2014 Asset types

[Neill]

Hi,
I really like the idea of being able to download the asset types. Sectors are not for me though .
I tried the down load but it didn't seem to work for most of my symbols and they seem ordinary enough:

Asset Type Retrieve Log
03/26/2014 at 02:43 using version 2014.13.0 with module 460.
Portfolio: Master Portfolio
Skip Hidden: 0
Skip No Price Retrieve: 0
Action On Failure: Change to <uncategorized>
Total Investments in Portfolio: 100
Unique Symbols to Request: 25
Server: Morningstar

VIPSX (1):Success
SPAXX (1):FAILED
VNQ (3):FAILED
VO (3):FAILED
FDRXX (1):FAILED
FTEXX (1):FAILED
VNQI (3):FAILED
IWD (3):FAILED
IVV (3):FAILED
VWO (3):FAILED
VEU (3):FAILED
WPS (3):FAILED
IEMG (3):FAILED
EFV (3):FAILED
ITIP (3):FAILED
TIP (3):FAILED
LQD (3):FAILED
VSS (3):FAILED
BNDX (3):FAILED
IWM (3):FAILED
SCZ (3):FAILED
IJR (3):FAILED
IWB (3):FAILED
MSFT (3):Success
HYD (3):FAILED

Requested Symbols: 25
Retrieved Symbols: 2
Investments Assigned to <uncategorized>: 60
Updated Investments: 2

[Mark]

Hi Neill,

It looks like most of those that didn't update are money markets, ETFs, or iShares. Currently, only straight stocks or mutual funds are retrievable. We'll take a look tomorrow and see if we can't add support for ETFs and iShares. I'll post back here when I have more information.

[Mark]

Hi Neill,

We've made some improvements here that will support more investment types for asset type retrieval. The asset type retrieval from Morningstar for funds and ETFs also now update each of the 9 asset types as a percentage, rather than just all into the largest asset type. You can download this update by going here:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/fm2014beta.html

and make sure you are seeing "Beta 3" (or later) on the beta page. If not, refresh your browser. Then, download/install Beta 3 or later and try the asset type retrieval again.

[Neill]

Hi,
I made sure I had Beta 3 and tried it again. I got the same behavior.
Thanks for looking at this.

[Mark]

Hi Neill,

Can you either post your new asset retrieve log, or tell me a few symbols that didn't update? The money market and fixed income type investments will not update, but I tested a few of your prior one's that wouldn't update, like VNQ, VO, and VNQI and they all are retrieving okay now with Beta 3 and module 461.

[Neill]

Sorry. I didn't post the log as it was the same as before. Says Beta 3 in the title bar.

Asset Type Retrieve Log
03/27/2014 at 23:05 using version 2014.13.0 with module 461.
Portfolio: Master Portfolio
Skip Hidden: 0
Skip No Price Retrieve: 0
Action On Failure: Change to <uncategorized>
Total Investments in Portfolio: 100
Unique Symbols to Request: 25
Server: Morningstar

VIPSX (1):FAILED
SPAXX (1):FAILED
VNQ (3):FAILED
VO (3):FAILED
FDRXX (1):FAILED
FTEXX (1):FAILED
VNQI (3):FAILED
IWD (3):FAILED
IVV (3):FAILED
VWO (3):FAILED
VEU (3):FAILED
WPS (3):FAILED
IEMG (3):FAILED
EFV (3):FAILED
ITIP (3):FAILED
TIP (3):FAILED
LQD (3):FAILED
VSS (3):FAILED
BNDX (3):FAILED
IWM (3):FAILED
SCZ (3):FAILED
IJR (3):FAILED
IWB (3):FAILED
MSFT (3):Success
HYD (3):FAILED

Requested Symbols: 25
Retrieved Symbols: 1
Investments Assigned to <uncategorized>: 61
Updated Investments: 1

[Mark]

Hi Neill,

Thanks for the information. I'm not sure why it isn't working for your case. I've tested it with the same symbols. Something else must be going on. Can you try an experiment for me:

1) Copy one of your investments with the symbol VNQ into a new sub-portfolio, so it is the only investment in this new sub-portfolio.

2) Retrieve asset type information for just this sub-portfolio, that has only 1 VNQ investment in it.

3) Assuming it fails, email me your log file:

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Fund Manager\assetlog.txt

I will send you an email now, so you can reply to that with the attached log.

[Neill]

A manually created transaction worked. My investments though are downloaded.

Asset Type Retrieve Log
03/28/2014 at 01:07 using version 2014.13.0 with module 461.
Portfolio: Test
Skip Hidden: 0
Skip No Price Retrieve: 0
Action On Failure: Change to <uncategorized>
Total Investments in Portfolio: 1
Unique Symbols to Request: 1
Server: Morningstar

VNQ (1):Success

Requested Symbols: 1
Retrieved Symbols: 1
Investments Assigned to <uncategorized>: 0
Updated Investments: 1

[Mark]

What if you copy one of the existing investments that isn't updating into this test sub-portfolio, and try retrieving just that? You can do this in the Portfolio Editor window. Find the investment to copy, right click on it, and choose "Copy". Go to the test sub-portfolio, right click and paste.

[Neill]

Doing the update on a copy also failed:

Asset Type Retrieve Log
03/28/2014 at 02:43 using version 2014.13.0 with module 461.
Portfolio: Test
Skip Hidden: 0
Skip No Price Retrieve: 0
Action On Failure: Change to <uncategorized>
Total Investments in Portfolio: 1
Unique Symbols to Request: 1
Server: Morningstar

VNQ (3):FAILED

Requested Symbols: 1
Retrieved Symbols: 0
Investments Assigned to <uncategorized>: 1
Updated Investments: 0

[Neill]

I debugged the issue for you . The problem is that the asset type was set to stock. Changing it to ETF made the download work ok. I seem to remember when it downloaded the transaction from fidelity it made them all 100% large cap and bonds or some such.
Thanks for your help.

[Neill]

Interesting. LQD fails even when set to an ETF:

FDRXX (1):FAILED
ITIP (9):FAILED
TIP (9):FAILED
BNDX (9):FAILED
LQD (9):FAILED

All those guys fail despite being ETFs (well except FDRXX which I don't expect you to handle) and marked as such.

[Mark]

Hi Neill,

Excellent debugging, thank you. That makes sense. This is a new feature for us, so it may take us some time to become proficient at solving these problems. The number in parenthesis after each symbol in the log indicates the investment type. 1 and 2 are for no-load/loaded mutual funds, 3 is for stock, 3 is for fund, and 9 is an ETF.

All of the remaining ones with errors are because Morningstar categorizes them as fixed income types. These don't have asset type allocations, they are reported with a fixed-income style instead. For example, see:

http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=LQD

and compare the "Style Details" section to one for a mutual fund or ETF that looks like:

http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=VNQ

where they report the allocation under "Holding Style" for the 9 different asset types. Fund Manager is trying to assign your investments to these 9 asset types, so it only works for stocks, mutual funds, or ETFs (not fixed income type investments).

[Neill]

Great thanks. I can live with setting them manually to bond but it's worth doing automatically if you can.
I was actually splitting my fixed income into 'foreign nominal', 'foreign inflation protected', 'domestic nominal' and 'domestic inflation protected'.

As well as assert type you could also do the Value, Blend, Growth.

[Mark]

Hi Neill,

The "Value/Blend/Growth" are indeed part of the asset type information downloaded. If you look at that "Holdings Style" diagram, you'll see there are 9 squares. Those are the 9 asset types retrieved. The number in each square is the percentage of that box. The vertical scale is "Large/Mid/Small", and the horizontal is "Value/Blend/Growth", so those 9 boxes are describing the percentages of each combination of those 2 scales.

For fixed income items, or anything else that doesn't get retrieved, I would suggest defining whatever other asset types you want and manually assigning those investments. You can define the asset type names under "Options / Category Labels...". Define your asset type names in the "Unused ..." section, leaving the first 10 asset type names as their defaults. When you retrieve assets in the future, choose the option:

If Retrieve Fails: Leave investments un-changed