. I suspect this is only possible via a custom .csv file import. In the .csv file I can use a yahoo download for the indices and weight them monthly. If the .csv import is the solution, could someone detail what information I would have to have in the .csv file to make that happen.

Thanks,
Boris

[Mark]

Hi Boris,

The only way I can think of to do this is by recording periodic adjustments, to keep the weighting the way you want. For example, invest $60 in the stock index and $40 in the bond index on 1/1/09. Adjust the weighting each month by selling $x in one index, and buying that same amount in the other index. You could use the Rebalance report to figure out how much you need to transfer.

[bwessely]

Mark,

I recognize that's the way to do it manually (cumbersome). What I'm thinking is to import monthly index values into Excel from Yahoo and do my weighting calculations there. Is there a way then to import that file into FM to get the same effect? If so, what would the structure of the imported CSV file have to look like?

Boris

Hi Boris,

The only way I can think of to do this is by recording periodic adjustments, to keep the weighting the way you want. For example, invest $60 in the stock index and $40 in the bond index on 1/1/09. Adjust the weighting each month by selling $x in one index, and buying that same amount in the other index. You could use the Rebalance report to figure out how much you need to transfer.

[Mark]

Hi Boris,

Are you thinking of importing prices, or some sort of transaction? How are you going to adjust the weighting in Excel? I guess you could scale the prices to get the right ratio, knowing you own 1 share in Fund Manager. If this is your plan, import the CSV file using "File / Import / Prices / Generic...". This command allows you to import from a CSV file. It can be in many formats, but you could do something like this:

Sample line from CSV:
10/6/2009,^GSPC,2100.50

Import settings:
Specify Symbol: OFF
Specify Date: OFF
Format string: MM/DD/YY,SYMB,NAV

Press the "Help..." button in this dialog for a much more detailed explanation of using this import command.

[Mark]

Hi Boris,

Thinking about this some more... I suspect you were planning on doing this already, but you could create just one investment in FM, that represents your desired weighting. This way, you don't have to maintain 2 separate investments in Fund Manager, and wouldn't need to combine them as a sub-portfolio.

[bwessely]

Thanks, I got it to work. I do re-weight the indices in Excel prior to import. Now I can also use the same import irregardless of start date for an account.

One note - when I set up the 'purchase' for the index, I'm trying to use a small number of shares (as the benchmark totals to the master portfolio) - when entering the purchase (say 23.072) and .1 shares, it rounds the shares to 23.100. Is there an override to the rounding?

Boris

[Mark]

Hi Boris,

It should not round your purchased shares. Where are you seeing the rounding? When you enter the transaction, enter value, then shares, and then tab to the price field, and FM will adjust the price to be consistent with the other 2. FM requires Value = Shares * Price, and you want any rounding to not go into the Shares field when you record your transaction. For more details, see this:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/help ... rrors.html

Also, you could set up sub-portfolios, so that your index is not included in your actual portfolio. Something like this:

Code: Select all

Master Portfolio
  - My Custom Index Investment
  - My Account

Where your Master portfolio contains an investment for your index, and then a sub-portfolio for your account. Report at the Master Portfolio level, and turn on the option to "Hide Footers", so that totals for Master Portfolio are not shown.

[bwessely]

Got it. The program had rounded the value to 2 decimals and then changed the price upon entry. Entering this in the order you describe worked.