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1995-10-15
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FUND INVESTOR
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
FOR WINDOWS
Version 2.9
by:
George R. Cotten
37 Lawrence Lane
Lexington, MA 02173
CompuServe ID: 71350,316
1
Fund Investor PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
The program and this manual are the copyrighted
property of the author. You are granted a limited license to try
the program for one month, to copy it and distribute it,
provided that:
a) You do not charge a fee for the distribution or
copying of the program unless you have the prior written
consent of the author,
b) It is distributed only in its original, unmodified,
compiled form (except that it may be compressed using an
archiving facility, as long as the program can be uncompressed
only back to its original form),
c) This documentation file accompanies the program
itself, and is also distributed in its original, unmodified form
(or compressed - see exception in item b above), and,
d) It is not distributed as part of any commercial
product or service without the prior written consent of the
author.
After trying the program, if you decide to use it, please
return the license agreement/registration form, signed, along
with the registration fee. The program can be tailored
precisely to your needs and you pay only for the required
modules. Consult the registration form for details.
Registered users can obtain technical support and will be
notified about future revisions.
CAUTION!
_____________
Although the program Fund Investor may be useful for
most investors, and the author did his best to minimize bugs,
he cannot underwrite everyone's investment decisions or
business use of this product. Before using this program you
should recognize that it involves a high level of complexity
which is potentially susceptible to error either in the program
code itself or on your part due to incorrect usage. Thus you
should understand that you use and rely upon the results of
Fund Investor at your own risk.
2
You should satisfy yourself regarding the adequacy and
accuracy of Fund Investor with test examples before committing
to using and relying upon the program on a regular basis. You
should furthermore review all program output for
reasonableness before using it to make investment decisions.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Files on the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER ONE Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Program Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Initial menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Program's limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CHAPTER TWO Investments . . . . . . . . . . 12
Adding new accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Deleting existing accounts . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . 13
Sorting of existing accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Gain/Loss from transactions . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 14
Transaction log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .15
Analysis of investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Fidelity Brokerage . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 16
Capital gains calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Yield of Bonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
CHAPTER THREE Communication. . .. . . . . . . . . . 19
Connecting to the Host Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Account balance and recent activity . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Share prices, yields, and no. of shares . . . . . . . . . . .20
Transfer of shares between accounts . . . .. . . . . . . . . 21
Transfer of funds from a bank . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .21
4
Customized dialing . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
CHAPTER FOUR Other investments . . . . . . .. . . . 22
Bonds, stock market, banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Bank Investor program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
CHAPTER FIVE Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
View/delete files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Archive data files . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 24
Delete Transactions' Log data . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER SIX Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cancel last share transaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Downloading quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Use of demo. data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
CHAPTER SEVEN Plotting Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
LICENSE AGREEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 29
LIMITED WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .30
5
--------------------
Files on the Disk:
--------------------
There the following program files on the distribution
diskette:
FUNDS.EXE is the actual program,
SETGROUP.EXE, INSTALL.EXE, PLOT.EXE and
QUOTES.EXE are modules used by the main program
FUNDS.CFG is the configuration file for the program
*.ACT and *.STK are the data files for different
accounts
SHARE.LOG is the log of all transactions
SHARE.ARC contains archived transactions and is
formed when needed
COPY.DAT is a copy of "account screens" and is
formed when needed
SALES.LOG listing of "closed" positions and is
formed when needed
MANUAL.DOC is the instruction manual
MANUAL.EXE will print the MANUAL.DOC
Other files will be greated as required by the main program.
--------------------
Introduction
--------------------
The program Fund Investor automates the access
to many families of mutual funds using automated service
telephones, providing that you make the required arrangements
with these funds. NOTE: for Fidelity funds, you must join the
FAST (Fidelity Automated Fast Telephone) service. The
program permits a speedy, access to these funds: obtaining
individual quotations and balances including the last
purchase/sale/exchange of shares in your account. An
additional feature is the automated transfer of funds from your
bank to some groups of funds, or between funds in certain
groups.
The program maintains a record of all the transactions and
calculates the actual return on investment in these funds, taking
into account dividends and the change in share price. The price
quotations for different stocks, funds, or bonds can be also
downloaded from CompuServe(R), used to update all records,
and plot as a function of time .
6
A separate section of the program permits compilation of
all investments in Treasury, Municipal and Corporate bonds.
The yield to maturity of these bonds is calculated and payment
dates listed. If an interest payment is due within 30 days, then
this entry is highlighted for your convenience.
Another section is devoted to direct investments in the
stock market, and a routine is provided for making buy/sell
orders by telephone, directly to the host computer at Fidelity
Brokerage. There is also a section for recording your
investments in bank accounts, such as Certificates of Deposit,
or Money Market accounts.
Any sales, or purchases of shares, or bonds, can be
recorded by simply moving the mouse to the desired location,
clicking the left mouse button and inserting the new value into
the dialog box that appears on the screen, and then clicking on
the "OK" or "CANCEL" buttons. The program will record
automatically each such change as purchase or sale. The
program maintains a permanent record of all transactions,
calculates the actual yield on investment for individual
accounts as well as provides the "purchase date and price" and
"selling date and price" for all "closed positions".
You may try this demo for thirty days. At the end of
your trial, you are invited to register and then you will receive
a personalized copy of the program, be given access to
technical assistance and notified about future improvements.
7
CHAPTER ONE Installation
-----------------------------------------------------------
Please read the license agreement and warranty
information found at the end of this manual for more
information regarding the use of the program.
---------------------
General comments
---------------------
As in any Windows' program, you should make your
selection using mouse: locating the desired item and clicking
on it with the mouse's left button, while viewing the Main
Screen..
The "Supplementary screen" is a scrollable window
that does not support the mouse, use keyboard for selections. If
the program produces a listing larger than the space available
in the window, you may select the viewing area by use of the
scroll bar on the right hand side, or by using the "Page Up"
and "Page Down" keyboard's buttons.
-------------------
Installation
-------------------
To install the Fund Investor on a hard disk, start the
Windows program and select the File Manager. Using the File
Manager, execute "INSTALL.EXE" program and respond to all
the queeries as the appear on the screen. This will initiate the
installation process during which you will be given an
opportunity to select the drive and directory where you wish to
store the program.
After you have installed the program in your computer,
you are ready to start the program. The first time that you use
the program, you will go directly to the "configuration menu"
(see below).
8
------------------------
Program configuration
------------------------
The program is started by simply clicking on the icon
"FUNDS" in Windows' File Manager, produced during the
installation process.
Alternatively you can start it from DOS command line
by issuing a commands:
C:
cd \WFUND
WIN FUNDS
At the first start-up of the program you will be
presented with the configuration routine. This routine can be
reached at any other time by clicking mouse on "Utilities" -
"Program configuration".
You must respond to all the questions presented on the
screen, but you may leave the default choices (incl. blank).
You can move between the fields using a mouse, or the TAB
key. Some fields require a text input, others are simple buttons
that can be selected (or de-selected) using a mouse or the
keyboard.
9
You will be prompted for modem port, and asked to
select the mutual fund families that should be displayed on the
selection screen in the future. Please note that you cannot
choose more than eleven mutual fund families from the list
(plus the Fidelity Funds that are a compulsory choice). You
can add up to five families of funds that are not listed in the
program, however you will not be able to avail yourself of any
dialing routines when connected to these funds. You may also
add the "Fidelity Brokerage" account at this time (see the
specific instructions for the use of this option).
NOTE: If you do not have a modem, or do not want
to use one, type 0 when asked for the modem's port. If you
do use a modem, make sure that it is connected and turned on
before starting this program.
If you do have modem, you will be asked for its
maximum speed of transmission and the appropriate initializing
string. If you wish to use the special module for downloading
quotation from CompuServe, you will be also requested to
provide the CompuServe local telephone number, your ID and
the password.
You will also be asked for the directory path to
Bank Investor program. For the explanation of this feature, see
"Bank Investor" section of this manual.
In registered copies you are also given a choice
whether you wish to protect the access to the program and data
with your personal password. Please note that the password is
case sensitive, ie. "PASSWORD" is not the same as
"password", or "PassworD" ! The data files are further
protected from intrusion by encoding some of critical
information like: number of shares, PIN code and the personal
password.
NOTE: Make a note of your password, since once this
option has been invoked, the program cannot be started
without the correct password. If you retained the original copy
of the program (without the password invoked), in emergency
you may recover the data by copying the former FUNDS.CFG
file into your new directory and then starting the program
anew.
10
-------------------
Initial Menu
-------------------
Using the Fund Investor is straightforward. To start the
program click on the appropriate icon, or type:
Once you have followed the steps above, the first screen will
be displayed. The initial window that appears after the user
passes through the "Registration screen", contains at the top a
menu bar which presents the following options:
File
Investments
Communication
Account info.
View
Utilities
CompuServe module
Tools
Help
11
The inactivated menu choices will be "grayed" for easy
identification. In order to start the program you MUST click
the mouse on the "File", this will drop the menu:
Portfolio #1
Portfolio #2
Portfolio #3
Exit this program
Exit Windows
You MUST click on the "Portfolio #1", to activate most of the
other menu options. If you wish to terminate the program, but
remain under Windows - click on the "Exit this program". The
"Exit Windows" selection terminates the program and the
Windows operating system and brings back the DOS command
line.
The option to set up the additional two individual
portfolios (Portfolio #2 and Portfolio #3) is available to the
registered users only. NOTE: Portfolios #2 and 3 can use only
the accounts that have already been selected for the Portfolio
#1.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The program uses two windows to
display information. In the Main Window (background color -
light blue) all selections are accomplished using a mouse to
point the selections and then clicking the left mouse button to
confirm it. In the Supplementary Window (background color -
white) the mouse does not operate and all selections must be
made by entering the appropriate number (or text) from the
keyboard and pressing the <ENTER> key to complete the
transmission.
----------------------------
Program's limitations
----------------------------
The program requires IBM compatible computer, type
386 or higher, a Hayes compatible telephone modem, mouse,
and a telephone receiver with Touch-Tone dialing. A limited
version of the program can be run without a modem. The
operating system should be MS-DOS version 3.1 or above, and
include Windows version 3.1 or higher, running in the
Enhanced mode.
12
The program will use a RAM drive for its work files,
providing that such drive is available and has a subdirectory
\TEMP, or \TMP , in accordance with specifications for
Windows system. Consult DOS, or Windows, manuals for a
further description of RAM drives.
The data files are of "sequential" type. The data files
can be accessed with any editing program, but you are advised
against making any corrections, or changes, using an outside
editor, since you may inadvertently destroy the usefulness of
such files. The content of the data files is further protected
from unauthorized intrusion by encoding some of the critical
numbers.
13
CHAPTER TWO Investments
______________________________________________________
To record any change in investments, such as purchase
or sale of stocks, bonds, price change, or the balance on bank
accounts, select with your mouse "Investments" - to drop the
next menu:
Mutual funds
Bonds
Stocks
Banks
Investment analysis
Capital gains calculation
Yield of bonds
Select with your mouse any one of the first four options if you
desire to update your portfolio. "Investment analysis" presents
a summary of all your investments and annual budgets, capital
gains calculations assist in compiling data for IRS Schedule D
(Capital Gains), while "Yield of bonds" routine permits the
calculation of the yield to maturity and durability of bonds. If
you choose "Mutual funds", the next screen gives a listing of
all the currently selected mutual fund families. You may also
select one of the other options, such as: bonds, stocks, or
banks.
If you select "Mutual funds", "Bonds", "Stocks", or
"Banking", the next window lists all your holdings in the
selected investment category (or mutual fund family). In the
tabulation:
No. - is a letter signifying the line no, of the
account
Fund No. - is the number designated by the Mutual
Funds' group
Code - is the "pin no." assigned to the account for
secure telephone communication
shares, yield, and price - are obtained from the
financial institution (NOTE: the calculated, actual gain on
investment can be found in "Gain/Loss screen)
value - equals to (shares * price). While the
"Accounts Screen" is displayed, several other selections are
activated. For instance you may telephone for the latest mutual
fund information, add/delete accounts, or display the "Gain-
Loss Screen". Each of these choices will be described in detail
below.
14
-------------------------
Adding New Accounts
-------------------------
After you have chosen the desired family of funds,
stocks, bonds, or banks, you will be presented with the screen
summarizing all your accounts in that selection. If you desire
to add a new account to the list, select with the mouse "Tools"
on the main Menu Bar. This will display the drop menu, from
which select "Enter new account". You will be next presented
with a list of questions to answer: Fund number, Fund
description, your account number, stock symbol (optional -
required for automated downloading of share prices), security
code (if none required, enter 99), Social Security number
(optional, it is required by some Funds), number of shares on
the account, the share yield and price (Note: no. of shares,
their yield, and price should be entered on a single line,
separated by blank spaces). After you answered all the
questions, the screen containing the summary of all your
accounts will re-appear.
NOTE: The questions will differ slightly if you add an
account to Stocks, Bonds, or Banks.
----------------------------------
Deleting an existing account
----------------------------------
To delete an existing account, select with the mouse
"Tools" on the main Menu Bar. This will display the drop
menu, from which select "Delete existing account". At this
point, a dialog box will appear and you will be asked for the
account number. NOTE: The account number is a single letter
displayed in the left-most column of the "Account screen"
tabulation. A deletion of an account will cause also the
deletion of all recorded transactions on this account in the
"Transaction Log", if you so choose (see later).
The registered version of this program offers an option
to archive the deleted records in a separate file whose format is
compatible with most of the popular spreadsheet and database
programs.
NOTE: You cannot delete ALL the funds on any given screen.
15
------------------------
Sorting of accounts
------------------------
You may re-arrange your accounts to any desired order
by selecting with "Tools" on the main Menu Bar. This will
display the drop menu, from which select "Sort accounts". At
this point, a dialog box will appear and you will be asked for
the account number. NOTE: The account number is a single
letter displayed in the left-most column of the "Account
screen" tabulation.pressing You will be asked which record
should be moved, enter its position (eg. A). Next you are
asked to which position the record should be moved. Enter the
desired new position (eg. B) . Repeat the procedure until all
accounts have been sorted.
------------------------
Gain/Loss screen
------------------------
As you change a listing of all the accounts with a
given Fund and/or change the amount of shares that you own
in these accounts, an additional information is being developed
in the supplementary screen - called "Gain/Loss screen". You
can access this screen by selecting "Windows" from the main
menu bar, followed by the selection of "Gain-loss screen" from
the drop-down menu. The screen presents the Fund number,
account name, the amount of money that you invested (ie. all
the purchases, less all the sales), the current value, the total
profit/loss and average percentage of gain/loss over the period
from the date shown on the screen.
NOTE: For description of "gain/loss" screen for Bonds see
later.
The average percentage gained/lost on investment ("av.
%") during the period, starting on the date shown, is simply
the total capital gains (re-invested dividends plus change in
shares' price) divided by the total amount invested during that
period. Note that any distributions (such as dividends) that
were not re-invested, are not included in the gain/loss
calculations.
You are permitted to change the date, and this will
cause all the PERCENT gain/loss calculations to commence
from that date only. Note that in the calculation of the average
percentage gained/lost on investment ("av. %"), all shares
purchased prior to that date are automatically re-priced to the
price recorded on that (or nearest to it) date and thus the result
of these calculations is greatly influenced by the selection of
the correct date.
16
The annualized gain/loss (ann. %) is the quarterly
compounded, annual interest rate, that would produce the same
average percentage gain/loss during the period, as the one
calculated above, if a lump sum was invested at the beginning
of the period at the "ann. % " rate.
The Total Gain/Loss and Average % Change for the
particular family of Funds are presented in the top right-hand
corner of the screen. The Total Gain/Loss is the amount
compiled from ALL the records available in SHARE.LOG file,
while the Average % Change is the average for all transactions
that occurred AFTER the date shown in the table.
You can change back to the account screen by
selecting "Accounts screen".
-------------------------
Transactions' log
-------------------------
A log of all the transactions. ie. any change in the
number of shares, is maintained separately and can be accessed
by selecting "Windows" from the main menu bar, and next
choosing "Transactions' log" from the drop-down menu. The
last column that is displayed, "amount paid ($)", represents the
amount paid for the purchase (if positive), or amount received
from sale (if negative), or will be equal to 0 if the transaction
was a result of dividend distribution.
No changes can be made to these records.
------------------------------
Analysis of investments
------------------------------
In the following calculations it is assumed that all the
Money Market funds and bank accounts had a constant value
of deposited dollars throughout the period, and equal to the
currently recorded balances. In calculation of the value of
bonds portfolio, you are given an option to correct the value of
bonds not bought at par (ie. 100) for a change in their value
with time. If this option is selected the actual price paid is
corrected by a factor ;
corr.price = price paid - N1/N2 * (100 - price paid)
where N1 is the number of days the bond was owned and N2
is the number of days from the day of purchase to maturity.
17
"Summary of investments" gives a summary of all
your investments in the mutual funds (subdivided into: stock
funds, bond funds and money market funds), as well as your
bond, stocks, and bank accounts . The summary will be
presented both as the dollar value and percentage of total
capital. The total value of dividends per year from the bonds
and average yield is also given, as well as the amount of
dividends due before the end of the current calendar year. You
may select an option "Correct bond values for the
REMAINING time to maturity" - this option, when exercised,
will give a rough correction to the bond values as a result of
shortening their time to maturity while they are held in the
portfolio.
The program will also calculate the total capital gains
in the Stock and Bond Mutual Funds since the beginning of
the current year. (NOTE: You are advised to price ALL the
mutual funds on January 1st, as the program searches for the
prices dated nearest to that date and uses them for the
calculation of the total value of bond and stock funds at the
beginning of the current year.) Starting in April of each year,
the program will also calculate the projected (estimated) values
for the annual income - assuming that it will continue to grow
at the same rate.
An additional routine "Budget" is provided to assist in
recording annually the projected versus achieved investment
goals. This routine requires that it be entered just before
January 1 of each year to record (automatically the present
value of the portfolio), and just after January 1st to record the
starting value of the portfolio and the new goals.
-------------------------
Fidelity Brokerage
-------------------------
This section of the program will permit you to interact
with the host computer for placing the buy/sell orders and
obtaining stock quotations through the Fidelity Brokerage.
Note that the Fidelity Brokerage has been placed under the
category of Mutual Funds, ie. you reach it by selecting
"Mutual Funds" from the main menu bar. Simply follow the
instructions as they appear on the screen and listen to the
responses through the telephone receiver. The dialing sequence
has been timed to correspond to the various questions asked by
the host computer, at one point you have a choice of two
responses, depending on the question asked by the computer.
Since the sequence is rather complicated, you should first try it
out and be prepared to cancel the order when the host
computer offers this option at dialog's end..
18
NOTE: during the configuration of the program, if you
choose the "Fidelity Brokerage" , you will need to either
accept the default values for their transaction charges, or to
insert the modified ones (custom set).
------------------------------
Capital gains calculation
------------------------------
IRS Schedule D (capital gains) requires a report of
"purchase date and cost/base" and "sales date and gross sale
price". Frequently your sale lots may differ in the number of
shares from the purchase lots. Three different reporting
methods are approved by IRS:
1. First In, First Out (FIFO) method
2. Specific identification method
3. Category averaging method
This part of the program will provide the required information
for all three method. However you are advised to consult the
IRS regulations on use of these techniques.
(a) A common method for reporting such sales is known
as FIFO (ie. "First in, first out"). The program does these
calculations for you and you can obtain the report by selecting
"Sales log" from the selection screen. The "sales log" does not
include any Money Market Fund transactions. The program
gives you an option either to list ALL the transactions, or only
those lots that were sold between a selected "starting date" and
"final date".
NOTE: the "Date bought" and "Date sold" are highlighted for
all "long term sales" (ie. when the assets were held for more
than 360 days).
You may also delete all the "closed" positions (ie. all
lots of shares that have been sold). However you are advised
that selection of this option may introduce small errors in
calculation of gain/loss in all the accounts.
19
(b) Specific identification method allows you to identify
the particular lot that you are selling and the program will
record your selection for future use. After you select the
particular security that you wish to sell, the program displays a
listing of all the available transactions. The list includes the
date of the transaction, number of shares purchased, number of
remaining shares and their purchase (base) price. The number
of remaining shares represents the number of shares that has
not been sold in any of the previously recorded transactions.
(c) Category averaging method permits you to use as the
basis the average price of all identical securities that were
bought at different times. The program will calculate these
averages for you. You may select either "single category" or
"double category". The "double category averaging" method
gives the average for securities held for less than one year, and
those held for more then one year.
--------------------
Yield of bonds
--------------------
A separate routine (available from the initial selection
screen) is provided for calculating yield to maturity and
duration of bonds. The yield to maturity is calculated by three
different methods. The first two:
1. Moody's equation
and 2. S&P equation
have been published by these two, well known companies.
However they implicitly assume that the annual premiums are
re-invested at the interest rate of the bond. This is not
necessarily true. For instance you may purchase a bond having
a nominal interest rate of 9%, but be able to reinvest the
proceedings at only 4%. In the third calculation there is no
such assumption. You select the interest rate that you expect to
obtain on invested annual premiums, and the computer
calculates what would be the equivalent, annualized,
compounded interest rate if the funds were held to bond's
maturity.
The Moody's equation requires a number of iterations
and you may find some delay before the results are printed
(particularly with slower computers and/or bonds of long time
to maturity). The delay time may be controlled by selecting the
default (fast), or "more precise" (slower) iteration interval at
the opening screen for the procedure.
20
The duration of bonds is also calculated, since this
provides a measure of sensitivity of the bond to interest
fluctuations. In the last column, the projected change in the
value of the bond is calculated for 1% change in the interest
rates prevailing in the marketplace.
21
CHAPTER THREE Communications
____________________________________________________
To initiate communications you must select
"Communication" from the main menu bar. Next select "Dial
host computer" from the drop-down menu. This will cause the
modem to dial the appropriate telephone number that refers to
the current "Account screen". Once the dialing is completed,
you may select your next action. To terminate your connection
with the host computer, you should select "Hang-up telephone
from the drop-down menu.
Once the dialing is completed, a number of selections
under the "Account info." (on the main menu bar) become
available, you may choose: account balance, last purchase, last
sale, share price, exchange between accounts, transfer from
bank and "next instruction" .
If you select account balance or share price, you must
follow your selection by clicking the mouse over the
ACCOUNT DESCRIPTION for the account about which you
are enquiring. The host computer will respond vocally (listen
to it on the telephone receiver) soon after the dialing is
completed.
You may now update the records (eg. new price, or
change in the number of shares) by pointing and clicking the
mouse on the appropriate number in the "Account screen"
tabulation. This will initiate an input routine: the selected
number will turn red and a dialog box asking for the new
value will appear. You may continue these actions repeatedly
until you obtain all the desired information for all the funds in
a given family.
NOTE: The Benham, Merrill Lynch, and Vanguard families of
funds allows you to repeat the actions initiated by either
"Account balance" or "Share price", BUT if you wish to switch
from one to another, you must first indicate your desire by
selecting "Next instruction" on the drop-down menu. This
procedure is not required by the other families of funds.
You may change the values of : number of shares,
yield and their price Please note that whenever you change
the number of shares, the computer interprets it as a
purchase/dividend/sale and will make the appropriate record of
the transaction. In order to record the correct price of shares
that were bought/sold, ALWAYS change the price before
changing the number of shares!
22
The updated screen is automatically displayed. Note
that the prices and yields of all other funds on the screen that
have the same "Fund Number" are also automatically updated.
This feature is particularly useful if you have several accounts
with the same Fund (eg, regular and IRA ones). You will also
find the date of the last record change in the upper, right
corner of the screen.Each time you change the price of the
share - the new price and the date of change will be recorded
in the file HISTORY.DAT, which is subsequently used for
plotting that data.
NOTE : Fidelity family of funds requires that you have at least
one account active before you can access the data by phone.
-----------------------------------------
Account balance and recent activity
-----------------------------------------
The account balance and the current value can be
obtained by the method described above. Once you go through
that procedure, you can also obtain additional information for
that particular account by selecting: last purchase, or last sale
from the drop-down menu.
------------------------------------------------
Transfer of shares between active accounts
------------------------------------------------
Several families of funds permit the use of this service
for exchange of shares between your active accounts and/or
setting up of a new account. However, you must use the
individual account numbers rather than the "family" ones. For
instance in Fidelity group of funds you are not allowed to use
numbers starting with letter "T". Unfortunately, the author was
unable to obtain the detailed instructions for this procedure for
all families of funds at the time of setting up this program.
In order to start this procedure, select "Account info."
from the main menu bar, and then select "Exchange between
accts" from the drop-down menu. A dialog box will now
appear answer the questions as they appear in the top three
lines on the screen. You must await response from the Host
computer, when it is so indicated on the screen. At the end of
the procedure the Host computer gives you the final choice of
either accepting or cancelling the transaction as spelled on the
screen and spoken by the Host computer on the telephone.
23
NOTE: Whenever you are asked to provide "account (rec.
no)", respond with the letter (eg. A) corresponding to that
fund. If you wish to open a new account, you must provide the
Fund No. as specified by the prospectus. After each
selection/response press <ENTER> key.
------------------------------------
Transfer of funds from a bank
------------------------------------
In order to use this service, special arrangements must
be made with your Fund Manager (as eg setting up of "Money
Line" for Fidelity funds). You must use the individual account
numbers rather than the "family" ones.
In order to start this procedure, select "Account info."
from the main menu bar, and next choose "Transfer from
bank" from the drop-down menu. Answer all the questions as
they appear in the Supplementary Window. At the end of the
procedure the Host computer gives you the final choice of
either accepting or cancelling the transaction as displayed on
the screen and spoken by the Host computer on the telephone.
NOTE: Whenever asked to provide "account (rec. no)",
respond with the letter (eg. A) corresponding to that fund and
found in the left-most column of the tabulation.
--------------------------------
Customized Dialing Routine
--------------------------------
The user is given an opportunity to design up to five
customized dialing routines. In order to do so, select "optional
dialing" from the selection screen and you will be given the
next choice of: dialing, setup, and correction.
Select "setup" and follow the instructions on the screen
to enter the telephone number and the dialing sequence. You
may use numbers in any combination with the following
symbols: ( - ) . In addition, you may use a
comma whenever you wish to introduce a pause in dialing.
Each comma is equivalent to a pause of 2 seconds. Press
<ENTER> when finished.
You may alter/correct your dialing sequence by
choosing "correction" from the menu. You will then be
presented with the current sequence and you can type the
corrected sequence immediately underneath the old one. Press
<ENTER> when the corrections are completed.
24
CHAPTER FOUR Other investments
____________________________________________________
IF you select "Stocks" or " Bonds from the Main
Menu, you enter a separate routines. In most respects the
screen display and operation resemble the corresponding
features of the section dealing with the Mutual Funds. The
following differences should be noted however:
1. The dividends and other distributions that are not re-
invested, are not included in the gain/loss calculations.
2. A deletion of any share record from the Account Screen,
may also delete all related transactions from the Transaction
Log, if you so select.
3. An additional screen of data "Bond calculations and
Payment dates" can be reached by selecting "View" from
main menu bar, followed by "Gain/loss screen" from the drop-
down menu.. The following additional information is provided
on this screen:
a. Actual yield to maturity of the bond, calculated
using S&P formula using two basis: "orig" - assuming that the
bond was purchased on date shown, "today" - assuming that
the bond was purchased today. The second alternative is useful
in evaluating the change in the bond's yield as its market value
changes.
b. Payment dates and the amount paid. For your
convenience, any payments that are due within the next 30
days, and 10 days after the pay date, are highlighted.
4. In the section devoted to bank accounts ("Banks"), it is
suggested that you use following descriptive titles:
CD - Certificates of Deposit
MM - Money Market accounts
SAV - Saving accounts
REG - Other checking accounts
------------------------
Bank Investor program
------------------------
An complementary program, Bank Investor, is available
for "home financing" ie. maintenance of checking accounts,
printing checks, obtaining balances. If you are using it for
maintaining your current bank accounts, you may transfer
balances in the selected bank accounts to this program byy
selecting "Data from Bank Investor" (under "Tools" menu). They
will appear on the "Banks" screen. Simply make the
appropriate menu selections.
25
CHAPTER FIVE Utilities
_______________________________________________
A number of utility routines have been provided under
the general heading of "Utilities" on the main menu bar. These
include:
View of data files
Delete data files
Delete Transactions' Log data
Archive all data files
Add "pre-dated" transactions
Program configuration (in "registered" version only) -
see comments on page 6 of this manual
System information (in "registered" version only -
analysis of your computer system
The "unregistered" version of this program has an additional
general heading "Setup", which includes the following procedures:
Program configuration
System information
Print manual
Purchase order and registration
Use of demo. data - see comments below
-------------
View files
-------------
This routine displays the content of the COPY.DAT
and SHARE.ARC files. Both of these files are written in
delimited format, suitable for subsequent use in a variety of
spreadsheet (eg. Lotus 123(R)), or data-base (eg. (dBase(R))
programs.
----------------
Delete files
----------------
A routine for deletion of optional files, such as:
SALES.LOG, SHARE.ARC, COPY.DAT, and QTRACK.TXT.
---------------------
Archive data file
---------------------
This routine copies all the data files (not program files)
on to a floppy disk for safe storage, eg in case of corruption of
hard disk files.
26
--------------------------------
Delete Transactions' Log data
--------------------------------
This routine allows to delete:
(a) all records,
(b) all transactions in Money Market funds and
"dividends" (prior to specified date),
If the dividend payments are combined prior to a selected date,
that date is automatically recorded on the "Gain/Loss" screen
and all future calculations of gain/loss will start from that date.
It is recommended that the option (b) should be enacted once a
year, as close as possible to the Jan. 1.
These techniques are useful for reducing the size of the
SHARE.LOG file, which is limited to 700 records.
27
CHAPTER SIX Tools
_________________________________________________
Several useful techniques have been provided under the
heading "Tools" on the main menu bar. These are:
Enter new account - see description on page 10 of
this manual
Delete existing account - see description on page 11
of this manual
Sort accounts - see description on page 11 of this
manual
Cancel last share transaction - see comments below
Printer - see comments below
D/L from CompuServe/Prodigy - see comments
below
---------------------------------
Cancel last share transaction
---------------------------------
This routine permits to cancel the last transaction that
involved a change in the total number of shares, ie. sale,
purchase or dividend.
-------------
Printer
-------------
If you desire to print any of the screens as it is
displayed, select "Printer" and choose "Turn printer on". Next
go back to the desired screen, it will be printed as it appears in
the window. The printing option will remain active until you
return to the "Printer" selection and choose "Turn printer off".
-----------------------------------------------
Downloading quotations from CompuServe(R)
-----------------------------------------------
NOTE: You can download ONLY the price quotations for the
securities already listed in one of the existing accounts (mutual
funds, or stocks) and displayed on the appropriate "account
screen". The stock symbol of such securities MUST be
identical to the symbol used by CompuServe(R) .
28
In order to download the quotations from CompuServe(R)
select "Quotes" from the main menu bar.
Select from "Investments" - "New listing" . This will
list all your mutual funds and stocks. Next you may "Correct
existing listing" to remove not needed items and check that all
listed securities have a valid symbol. If some symbols are
incorrect, or missing, select "Change securities' symbols" from
the "Quotes" menu.
If the listing is satisfactory, select "Download quotes".
This will initiate the communication module. Select "Dial
CompuServe(R) from the "Communication" menu. The
program will now dial CompuServe(R) and obtain quotes for
all the investments listed. Press <ENTER> when requested to
do so. This will terminate the module and return you to the
Main Program which will automatically update prices of all the
securities that you listed previously.
---------------------
Use of demo. data
---------------------
In the Shareware (unregistered) version of the program
you are given an opportunity to use demo. data to familiarize
yourself with the program. To use this option, select "Use of
demo. data" from the "Utilities" menu, and next proceed to the
"Main menu" to select desired accounts. A small note will
appear in the upper, left corner to indicate that demo. data is
being used.
29
CHAPTER SEVEN Plotting module
__________________________________________________
The "Plotting module" is a separate module accessed
from the "Utility" menu, select "Plotting".
All changes in prices of mutual funds, shares, and
bonds are automatically recorded in the file HISTORY.DAT .
You may plot this data by entering the "Plotting module" and
selecting the particular group of data by answering a few
questions on the display screen. The data is plotted as price
(on the Y-axis) versus the number of days (on the X-axis)
since the first entry.
If a share distribution has occurred (as capital gains, or
stock split) you may correct all the previous (recorded)
quotations by selecting the routine from the menu and entering
the fractional (decimal fraction) number of shares that have
been distributed per one share owned. You should perform this
procedure only once for each share distribution, since all the
records are permanently corrected.
A list of the historical data may also be recorded to
widen the period covered by the plot, however only the
securities listed in any one of the accounts (and displayed on
the "account screen") can be entered.
As an additional feature in this program you may add a
plot of a "moving average" to aid in your investment decisions.
A "moving average" is a plot of an average taken over the
previous n weeks, where you can select the value of n,
versus the number of days and it tends to eliminate any minor
variations in prices. For a longer term predictions it is
preferred to use a 30-week average, but that can only be done
with a data base stretching for at least 1 year. If you select 1
week, the plot will almost coincide with the actual data points.
A good compromise is to take an intermediate value of 10
weeks.
NOTE: For successful creation of a plot of "moving
averages" it is necessary to record the price variations at
constant time intervals: daily, or weekly. For an average
investor it is suggested that weekly routine is satisfactory.
30
LICENSE AGREEMENT
-----------------------------------------
The use of the Fund Investor program is granted under
the following terms:
1) You may make copies of the program and
documentation in their original, unmodified, form without
restriction. You may make copies of the documentation either
in its printed or machine readable form without restriction. If
these copies are distributed to others outside of your
organization, you have no obligation to control the use of those
copies; however, any copies made which are distributed within
your organization are restricted to the terms of this license
agreement.
2) You may not modify the program or its
documentation or charge a fee for copying or distributing the
program or its documentation.
3) You may use the Fund Investor program on the
number of computers for which you have paid the license fee.
If the fee has been paid for a site license, you may use the
program on as many computers as are located at that site;
however, you may not use the program on any computer not
located at that site without paying an additional licensing fee.
I agree to abide by the terms and conditions of this
license.
___________________ _________________
Signature Date
31
LIMITED WARRANTY
____________________________________
The author warrants to any licensee that acquires the
program from him that:
1) All diskettes the author provides to licensee
constitute an accurate duplication of the software and manual.
The author will replace any diskette found to be defective
within 30 days from the date of acquisition. The author
withholds the right to not honor this warranty if the diskette
has been subjected to physical abuse, or used in defective or
incompatible equipment.
2) The Fund Investor program will perform
substantially as described in the documentation accompanying
the software, if used as directed in such documentation.
3) This warranty specifically limits any remedy to
the replacement of the physical diskette and documentation if
these were originally acquired directly from the author. It shall
not cover any other damages including, but not limited to: loss
of profit, commercial damage, or other special, consequential
or similar claims. The Fund Investor program is sold without
warranty as to its merchantability or fitness for any particular
purpose.
4) The author makes no warranty that its software is
error free nor that its use by the licensee will be uninterrupted.
5) It is necessary to complete and return the
registration card and pay the license fee to implement this
warranty and to receive customer support.