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Portfolio Help


New Features
New Email Format - You can now choose to have your email statements sent as a web page(HTML) document. You will need a mail program that can handle HTML. The format is similar to the 'View' portfolio web page with added content, including Daily % and $ change and global market indices. See Sample Email. Also, you can choose to have all selected portfolios sent in one email.

Combine Portfolios - View and analyze all selected portfolios, showing total market values, gains/losses. On the 'View' and 'Analysis' pages, there are selections allowing you to view 'This Portfolio' or 'Combine Portfolios'.

To activate these features, click the 'Preferences' button on any of the portfolio pages. You will see checkboxes for HTML email, whether to combine all your portfolios into one email. Also, you can select which portfolios will be included in the 'Combine' view. This way you can filter out your whatif or test portfolios from your real holdings.

Introduction

Unlike many portfolios on the WEB that are really just 'Watch' lists, your Stock Smart Portfolio is a transaction based system, recording your entries in a secure database that we maintain and protect for you. You simply enter trades as you make them, the system does the job of aggregating, summarizing and valuing your holdings based on current market prices, producing Current Positions for current holdings and Profit and Loss Statement for positions you have closed. In addition, you can track securities through the Monitor feature, Email Statements, Download portfolio and set Alerts to notify yourself via e-mail, pager, or any wireless/mobile device.

Features [Index]

Basic Concepts [Index]

The Stock Smart Portfolio is a fully functional, transaction based system. You can Add new transactions and Correct or Delete existing transactions.

"Transaction based" simply means you enter transactions (trades) in sync with your actual trading, entering trades as you execute them.. You enter buys as 'Bought', sales as 'Sold' with the price and quantity. You enter as many transactions against the same security as you make, the system aggregates your holdings, computing average price, Profit and Loss, market value, investment cost, summarizing each holding and calculating total portfolio value. It is not necessary, or a good idea, to correct a transaction to change price or quantity when you sell a portion of your holdings or buy more. The system does all this for you and keeps a history of every transaction you make.

Creating a New Portfolio [Index]

To create a new portfolio, all that is required is a portfolio name that is unique within your subscription. If you want your statements emailed or you plan to have alerts sent via email, enter an email address and the frequency you wish statements sent; Daily,Weekly, Monthly or None. The Pager box is only relevant for Alerts and, at this time, only alphanumeric pagers with standard email addresses and PageMart pagers using SMTP are valid.

You can create up to 10 portfolios per subscription, however each must have a unique name. You may want to separate 401k holdings, IRA's or securities you are monitoring. Each can have a different email or any of the other options available.

After you have successfully created your new portfolio, it will be available to you as a selection in the drop-down list box at the top of each portfolio page.

Editing Your Portfolio [Index]

Searching/retreiving Transactions [Index] To display transactions, enter your choice of selection criteria available as shown in the form below and click the 'Search Portfolio' button. You can also display as many as 15 rows and choose how they will be sorted. The 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons below the Edit form will become visible allowing you to scroll back and forth within the transactions that met your initial selection.
Symbol
 Security Type
 Action
 Positions
Display Order by: Symbol Newest Oldest Type Action

Adding/Deleting/Changing Transactions [Index]
To Delete or Change existing transactions you must first retrieve those transactions using the 'Search Portfolio' feature described above. Clicking the 'Edit' button, you will use the form as shown below, to add, change or delete transactions. You can display 5,10 or 15 transactions at one time. To delete items, select the 'Delete' action. You can change any and all fields on the form. Below is a detailed description of the input form:
Symbol Action Quantity Price Comm. Date Qty. Open
You can enter as many transactions as you like, use the 'Clear' button after Updating to clear the form and enter the next set of entries. The 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons allow you to scroll back and forth through your portfolio.


Symbol - Ticker Symbol of the Security or Index. Use '$' prefix for indexes, use 'CA.' prefix for Canadian issues. For Cash Accounts, enter '$$' followed by letters of your choosing. For Stock Options prefix with '+', Index Options prefix with '+$'. Case isn't important unless dealing with preferred stocks(Fp, HCpA ) or Cash Accounts. (Alpha Required).

Action - Select one of Bought, Sold, Short, Monitor or Delete. NOTE: Delete only shown for existing transactions that have bee retrieved via the 'SEARCH PORTFOLIO' form.

Quantity - The number of shares or contracts. Partial values are allowed and will be rounded to 3 places for display. Only digits and decimal allowed, don't enter commas. (Numeric positive only, required for Bought, Sold and Short transactions)

Price - The price, per share, you bought or sold this security. You can enter the price using either decimal or fractional values, don't include commas or $ sign. You can enter a trade with a zero price which is how to account for stock distributions, dividends or if you got the stock for free (Thanks Dad!). Basically, entering a zero(0) price will increase your holdings without increasing your costs. For Cash Accounts and Money Market Funds, always enter price of 1.00 and enter Dollar amount in the quantity field. For negative cash, choose 'Sold' or 'Short' action. (Numeric zero or positive only, required for Bought,Sold and Short)

Commission - Commissions/Fees paid. This amount is deducted from the market value of your holdings and when figuring Net and Percent gain/loss. (Numeric positive only, Optional)

Date - Date the transaction was executed - default is today's date. You may enter a 2 or 4 digit century(MM/DD/YY or MM/DD/YYYY). For 2 digit century, years 0-49 will be adjusted to century 2000, years 50-99 to century 1900.

Qty. Open - This is a Display Only field and shows the current number of shares still open for a particular transaction. As you buy and sell shares against the same security, the portfolio automatically adjusts the quantity open using a FIFO (First In, First Out) for matching Buys and Sells. Closed positions will show up in your Profit and Loss Statement.

Transaction History button [Index]

Click on this button to list details of all transactions you have entered into your portfolio.
Preferences button [Index]

Click on the Preferences button to change Email address, Pager, frequency (if any) that your statements are e-mailed, password and other options. To stop Emails, select 'None' from the 'Send Statements' select box. You can change any of these settings as often as you wish and the changes take effect immediately.

Analysis button [Index]

The analysis feature displays your portfolio assset allocation (mix of cash, stocks, funds etc) and compares your stock holdings by industry to industry performance averages (YTD price performance, P/E, earnings growth, volatility and weighting). You can use this tool to 'build' your own mutual fund and determine if your investments are performing in accordance with your investment strategy.

Maintenance button [Index]

This function allows you to delete a portfolio, change portfolio name, reset monitors to current price, stop e-mails, delete portfolio contents, delete alerts. In general any 'housekeeping' type functions or special global actions that ease the maintenance of your portfolio can be found on this page. IMPORTANT: You will be alerted to verify any action taken on this page, however, all actions are final.

Monitoring Securities [Index]

To monitor an issue simply enter the symbol and select MONITOR from drop-down list box. The price of the issue is set automatically to the current close/last sale price. Each time you view your portfolio, that price is compared to the current price to calculate the net change. If you want to include monitors on your e-mailed statement, be sure to check the appropriate box on the Preferences form.


Stock and Index Options [Index]

To enter Options in your portfolio, prefix the symbol with a plus(+) sign for stock options and a plus/dollar(+$) for index options. Enter the quantity as the contract quantity, the system will automatically determine the shares per contract when calculating valuation. Use the Options by Underlying Symbol to find options symbols if you know the ticker symbol of the underlying security or use Smart Quotes. Within your portfolio, options are handled much the same way as any other security. Positions that you open, whether buying or selling a put or call, will remain in your Current Positions until a closing transaction is entered or the option expires. If you do not close an open position before expiration date, it will automatically be closed and the amount of the option premium paid or received will be posted to your Profit and Loss Statement. If the option is exercised, it is your responsibility to close the option. To expire or exercise the option, enter the opposing transaction with a price of zero. This will take the premium received or paid, less commissions, to the P&L Statement.
NOTE: Options within your portfolio are NOT automatically adjusted for splits and symbol changes.


Cash and Money Market Accounts [Index]

You can enter Cash in your portfolio. Prefix your entry in the Symbol field with a '$$' to designate Cash account. Enter dollars in the quantity field and always enter 1 in price field. You can maintain multiple Cash accounts by appending different designators to the '$$', such as '$$Check Acct', '$$Savings' etc. (Case is important.) You can enter buys (to add cash) and sells (to remove cash) against each account which will be summarized in your current Portfolio summary and e-mail statements. If you wish to show negative cash use the 'Sell' or 'Short' action type and follow the above procedure.
Money Markets are entered as above, except enter the NASDAQ symbol (five characters ending in 'XX') to get the name of the fund.


Emailing Statements [Index]

Statements can be mailed either Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Click on the 'Preferences' button to change e-mail Address, Frequency (select 'None' to stop e-mails) and whether to include securities you are monitoring on your statements. Statement processing begins approximately 2 hours after the market closes to capture the adjusted close prices and to get the latest mutual fund NAVS as reported by NASDAQ.


Current Positions Summary [Index]

In the Current Positions Summary display, your portfolio aggregates and summarizes each security you hold, computing the average cost, total quantity, market value, investment cost etc. based on the most recent market prices available. Keep in mind, when and if you sell off all or some of a position, that portion will be matched with the buy side and moved into your Profit & Loss Statement.

Current Positions Summary
Symbol Company/Name Qty
Held		 Avg
Cost		 Last
Price		 Chng/
Prev		 Last
Report		 Comm. % Gain/
<Loss>		 $ Gain/
<Loss>		 Position Market
Value


Portfolio Downloading [Index]

This feature allows you to select up to 30 columns of data from your portfolio and related financial data (volume, historical high/low, high/low/open etc.) and download the output to your computer where it can be imported easily into spreadsheets, databases and word processing programs. You select which of the columns and the order to include in the file. Create and download as many formats and as often as you desire.


Profit & Loss Statement [Index]

Your Profit & Loss Statement lists to-date gains/losses for positions you have closed. Stock Smart uses the FIFO method for computing your gains/losses. Consequently, it is very important that you enter your trades in order with the correct trade date if we are to produce an accurate and meaningful report.

Symbol Name Quantity Average
Purchase
Price		 Average
Sales
Price		 Position
Opened		 Position
Closed		 Commission Net % Gain/
<Loss>		 Net $ Gain/
<Loss>


Choosing a Cost Basis - FIFO or Specific ID [Index]

Specific Identification is a method of calculating P&L that allows you to match your trades to yield the smallest gains, thus reducing tax rate. It is one of the ways the IRS allows you to determine your cost basis. FIFO, the most common method, is based on matching buys/sells chronologically.

Once you setup a portfolio and close positions, you must continue that method for all trades throughout the life of the portfolio. You must use Specific ID at the time you execute transactions.

FIFO updates are done automatically whenever you enter an opposing position and immediately updates your P&L.

Specific ID requires much more effort maintaining your portfolio and necessitates detailed record keeping.

IMPORTANT!
Accuracy of your portfolio when using Specific ID is your responsibility. The system performs minimal error checking as you match transactions. When you add/delete or modify (change quantities, prices, commissions etc) trades that will impact P&L, you subsequently must unmatch and rematch transactions to reflect those changes.

Stock Smart is not recommending one method over others, rather providing you the option of determining your cost basis. You should consult with a qualified tax advisor or your broker for record keeping requirements and current tax regulations.


Splits, Symbol Changes, Mergers and Spin-offs [Index]

Your portfolio is automatically adjusted for stock splits and symbols changes. As a rule, the adjustments are made before noon the day the split/change is effective. For splits, we check the date you last updated a transaction, and only perform the split if this date is earlier than the split date. The assumption is that if you entered/corrected the transaction the day of the split or later, then you have made the split adjustment yourself, which you are free to do. In other words, we do not overide changes you've made. We adjust symbol changes, including company name and/or exchange. We do not adjust for dividends, stock distributions. Mergers and Spin-offs will be added/changed in your portfolio only when it is a share-for-share transaction. No adjustment is made when you have the option to receive cash and/or stock, as only you know what you chose. Options are now adjusted for splits/symbol changes and when Leaps convert to Options.
World Portfolio [Index]

You can now track any of over 30,000 stocks/indices worldwide in your portfolio.The process is very similar to the standard(US,Canada) portfolio with a few minor exceptions.

1. You must enter the two character country code, a dot(.), the ticker symbol For tickers that trade on multiple exchanges within the same country(i.e. Germany) you must append a semicolon(;) and the exchange code. A World Symbol Lookup window has been included to ease finding and entering symbols.

EXAMPLES: DE.BMWM2;FR (BMW in Germany on Frankfurt exchange, price in Euros), GB.AMS(Advanced Medical trading on London exchange, price in British Pence), JP.NMCN5 (NTT Mobile in Tokyo, price in Yen)
Go to World Symbol Lookup

2. You must enter the price in the currency that the issue is traded/quoted on it's listed exchange. This will appear in the World Symbol Lookup. You can use thecurrency converter to resolve trades done with other than the listed currency.

3. You can display your portfolio or P&L in any of 20 major currencies. Use the 'Preferences' page to set a default currency for viewing your portfolio. Monitor issues are always shown in their quoted currency.

4. You can include issues from multiple countries in a single portfolio. However, we suggest it may be less confusing if you set up a separate portfolio for each country and/or currency.

5. At this time the email, alerts, download do not support issues outside of the US and Canada. These features will be added in the coming months.

Go to World Portfolio