Recording system for trades and holdings

[tobo]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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-...FZUwpAodbxBklg

ticker format
ABC.AX
ABC.NZ

Thanks to all.

[drillfix]

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]

This may be another option?

http://www.stator-afm.com/stock-trac...-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]

It makes me laugh the number of people on ST who want something 'cheap or free'!