Investment Software

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chris319
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Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

I hold a couple of stock positions (horrors!) and am looking for a simple program to track them.

Years ago there was a program called PFROI. Anyone remember this?

The last time I tried the investment part of Moneydance it was not quite up to speed. Has that changed?

I don't need it to do banking or taxes. I need it to handle stock splits, dividends and margin interest as well as purchases and sales.

I could cobble together something with Excel or Google Sheets. There is also GNUCash. Retrieving current prices off the web would be nice.

What do people like in 2021?
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annu
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Re: Investment Software

Post by annu »

Fidelity gives free access to their software
Many brokerages have online versions you get to use for free, including watch lists and portfolio analysis
There is always google sheets and trusted Excel
Fly Guy
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Re: Investment Software

Post by Fly Guy »

I used PFROI all the time back in the day. I really liked that program at the time (90's, 00's). That was a weekend ritual - posting transactions & pricing. I don't track individual stocks - the last decade or so I've been tracking mutual funds in Excel. First of this year started using Quicken - mostly for tracking expenses to tighten up our expense budget and really get an idea of our true spending. We are a couple of years out from retirement and I wanted to drill down on expenses. Quicken may have the features you are looking for to track stocks (splits, sales, etc). Quicken seems to handle our mutual funds fine.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

I tried TD Ameritrade's Think or Swim and it was useless for what I want to do.

I have since cobbled up a solution on Google Sheets that does what I need. I wasn't sure how to deal with closed positions. If I enter 0 shares of a stock no longer owned and enter the sale amount, it all works out with some clever programming.
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livesoft
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Re: Investment Software

Post by livesoft »

chris319 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:23 pmYears ago there was a program called PFROI. Anyone remember this?
Yes, I remember.

PFROI was on Windows, so maybe you are still using a Windows computer. In that case, check out the FREE download of MS Money. The software is not supported, but it still works if you manually enter some things. Since one shouldn't be messing around with their portfolio much, just manually entering the few transactions and every once in a while the current prices makes MS Money a great tool.
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Gaston
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Re: Investment Software

Post by Gaston »

annu wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 1:06 pm Fidelity gives free access to their software
Do you mean “free if you have a Fidelity account” or can it really be accessed by anyone? Thx.
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annu
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Re: Investment Software

Post by annu »

Gaston wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:06 pm
annu wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 1:06 pm Fidelity gives free access to their software
Do you mean “free if you have a Fidelity account” or can it really be accessed by anyone? Thx.
Sorry, yes you need to have account with them, but they let you download it and use, and not only online version
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theRoCK
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Re: Investment Software

Post by theRoCK »

annu wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 11:06 pm
Gaston wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:06 pm
annu wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 1:06 pm Fidelity gives free access to their software
Do you mean “free if you have a Fidelity account” or can it really be accessed by anyone? Thx.
Sorry, yes you need to have account with them, but they let you download it and use, and not only online version
What is this software and where does one find the download?
Thanks.
DetroitRick
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Re: Investment Software

Post by DetroitRick »

In 2021, I still prefer Quicken to perform the functions you outlined in your post. Reasons - transaction data is extremely easy to maintain via downloads (without much personal attention), and because reporting is very complete (IRR at various levels of detail, asset allocation and various other metrics). Stock splits, margin interest, purchases, sales, dividends and everything else is completely covered from all major brokers in your transaction downloads.

For general metrics, both Excel and Google Sheets provide lots of data. For example, Excel's (365 subscription version) "stock" data type (which covers stocks, mutual funds and etf's) provides price data, market cap, beta and much more. But you would have to enter transaction data as needed. That is my personal deal breaker. So I use it more for ad hoc analysis as my portfolio is somewhat complex.

Some brokers actually provide a great deal of what you are looking for. For example, Schwab has a number of portfolio analysis tools that show portfolio metrics at various levels. Their tools are pretty complete and, for me, very accurate.

A few years ago, I ran across this software, Investment Account Manager, which seems to have great analytical functionality. I've never actually tried it, although it's been around for decades and has a 90-day free trial. The "Features" section of their website will give you a pretty good idea of capability:

https://www.investmentaccountmanager.com/
Topic Author
chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

A few years ago, I ran across this software, Investment Account Manager, which seems to have great analytical functionality. I've never actually tried it, although it's been around for decades and has a 90-day free trial. The "Features" section of their website will give you a pretty good idea of capability:

https://www.investmentaccountmanager.com/
This looks very interesting. I'm going to get the trial of the "vanilla" version.

Thank you for posting that.
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finmanjim
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Re: Investment Software

Post by finmanjim »

Fund Manager software (https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/) also offers a free trial. Very comprehensive, has extensive reporting/graphing capabilities, no annual fee, and tremendous customer service including numerous training videos.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

I still have PFROI on floppy disks (remember those?). I dug up my USB floppy drive and transferred the files to HD.

I tried running pfroi.exe and no joy. pfroi.exe is a 16-bit executable (an antique) and wouldn't run on 64-bit Windows 10 :(

Too bad he never open-sourced it. :(
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GuyInFL
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Re: Investment Software

Post by GuyInFL »

chris319 wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:42 pm I tried running pfroi.exe and no joy. pfroi.exe is a 16-bit executable (an antique) and wouldn't run on 64-bit Windows 10 :(
I've thought about running old software on a windows XP virtual machine. I'd need to download it from somewhere. Does Microsoft make any older VMs available?
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Re: Investment Software

Post by Explorer »

annu wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 11:06 pm
Gaston wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:06 pm
annu wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 1:06 pm Fidelity gives free access to their software
Do you mean “free if you have a Fidelity account” or can it really be accessed by anyone? Thx.
Sorry, yes you need to have account with them, but they let you download it and use, and not only online version
annu - did you mean FullView? I have been a Fido customer and I do not recall any downloadable software. Please let us know.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by annu »

Topic Author
chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

I tried Think or Swim and it did not do what I wanted. I don't need all those bells and whistles and whirligigs and pretty, colorful charts. It doesn't give me stock prices into the future so what use is it? :mrgreen:
Last edited by chris319 on Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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DavidC
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Re: Investment Software

Post by DavidC »

chris319 wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:42 pm I tried running pfroi.exe and no joy. pfroi.exe is a 16-bit executable (an antique) and wouldn't run on 64-bit Windows 10 :(
No guarantees it will work, but if you're curious you can download Winevdm which is a tweaked version of Wine but intended to be used on Windows instead of Linux. Download and unzip the Winevdm software (the 'stable' release is kinda outdated, but may still work fine), and then run the otvdmw.exe program (it will open a dialog box to browse for and select the pfroi.exe file).

Running an older, 16 or 32 bit of Windows in a VM would also work but you'd need to have a license key for the older Windows version.
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RetireBy55
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Re: Investment Software

Post by RetireBy55 »

finmanjim wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:31 pm Fund Manager software (https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/) also offers a free trial. Very comprehensive, has extensive reporting/graphing capabilities, no annual fee, and tremendous customer service including numerous training videos.
I'd second the recommendation for Fund Manager. It provides everything OP is looking for at a really reasonable, one-time license cost and (unlike Quicken) doesn't require a subscription.

I spent 35+ years in IT so have maybe more than a normal appreciation for "good" applications that just plain work the way you'd expect. Fund Manager is a rare bird in that regard. It's has a really intuitive, well laid out UI, is fast, clean and doesn't suffer from any of the glitches, bugs or just plain odd behavior that you find in Quicken and similar apps.

I've used it for years and can't speak highly enough of it. It doesn't try to be the "swiss army knife" of financial apps so leaves out things like daily expense tracking or budgeting, but what it does - manage an investment portfolio - it does better than any other app I've seen..and I've seen many that try, including Quicken which is simply horrible IMHO at tracking investments.

ETA - Fund Manager is such a solid app that it's not only used by individual investors, but by financial advisors as well. There are 3 levels of license available: personal, professional and advisor. Even the "personal" version has more functionality than I've ever scratched the surface of. But the fact they even have a version for professional financial advisors speaks to a certain level of sophistication and feature robustness as that's a tough market to sell into and the only apps that are going to do well in that space are ones that are solid and capable as Fund Manager is..
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

DavidC wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 6:52 pm No guarantees it will work, but if you're curious you can download Winevdm which is a tweaked version of Wine but intended to be used on Windows instead of Linux. Download and unzip the Winevdm software (the 'stable' release is kinda outdated, but may still work fine), and then run the otvdmw.exe program (it will open a dialog box to browse for and select the pfroi.exe file).

Running an older, 16 or 32 bit of Windows in a VM would also work but you'd need to have a license key for the older Windows version.
Thanks. I launched otvdmw.exe and tried to load PFROI and it threw an error.

I got PFROI to run using a program called DOSBOX. The look and feel of PFROI seem ancient now. I'll have to hunt for my PFROI manual.

IIRC PFROI claimed to calculate return on investment the correct way. I assume this is by using XIRR. I've tried using Excel's XIRR function to do this and it didn't work.

I installed Fund Manager and got a lot of entries in my start menu. When I launched it all I got was a graph with a bunch of squiggly lines. Maybe I need to RTFM. I'll give it another try to see if it's as good as you say it is.
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tominsc
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Re: Investment Software

Post by tominsc »

Absolutely totally unequivocally beyond a shadow of a doubt another vote for Fund Manager. Despite its name, it handles individual stocks just like it does funds. I've used it for decades and I’d gladly slit my wrists if I had to track our portfolio without it!
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Doom&Gloom
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Re: Investment Software

Post by Doom&Gloom »

Also voting for Fund Manager, but with a caveat to some in the BH community:

Not only is there an initial cost, there is also a fee to update FM periodically--maybe every 3-4 years or so when there is a significant update??? FM can continue to be used without accepting the updates, but you obviously don't get the benefit of new/enhanced features. The price is well worth it to me, even though FM has far more features than I have the ability to use. YMMV.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by Explorer »

chris319 wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:05 pm I've been poking away at Excel and Google Sheets and have finally come up with a portfolio manager that works just the way I want it. It is very spartan and does the job, mainly tracking investment performance. The Google Sheets version imports stock prices automatically.

I can share it with anyone who is interested, just let me know.

I tried Think or Swim and it did not do what I wanted. I don't need all those bells and whistles and whirligigs and pretty, colorful charts. It doesn't give me stock prices into the future so what use is it? :mrgreen:
Please post it here and I would like to test drive it. Thanks.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

[Content deleted]
Last edited by chris319 on Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by mkc »

chris319 wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 5:05 pm
A few years ago, I ran across this software, Investment Account Manager, which seems to have great analytical functionality. I've never actually tried it, although it's been around for decades and has a 90-day free trial. The "Features" section of their website will give you a pretty good idea of capability:

https://www.investmentaccountmanager.com/
This looks very interesting. I'm going to get the trial of the "vanilla" version.

Thank you for posting that.
Please report back. I am curious about this and Fund Manager if anyone has tried both.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

[Content deleted]
Last edited by chris319 on Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:00 am, edited 4 times in total.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

mkc wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:08 pm
chris319 wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 5:05 pm
A few years ago, I ran across this software, Investment Account Manager, which seems to have great analytical functionality. I've never actually tried it, although it's been around for decades and has a 90-day free trial. The "Features" section of their website will give you a pretty good idea of capability:

https://www.investmentaccountmanager.com/
This looks very interesting. I'm going to get the trial of the "vanilla" version.

Thank you for posting that.
Please report back. I am curious about this and Fund Manager if anyone has tried both.
I spent many hours trying to manually enter transactions in Investment Account Manager. It had the curious behavior of automatically entering buy and sell transactions of the money-market fund whenever I bought or sold a stock/fund. I really don't like this. It was making up transactions I didn't enter and of which my brokerage has no record. I couldn't find a way to defeat this behavior. It would be OK to credit or debit the cash balance in a way that is not visible to the user, but I don't want it entering transactions and dates for those made-up transactions that I and my brokerage didn't make. That's a deal breaker.

You guys have convinced me to spend some quality time with Fund Manager.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

Here is an interesting discussion of Fund Manager's performance calculations:

https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/hel ... ation.html

It reflects very favorably on Fund Manager.
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Explorer
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Re: Investment Software

Post by Explorer »

chris319 wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:16 pm Here you go. Suggestions for improvement are most welcome. Leave a post here if you have trouble accessing it.

On the to-do list are protecting various cells and adding a column for deposits and withdrawals.

Please do not alter the structure of the spreadsheet. Do not modify anything in rows 1, 2 or 3 and do not overwrite cells with formulas in them. You may change the values in cells A2 and D2 if you want a different base date for SPX.

Columns A and C are self explanatory. Column B is for recording deposits as negative amounts and withdrawals as positive amounts. Cell B3 holds the cash or debit balance.

Column D is the number of shares held IN OPEN POSITIONS. Closed positions, i.e. positions sold and no longer held, have 0 or blank as the number of shares. If there is a number, it is the number of shares currently held in the open position.

If column D is non-zero, the current price is fetched in column F, and the market value is calculated in column G.

Note that in Column E, purchase amounts are entered as negative numbers.

When a position is sold you must do three things: 1) modify the share balance in column D; 2) delete the purchase amount from column E; 3) enter the sale amount in column J. This assumes that entire positions are sold. I have to figure out how to deal with the sale of partial positions.

Columns H and I are likewise self explanatory. For a dividend, enter the symbol and the date and the dividend amount in column H. For margin interest enter the date and the amount in Column I as a negative number.

Row 3 contains the total purchase and sale amounts in columns E and J, together with margin interest and dividends.

Cell G3 is the total market value of all open positions, net of any debit balance.

Cells K and L are self explanatory.

Row 2 is devoted to the benchmark, which is SPX by default. The base date and amount can be freely changed in cells A2 and E2. If you want to use a different benchmark you will have to look up the ticker symbol for Google Finance.

Additional transactions can be added by inserting rows below the final non-blank row, or you may overwrite existing entries.

This is still a work in progress.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing
With all due respect, this sheet looks pretty primitive and manually intensive since you need to enter every transaction. My question is: why doesn't your brokerage show this data? For example, I am with Fidelity and the positions page gives me what paper gain/loss I have for all open positions across various accounts and there is a "closed positions" page that shows what I realized as gain/loss.

Good luck.
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galawdawg
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Re: Investment Software

Post by galawdawg »

Microsoft Money has a portfolio manager component to it that sounds as though it will do everything you want. I don't hold individual stocks, but have used MS Money since it was released in 1991 to track all of our earnings, spending and investments. It works almost as well today as ever but you have to manually update fund/share prices.

Since Microsoft discontinued the retail program in 2009, they released a sunset version which is free to download and use. Runs like a charm on Win10 64bit. You may wish to give it a look-see.

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Mon ... 45178.html
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

With all due respect, this sheet looks pretty primitive and manually intensive since you need to enter every transaction.
What do you expect??? I'm not Microsoft or Fidelity with a staff of salaried programmers.

As I explained in a previous post:
It is very spartan and does the job, mainly tracking investment performance.
why doesn't your brokerage show this data?
You'd have to ask my brokerage. I don't have the answer to that question.

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Re: Investment Software

Post by galawdawg »

FYI, here is what Microsoft Money's portfolio manager will do:

Track investments from multiple financial institutions.
Record and view all of your investment transactions.
Keep track of a 401(k) account.
Record mergers, spin-offs, transfers, and splits.
Get updated investment prices.
View price history, basic analysis data, and details such as ticker symbols, cost basis, strike price, and tax status.
Analyze price, performance, and other data in reports.
Customize your portfolio view, choosing from more than 75 columns of financial data.
Use the portfolio review to get a complete overview of your portfolio, including your current investment allocation, potential tax liability, performance, and major holdings.
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

galawdawg wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:13 am Microsoft Money has a portfolio manager component to it that sounds as though it will do everything you want. I don't hold individual stocks, but have used MS Money since it was released in 1991 to track all of our earnings, spending and investments. It works almost as well today as ever but you have to manually update fund/share prices.

Since Microsoft discontinued the retail program in 2009, they released a sunset version which is free to download and use. Runs like a charm on Win10 64bit. You may wish to give it a look-see.

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Mon ... 45178.html
I read that MSFT removed on-line quotes from the Sunset version. I assume this means you have to enter them manually, which is inconvenient.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by galawdawg »

chris319 wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:28 am
galawdawg wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:13 am Microsoft Money has a portfolio manager component to it that sounds as though it will do everything you want. I don't hold individual stocks, but have used MS Money since it was released in 1991 to track all of our earnings, spending and investments. It works almost as well today as ever but you have to manually update fund/share prices.

Since Microsoft discontinued the retail program in 2009, they released a sunset version which is free to download and use. Runs like a charm on Win10 64bit. You may wish to give it a look-see.

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Mon ... 45178.html
I read that MSFT removed on-line quotes from the Sunset version. I assume this means you have to enter them manually, which is inconvenient.
Yes, that's what I meant when I said "It works almost as well today as ever but you have to manually update fund/share prices."

So I assume your spreadsheet automatically updates prices and quotes? That's great!
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

I assume your spreadsheet automatically updates prices and quotes? That's great!
Yes it does. I use it every day to track several different accounts.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by djevel »

chris319 wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:28 am
galawdawg wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:13 am Microsoft Money has a portfolio manager component to it that sounds as though it will do everything you want. I don't hold individual stocks, but have used MS Money since it was released in 1991 to track all of our earnings, spending and investments. It works almost as well today as ever but you have to manually update fund/share prices.

Since Microsoft discontinued the retail program in 2009, they released a sunset version which is free to download and use. Runs like a charm on Win10 64bit. You may wish to give it a look-see.

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Mon ... 45178.html
I read that MSFT removed on-line quotes from the Sunset version. I assume this means you have to enter them manually, which is inconvenient.
Using Pocketsense you can restore automatic download and import from a large number of US financial institutions which makes MS Money work almost as originally designed. For banks/brokerages that don't have ofx servers (or will block you from accessing them) you can often download the quicken/money transactions manually (beats manual entry!)

https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsen ... moneyfixp1
Last edited by djevel on Sun Jun 13, 2021 2:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by galawdawg »

djevel wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 10:50 am
chris319 wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:28 am
galawdawg wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:13 am Microsoft Money has a portfolio manager component to it that sounds as though it will do everything you want. I don't hold individual stocks, but have used MS Money since it was released in 1991 to track all of our earnings, spending and investments. It works almost as well today as ever but you have to manually update fund/share prices.

Since Microsoft discontinued the retail program in 2009, they released a sunset version which is free to download and use. Runs like a charm on Win10 64bit. You may wish to give it a look-see.

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Mon ... 45178.html
I read that MSFT removed on-line quotes from the Sunset version. I assume this means you have to enter them manually, which is inconvenient.
Using Pocketsense you restore automatic download and import from a large number of US financial institutions which makes MS Money work almost as originally designed. For banks/brokersges that don't have ofx servers (or will block you from accessing them) you can often download the quicken/money transactions manually (beats manual entry!)

https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsen ... moneyfixp1
That's good to know. I only hold two funds (VTSAX and VBTLX) so manual updates for me when desired are no big deal. I usually do it on the last day of each month. For those who hold more positions, it sounds like Pocketsense would be a very useful add-on.

I also have always manually entered my transactions as I figure that automatic downloads will download both the correct transactions AND the errors. :shock: But again, for those who prefer automatic downloads of transactions, another very useful feature.

So while I personally don't miss the automatic quotes and downloads of transactions in MS Money, as those features weren't important to me, for others it appears Pocketsense bears a look. Thanks for sharing that info! :sharebeer
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

Please report back. I am curious about this and Fund Manager if anyone has tried both.
I gave the "Individual" version of Investment Account Manager another go. In addition to the issues described above, I had trouble setting up a margin account. I'm not sure if the "individual" version can even handle a negative (debit) balance. The docs were of little help. I don't know if the "professional" version, which costs almost $200 more, can handle margin. If so, it would need to have a category for margin interest which is potentially tax deductible.

I'm not impressed with the "individual" version of Investment Account Manager.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by sureshoe »

I used to use Microsoft Money. It was the only thing I liked for precise performance tracking. Never loved Quicken.

But why not just use Personal Capital?
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chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

sureshoe wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:33 am why not just use Personal Capital?
I looked at their web site and it looks like they want to take over your investments.
Personal Capital is the smart way to track and manage your financial life. Get award-winning financial tools and personal attention from registered financial advisors for significantly less than traditional financial advisors.

We Are a Fiduciary

Advice on Your Full Financial Picture
No thanks.
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Re: Investment Software

Post by sureshoe »

chris319 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:18 am
sureshoe wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:33 am why not just use Personal Capital?
I looked at their web site and it looks like they want to take over your investments.
Personal Capital is the smart way to track and manage your financial life. Get award-winning financial tools and personal attention from registered financial advisors for significantly less than traditional financial advisors.

We Are a Fiduciary

Advice on Your Full Financial Picture
No thanks.
Personal Capital is free. They offer advising services, but you don't have to buy them. I've been using them for years, I like it, and never spent a cent. It let's you configure recommended asset allocations, does monte carlo for you, etc. Not perfect, but I've never found perfect software other than MS Money, and even in that I found I spent an inordinate amount of time.

Before you buy and tinker with a lot of stuff, I'd spend half an afternoon to set up some accounts and see if you like it.
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chris319
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Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:04 pm

Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

sureshoe wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:48 am Personal Capital is free. They offer advising services, but you don't have to buy them. I've been using them for years, I like it, and never spent a cent. It let's you configure recommended asset allocations, does monte carlo for you, etc. Not perfect, but I've never found perfect software other than MS Money, and even in that I found I spent an inordinate amount of time.

Before you buy and tinker with a lot of stuff, I'd spend half an afternoon to set up some accounts and see if you like it.
Can it handle a margin account? Does it have a category for margin interest?
Financial decisions based on emotion often turn out to be bad decisions.
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pointyhairedboss
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Re: Investment Software

Post by pointyhairedboss »

Doom&Gloom wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:55 pm Also voting for Fund Manager, but with a caveat to some in the BH community:

Not only is there an initial cost, there is also a fee to update FM periodically--maybe every 3-4 years or so when there is a significant update??? FM can continue to be used without accepting the updates, but you obviously don't get the benefit of new/enhanced features. The price is well worth it to me, even though FM has far more features than I have the ability to use. YMMV.
I believe Fund Manager issues a new update every year. Even if you choose not to update the software, the transaction and price retrieval components will continue to update (reflecting online site changes) so that you can continue to retrieve transactions and prices.
sureshoe
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Re: Investment Software

Post by sureshoe »

chris319 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:08 am
sureshoe wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:48 am Personal Capital is free. They offer advising services, but you don't have to buy them. I've been using them for years, I like it, and never spent a cent. It let's you configure recommended asset allocations, does monte carlo for you, etc. Not perfect, but I've never found perfect software other than MS Money, and even in that I found I spent an inordinate amount of time.

Before you buy and tinker with a lot of stuff, I'd spend half an afternoon to set up some accounts and see if you like it.
Can it handle a margin account? Does it have a category for margin interest?
You probably just need to create an account and see if it does what you want. If you want certain custom reports/etc. you probably don't get that. You're going to need Quicken or some other book keeping software if you want that level of detail - but your original post seems to suggest you just want to track balances, prices, and performances. It does that in spades and is consistently at the top of any "best investment software" list.
finmanjim
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Location: Miami, Florida

Re: Investment Software

Post by finmanjim »

Fund Manager is updated every two years, but you can normally use it for 4+ years before needing an upgrade.
DetroitRick
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Location: SE Michigan

Re: Investment Software

Post by DetroitRick »

Just in case you are still, in any way, considering Investment Account Manager, I did a cursory lookup on your 2 main issues.

On the MMF fund issue, it appears this is a setup choice generating the phantom activity you described. I know this is an older version manual, but take a look at page 90 - where it gives you the option to specify a money market fund for cash. The description they give makes me think that NOT setting this up will eliminate your issue.
https://www.investmentaccountmanager.co ... Manual.pdf

On the margin issue, supposedly all versions of the product will handle margin. If not, I think this would be a deal-breaker for most potential users. Margin tracking is just so basic. That issue might be worth a call to their customer service folks, if it your biggest reservation, to see if there are approaches that will work for you.

Finally, with this or any other platform, one issue of supreme concern to me would be how well they work with transaction downloads from YOUR broker. The price data is easy, from various sources (as your spreadsheet shows), but you can see where having to manually enter tons of transactions (or even manual data downloads and uploads) would make this process pretty cumbersome for some portfolios. That issue, which I can't compare for the other providers (no first-hand experience), is one of several reasons I've stuck with Quicken. The downloads from them "just work". The only manual intervention I ever have to do with this pair involves 1)accepting splits and 2)managing spin-offs (both have easy solutions in Quicken).

Anyway, thanks for providing your feedback on these various choices. It's helpful for those of us willing to consider various alternative platforms. Hope you find what works best for you.
Topic Author
chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

Aside from margin, one issue which I've kept on the back burner is that of wash sales. I looked in the help file of IAM and didn't find much in the way of dealing with wash sales. I have since deleted IAM from my computer.

Fund manager does report wash sales but I haven't delved into it yet.

My brokerage is hooked up to Gainskeeper. I downloaded a file of my account. While perusing the transactions I discovered that Gainskeeper missed a closing transaction. I reported this to the brokerage right away. If it misses a closing transaction with a realized capital gain, the tax liability on that gain goes unfulfilled and that means trouble with the IRS. So I don't trust these automatic download/import features because history has shown they are fallible.
Financial decisions based on emotion often turn out to be bad decisions.
Topic Author
chris319
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Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

With all due respect, this sheet looks pretty primitive and manually intensive since you need to enter every transaction.
Dude, my simple spreadsheet is a romp in the park compared to GnuCash. Try setting that up — it's a barrel of fun. :?

I was able to download and install Microsoft Money Sunset Edition. It installed and ran OK. Then I tried to enter my first security. It wouldn't allow me to do so, I suspect due to the lack of on-line access which Microsoft removed from the program. Off to the digital trash bin it went.
Financial decisions based on emotion often turn out to be bad decisions.
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galawdawg
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Location: Georgia

Re: Investment Software

Post by galawdawg »

chris319 wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 1:49 am
With all due respect, this sheet looks pretty primitive and manually intensive since you need to enter every transaction.
Dude, my simple spreadsheet is a romp in the park compared to GnuCash. Try setting that up — it's a barrel of fun. :?

I was able to download and install Microsoft Money Sunset Edition. It installed and ran OK. Then I tried to enter my first security. It wouldn't allow me to do so, I suspect due to the lack of on-line access which Microsoft removed from the program. Off to the digital trash bin it went.
It is a very simple process and doesn't require online access unless you attempt to enter a new investment by ticker rather than name, but that is easy to deal with.

First you click on Set up a new account, account type is Investment, you select from Employee Stock Option, Investment, Retirement, and Watch (for tracking investments you don't actually own). Then you name the account (Schwab, for example) and select whether taxable or tax-deferred/tax-free. Then it takes you to a screen to add investments right now or do it later. If you choose right now, it takes you to a screen to add an investment by name, ticker or an index. Do it by name since Money can't go online to get the ticker, which may be where you ran into a problem. You can add the ticker later by going into the investment details or you could even just name the investment HD instead of Home Depot, for example.

Now you should be set up and ready to go!
Topic Author
chris319
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Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:04 pm

Re: Investment Software

Post by chris319 »

Oh, OK, thanks. I was trying to enter a ticker symbol and it wouldn't let me. I had uninstalled it but I still have the installation file so I'll put it back.

I got Excel, Google Sheets and Libre Office to handle the XIRR calculations better. You adjust the number of iterations the XIRR function uses. XIRR works well but you have to enter the data the right way:

Code: Select all

Date #1  Purchase amount #1 (negative)
Date #2  Purchase amount #2 (negative)
Date #3  Purchase amount #3 (negative)
Date #4  Purchase amount #4 (negative)
Date #5  Final balance (positive)
Financial decisions based on emotion often turn out to be bad decisions.
desconhecido
Posts: 114
Joined: Sat May 08, 2021 10:46 pm

Re: Investment Software Wash Sales

Post by desconhecido »

For stupid reasons that I won't go into, in 2020 we had a metric buttload of wash sales which were all closed out/reversed by year's end. Keeping track of all appeared to be a serious nightmare so I looked into Gainskeeper and another offering called Tradelog. Tradelog won out, in my opinion, and we used it to document all the problematic trades. It created all the necessary documentation and it was easy to import it into TaxAct though our software of choice is the HR Block program, except for ease of handling wash sales.
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