Import and keep track of account balances

[Alexis]

I have some futures accounts for my day trading. I want to track them as investments however I get problems when I add or withdraw money.
Example I start July 7 with 8840 so I record a purchase of either 8840 shares at 1 value, or 1 share at 8840 value. Each week I record manualy my balance (taken from the report of my broker in pdf), then August 26 I withdraw 5100 and I am left with 600. If I used price and 1 share when I withdraw I get 0 shares so no balance. If I used # shares and price=1 each time I recorded my balance again I end up with accumulated shares. I am very confused and what I want is simple. To keep track of different accounts that don't have shares, just need the total balance. Ofcourse then when I measure performance it shouldn't be start 8840 end 600 -93% but rather around -36% (since I withdrew the 5100).

[Mark]

Hi Alexis,

In each case, how are you doing this: "record manually my balance"?

In Fund Manager your balance is determined by multiplying your share balance times the current closing price. Your share balance is determined from all your recorded transactions.

For an investment that doesn't have a known price, you can handle it like a cash account, and record increases/decreases as reinvested distributions. For example, record your initial purchase at 8840 shares and a price of 1, so the value is 8840. If at then end of the next week the market value has risen to 9000, record a reinvested distribution of 160 shares at a price of 1. Now you will own 9000 shares, still at a price of 1. If the market value decreases in a certain week record a negative reinvested distribution, lowering your share balance. When you take out 5100, record this as a sell of 5100 shares at a price of 1. Basically, every transaction happens at a price of 1, and you're adjusting your share balance by recording reinvested distributions.

As an alternative to this method, you could record a purchase at a certain share price, and then when you want to update the market value, record an updated price to reflect the change. Future transactions would not happen at 1, but at the current market price.

Either method will work, but the first might be simpler. Just keep in mind that the market value is always shares owned times current market price and that the shares owned is a sum of all prior recorded transactions.