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tobo
01-03-2009, 06:19 PM
I will kick this off.
I needed a cheap or free system to keep my records.
Purpose of records:
1. Know where I stand financially (current value of holdings, regularly revalued)
[also holdings reconciled to share registries, FX$ balances reconciled)
2. Help inform purchase/sale decisions, ie. "management information"
3. Tax records

I trade NZX and ASX, so multi currency.
About 50-100 trades per year, maybe 10-20 holdings at any one time (and will go on for decades into the future, I hope). BTW, this is investing (not trading) for tax purposes.

I looked at simple accounting systems, but none could handle all of the above.
I now have one spreadsheet file (split into several worksheets) that does it all. It has grown more and more complex over it's 2 year life, with many small improvements and a couple of times completely rebuilding it.
I tried to rebuild as a database once (as I think the structure of sharetrading and holding logically better suits a database) but it got too tangled, and have stuck with the spreadsheet.
I am just about to rebuild it again as have found selling AUD shares and then using the proceeds to buy (staying in AUD), applying FIFO to exchange rates, a bit clunky.
Also can't decide if I keep sold investments in the main records worksheet or hive them off out of sight to reduce clutter.

There are worksheets for:
transactions; AUD bank a/c; summary position/valuation;
Also : company research; summarrised company research; notes from tipsheets & forums; and portfolio strategy

This is what I do. What do others do?
This will be a horses for courses thing. The bigger your activity the more you can afford proprietary recording systems, and the more you need it. And don't get me started on Charting systems.
(I used to be an accountant but that's all rusty since last did that 15 years ago, but gave me some spreadsheet skills).

ToBo

AMR
01-03-2009, 11:36 PM
Have you got the MSN money excel quotes updater plugin? It should help simplify your FX conversions by giving real-time updates into excel (well...EoD updates).

I place my trades into word documents with the intention of printing them out and filing, but after reading your post I am tempted to build a database myself now...

Kookaburra
02-03-2009, 02:23 PM
Have you had a look at www.sharesight.co.nz
I have met Tony Ryburn in nthe past and he seems a decent and conscientious fellow

tobo
03-03-2009, 09:50 PM
Have you had a look at www.sharesight.co.nz
I have met Tony Ryburn in nthe past and he seems a decent and conscientious fellow

Gee that certainly is comprehensive, and fee is probably reasonable for what it is, but for the "Expert" version (as I'd need the FIF) the fee is $39/month. I expect to keep trading for maybe 20 years. $ is beyond me I'm afraid.
I am probably biased because I am able to achieve all this with spreadsheets (DIY), but for someone who does not have the accounting, systems and spreadsheet knowledge, it may well be a great solution.

tobo
03-03-2009, 10:16 PM
Have you got the MSN money excel quotes updater plugin? It should help simplify your FX conversions by giving real-time updates into excel (well...EoD updates).

I place my trades into word documents with the intention of printing them out and filing, but after reading your post I am tempted to build a database myself now...

thanks, had a quick play with that MSN money excel quotes updater plugin.
Looks good, but "failed to insert quotes" and then had some other error. I am using it in latest Exel on a Vista platform so maybe that's the problem.

Will have another look when I have a spare moment.

POSSUM THE CAT
04-03-2009, 11:30 AM
ToBo Check And update Internet Explorer and install All updates in cluding the microsoft verification one. Otherwise they seem to block you most of the time if they cannot verify you are using a fully licensed genuine version of Windows

tobo
04-03-2009, 08:56 PM
Got it working. But it appears that it does not support NZX, and also some ASX missing (eg PENO).
But I found another spreadsheet with custom functions that gets info from YAHOO finance (instead of MSN money), and this DOES support NZX, and also the missing ASX (eg PENO).

http://www.etftopics.com/free-stock-quote-tracker/?gclid=COPM_7vuiJkCFZUwpAodbxBklg

ticker format
ABC.AX
ABC.NZ

Thanks to all.

drillfix
04-06-2009, 11:13 PM
Hey Tobo,

Not sure if this will do the trick but check it out anyways mate, its got a trial time but may do the trick.

http://www.tradetrakker.com/

marknz88
05-06-2009, 09:31 AM
This may be another option?

http://www.stator-afm.com/stock-tracking-software-features.html

Only down side is it does not have the full tax functionality for NZ.

I also trialled sharesight. Was good for what it was, but the $39 a month was a little more than I was prepared to pay.

Steve
05-06-2009, 05:59 PM
It makes me laugh the number of people on ST who want something 'cheap or free'! :p

tobo
13-06-2009, 02:51 PM
Hey, drillfix, thanks - I am gonna try trade trakker - it is US$34.95 one time payment only, which is fine, but only if it handles multi currency adequately. Quick glance suggests it just keeps them separate with no conversion (which would be useless. I need to record exchange rate on the day purchased and express total in NZD equiv. This is necessary for tax too.)

Mark and Steve, for size of my portfolio, I would not want to pay $39/month for the rest of my life, perhaps about $10,000-$20,000 (in today's dollars). You can buy a pretty sohisticated accounting package for that sort of money.
Haven't actually broken even yet from 2007 first year investing, so no wasteful spending yet. (I eat sandwiches for lunch, not up to the scale of restaurant lunches with valet parking for the Lambo. Day job still pays for that sandwich.)

tobo
13-06-2009, 03:14 PM
Mark,
I looked at Stator, but the A$55 Lite version doesn't do multi currency, you need the Professional (A$500) version for that.

Cheers,
ToBo

CJ
15-06-2009, 03:37 PM
I have used MSMoney to do this though apparently MSMoney is going to the deadpool (no longer sold or supported by microsoft). It works multicurrency.

Maybe look at quickens product?

Has anyone looked at Xero for share traders? Though I suppose the money fee may be a bit to high as well.

By the way, 50-100 trades a year sounds close to trading rather than investing. Unless this is mainly buy, not selling, you may want to check this.

Ricardo
23-06-2009, 11:03 AM
tobo
I know you are after cheap or free. Always my preference too, but in the end I bought Stator Pro, which is a first class product with excellent support. Handles multi currency brilliantly.
Yes, Microsoft is dropping Money, but they haven't touched the version on sale in NZ for quite some time now anyway. You might pick one up on Trademe. Handling of multi currency is not perfect, which is why I bought Stator.
I have the latest version of Quicken Personal Plus and am dubious if it will be good enough to help me much at all. I bought it as it is advertised as downloading directly from Etrade Australia (have an account there). Well, it does, but only if you install it as the Australian version, which complicates things for your NZ accounts. You set the currency of an account when you first add it. I am not wasting time on it anymore, but it does not look as if I can import historical exchange rates to tie in with my transactions. They do offer a trial.
From my experience, stick with Excel until your trading justifies Stator. You should be able to pull most of your data in from Excel when (if) you do.
cheers

ratkin
24-06-2009, 12:39 PM
fundmanager is reasonable , they have a free trial and it cheap enough to buy .

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