New "Create Investment from Investments" function

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

I'm testing the new Create Investment from Investments function. Be able to draw graphs of relative strength is a killer feature ! I've already created calculated investments for the relative strength of sectors versus the broader index. For example :

Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Banks / Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600
Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources / Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600
And so on...

Some questions :

1) Are the calculated values updated automatically with new prices, and when ?

2) In the example above, the first price of the investment in denominator (Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600) starts the 30/03/09. The first price of the investment in numerator (STOXX Europe 600 Banks) starts the 30/08/06. The prices of the calculated investment start the 30/08/06. How the prices between the 30/08/06 and the 30/03/09 are calculated, as there is no value available for the denominator ?

3) Don't see a real usage for +, - and * operations yet. Perhaps in a future version, if calculation from more than two investments could be achieved, to calculate customized indexes ? So perhaps the last operator used could be memorized in the "Create Investment from Investments" window (for me it will be "/" 99% of the time) ? Minor thing..

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

1) No, the calculated investment is not updated automatically. You have to re-run the "Create Investment from Investments..." command, and you can choose the same investment as before for your destination investment to have it updated.

2) A price will be "interpolated" when it isn't recorded. The earliest recorded price in your "Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600" investment will be used for all interpolated prices prior to inception.

3) Good idea.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

1) An automatic update would be great for a future release. Maintenance of the database takes time, all that can be automated is good to catch! I plan to create more than 30 investments of relative strength, so there will be some manual work.

Using the function the first time, when I saw that the symbol of the calculated investment from inv. A et inv. B was set to "symbA/SymbB", I thought at first that the calculation was made from the symbol field. So I tried to create manually a new investment with that expression in the symbol field, bypassing the command "Create Investment from Investments". You guess... this has not worked.

But it is an idea that I had: if we could type a math expression directly in the symbol field to create a calculated investment, with an expression language which would allow to invoke investments and sub portfolios, to create quite complex calculations and indexes... And the recalculation of this calculated investment would be done very simply and intuitively with the command Retrieve Price... It would be... very powerful !!

2) So there is here more than three months of interpolation, the calculation is not relevant for this period of time. Perhaps would it be better to limit the calculated prices range so that only the shared range between the two investments used for the calculation is kept ? I.E :

Inv A : Range of prices : 01/03/2005 -> 01/03/2012
Inv B : Range of prices : 01/05/2008 -> 01/07/2013

Inv C (= Inv A / Inv B) : Range of prices : 01/05/2008 -> 01/03/2012.


Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

1) Interesting idea. That would be powerful, and a nice way to keep the prices automatically updated.

2) I agree, that would be better. Let me see what we can do.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

A little *bump* on this. An automatic update of calculated investments would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Okay, thanks. It is on the list of features to consider for the next major update.