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FUNDDO.EXE Version 1.1 - Copyright December, 1989
A ShareWare program from Computer N/Hancement Associates
by J. D. Germann
This program accepts monthly information about mutual funds or
other investment choices which have time variable share prices and
issue dividends. The program will take the share prices and
dividends and calculate changes in the worth of the shares over
time periods which you select. The changes can be shown as simple
percentage increases, as annual rates of return, and as annual
rates relative to a broad market index (which you choose).
The program can be used for information covering the years 1980
to 2079.
Many context sensitive help presentations are available while the
program is running. Users will need only rare reference to the
instructions which follow.
FUNDDO is aimed at people who want a simple way to see and compare
the performances of funds and of share-issuing corporations. Only
minor and occasional need for arithmetic is involved. The program
will take care of the more complicated arithmetic.
Look at the REGISTER.DOC file to see how to obtain your personal,
up-to-date copy of FUNDDO.
- Installation -
Installation is simple. All the files below should be in one
directory (use your hard disk or an empty floppy).
List of Files
-------------
FUNDDO.EXE
PROC.DTA
FUNDNAM.DTA
DIV.DTA
SHRPRC.DTA
SHRDTS.DTA
TABLES.DTA
For any transfer of files, the directory (or floppy disk) in
which you want to run this program must be made the active,
default directory. Then, assuming that all the files which came
with the program package are on a floppy disk in Drive B:, type
COPY B:FUNDDO.EXE on the DOS command line. To get the blank data
files, type COPY B:*.DTA for the DOS command.
- Trial Data Files -
Before you begin to create your own files, you can try all the
features of the FUNDDO program using some files containing fic-
tional investment companies. You can add or erase information, or
it can be viewed, tabled and printed. To get these files in place
of the blank files, type COPY B:*.TUT *.DTA for the DOS command.
This step will erase any data files in the active directory so
don't do it if you have files with your real data in the directory.
When you are done manipulating the trial files, the blank files
can be put in place as noted in the "Installation" section above.
- Starting the Program -
With the directory containing FUNDDO as the default directory,
type FUNDDO at the DOS prompt. When the menu appears, you can
select the operation desired. While viewing this menu, press the
function key <F1> to see what each option will do.
- Data Back-up -
All of the data on company names, share prices, and dividends
which you enter can be protected from loss by accident if you
frequently copy all the files with the .DTA extension to a floppy
disk. Store the floppy in a safe place.
If an accident occurs, the program itself can be restored from
your original source. Do not transfer the data files (extensions
.DTA or .TUT) from the program source disk because that step would
erase your data files. If the data files you have been using have
been damaged so that you cannot use them, you will have to copy
the .DTA files from your most recent back-up floppy to the direc-
tory holding the FUNDDO.EXE program.
- Program Capacity -
The FUNDDO program can handle from 1 to 16 funds . Each fund can
have 121 entries for dated share prices. If entries are made once
a month, ten years of fund performance will be held.
There is space for 51 dated dividends. With quarterly dividends
and one special dividend each year, ten years of dividends will
be held.
A market index such as the Standard & Poor 500 can be entered and
is treated much like the funds in that 121 entries for its dated
price can be made. Individual dated entries for market index
dividends are not made (nor do they exist). A single value for
the long term average return for all stocks comprising the index
can be entered. It is recommended that the index return be used
if you want the fairest comparisons between your fund performances
and the general market performance.
When any list for prices or dividends is full and a new price is
entered, the oldest item on the list is discarded.
Any prices, dividends, or performances can be viewed on the screen.
The performances can be sent to a printer and the printed version
will have a little more information than the screen version.
Fund performance is measured by the amount the value of a share
changes over a pre-selected time period. The values of a share
are adjusted to reflect any dividends which have been declared.
Performance tables show those changes for each fund and for four
time periods which you designate. As mentioned above, the per-
formance shown can be simple percentage increases over the select-
ed time periods, the annual rates of return over each time period,
or the differences between the annual rates of the funds and of
the market index.
The permissible time periods used in the tables are 1, 2, 3, and 6
months and any number of years up to 10. You select which time
periods are to be shown in a table. The selections for as many as
5 tables will be saved for later use but any can be changed in a
few seconds.
- Names of Investment Companies -
The first items which must be entered are the names of the funds
or companies which you intend to follow. The `Add a new fund to
list' option of the "Add/Update" menu should be used.
The names can be 17 characters long (including spaces) and you
only need enough name so that you can identify the organization.
As you will have to enter all the dividends issued by each fund,
list only the funds for which you will be able to get dividend in-
formation. This can includes companies for which you or your
friends have shares or companies which can be followed through one
of your periodicals. You probably need something more reliable
than a local newspaper for the source of dividend information.
The name of the stock market index should also be entered. Note
that this name is not entered via the "Add/Update" drop-down menu
as the fund names are. It is entered through the "Configure"
menu and is also limited to 17 characters. The performances of
your funds will be compared to the performance of this index so
pick an index which makes a sensible comparison. For most of us,
this means a broad market index like the Standard & Poor 500.
This index is widely available and is used by many organizations
for comparison.
What does not seem to be done consistently is to adjust the market
index for any dividends issued by the companies represented. This
adjustment would allow a fairer comparison of the funds and the
market performance. You can put in an average return for the mar-
ket index using the "Configure" menu. Tables can be shown with
and without this return by viewing (or printing) tables with the
return set to zero and then repeating the operation with the re-
turn at its average value. Changing the index return is a quick
operation.
Fund or index names can be added, changed, or erased at any time.
Be careful. Erasure can eliminate share price and dividend data.
You will be warned if this is about to happen and you will be
asked to press a particular key to confirm that you really want
the erasure to be completed.
- Prices of shares -
After company names are entered, prices for shares can be entered.
When updating, prices for all funds and the index should be en-
tered on a single date. When a new set of prices is on hand, use
the `Update share prices' option in the "Add/Update" menu to enter
them.
If you are not updating but have a backlog of prices for some
fund(s), you can use the `Dates of share prices' or `Share prices
for a fund' options from the "View/Edit" menu to enter them. Look
at those options to see which would be suitable for you. The help
boxes will aid in guiding you.
The program is set up to fit well with monthly share price entries
obtained for the last day of the month. If the last day of the
month is not used, small approximations will be made internal to
the program. The last day does not mean the last business day of
the month. It means the last calendar day. If you have a set of
prices for the last business day of the month, enter them as if
they came on the last calendar day of the month. For instance, if
you had prices for the close of day on Friday, April 28, 1989,
those prices will not change before the end of the month and so,
they should be entered with the date Sunday, April 30, 1989.
If you have prices near but not exactly at the end of the busi-
ness month, enter them with their actual date and let the program
make the approximating calculations. Your print-outs will inform
you if an approximation has been made for a time period. Screen
displays of a performance table do not indicate when approxima-
tions are made.
The program will not make an approximation if the dates entered
for prices cause a time period to have too great an error. The
allowable error is different for different time periods. If a
time period can't be set with less error than allowed, blanks
will be shown in the tables. Allowable errors for time periods
are listed below.
Time Period Allowable error
----------- ---------------
1 Month 3 Days
2 or 3 Mos. 6 Days
6 Mos. 9 Days
1 or 2 Yrs. 1/2 Mo.
over 2 Yrs. 1 Mo.
When you request that a performance table be calculated, you will
pick a table with the time periods you want. You will then pick
a terminal date, the date at which all four time periods end. The
program will then find the best starting date for each period.
Both the starting and terminal dates are dates for which share
prices have previously been entered. If the starting date does
not make for a period within the allowable error, the column for
that period will be filled with blanks.
Obviously, an entry that has too great an error for a very short
period could produce a useful value when longer periods are called.
For those who are curious, the program will make a linear interpo-
lation when a time period is not exact. The percentage changes in
prices are multiplied by the ratio of the nominal period to the
actual period.
At your option, two other performance tables with annual rates of
return can be generated. One of them uses the previously display-
ed percentage total returns to calculate percentage annual rates.
The other takes these annual rates and subtracts the annual rate
of the market index. This step provides no added information but
allows quick viewing of funds doing better or worse than the mar-
ket average.
There is a possibility of generating performance numbers which are
too large for the tables to handle. The one month periods are by
far the most sensitive to this overload. This is because the an-
nual rates calculated from one month periods can be very large.
For instance, if the worth of a share (including the effect of any
dividend) were to increase by 100% in one month, then the annual
rate of increase would be calculated as 409500%.
The maximum increase for a one month period is 364% before over-
load is encountered. To encounter this rate is very unusual, but
if you do, you will see some odd symbols printed along with
numbers printed for the problem fund. The solution is to go to a
table which does not have a one month period. Other periods can
run into this trouble but are less sensitive. For instance, it
would take a 2000% increase to affect a two month period and a
9800% increase to affect a three month period. If you run into
these problems, how fortunate you are!
If you are tracking a fund which charges a fee when shares are
purchased, it is best to use the selling price (no fee) for the
share prices rather than the purchase price. This will avoid
problems if the amount of the fee changes at a later date.
- Handling Dividends -
Dividends are entered in the program individually as they are re-
ceived. It is best to enter them on the first opportunity because
they affect performance table values. A table with a terminal
date later than a declared but not entered dividend is likely to
be in error. Such a table should be re-calculated after the divi-
dend is entered.
The dividend is the fraction obtained by dividing the amount of
the dividend per share by the market price of the share. That
market price should be for the date that the dividend became ef-
fective. If you are dealing with a fund in which you automatical-
ly re-invest dividends, you will receive a notice giving you the
trade date and share price along with the amount of dividend per
share. In other cases, find the fractional dividend by using the
ex-dividend date and share price.
Do not enter the dividend as a percentage. All prices and divi-
dends are entered as fractions. The only percentages used are in
performance tables and are not entries.
If you receive more than one dividend (e.g., one for capital gains
and one for a regular dividend) which have the same trade date,
combine them into one dividend and enter that combined fraction.
This will guard against unnecessary use of space in the dividend
record. When a dividend record is full (51 entries), the oldest
entry is discarded when a new entry is made. If the oldest date
for a dividend to be discarded is less than ten years old and also
not as old as the oldest share price for that fund, then an error
can be introduced when time periods in a performance table go back
past the oldest dividend. In this case, combine a pair of the old-
er dividends into one (and erase the unneeded one). If you pick a
pair of dividends which are together between any dates called for
in the tables, there will be no error in tabled values. However,
this conflict should not happen because of the allowance for four
quarterly and one special dividend each year.
New dividends are entered through the `Update dividend records'
option of the "Add/Update" menu. Older dividends can be edited
or added through the `Dividend record for a fund' option in the
"View/Edit" menu.
- Performance Tables -
Performance tables are selected from the "Performance Tables" menu.
You can select any one of five tables. Each of the tables will
have time periods which were previously assigned. Select the
table with the time periods you want. The contents of tables are
described in the above section on `Prices of Shares'.
Use the `Adjust performance table periods' option of the "Config-
ure" menu to pick the time periods you want. The help box (press
<F1>) will tell you how to pick a time period. Any column can
have any time period. Picking a zero time period will cause
blanks to be printed in that column.
Blanks will be shown whenever the program cannot establish a re-
turn for a time period within the allowable error.
Each table will be seen on the screen and you have the option to
print each of them. The print-outs show some information not
shown on the screen. For each time period, the starting date is
included and an indication is made if the period actually used is
not exactly the same as the one selected. This would mean that an
approximation has been made for all returns in the column.
- Re-ordering the List of Names -
If you do not elect to change the order in which the company names
are listed in screen displays or print-outs, they will be shown in
the chronological order in which they were entered. As time goes
by, you may find that you want to change that order of listing.
To do so, use the `Re-order the list of funds' option in the "Con-
figure" menu.
The quickest way to re-order the list of names is to decide the
order you want in advance. Then go to the selection option and
assign the number 1 to the name you want to be first (skip it if
it is already numbered 1). Then go to the name you want second
and assign the number 2. Then assign 3 and so on until the list
is as you want it.
The order of the list can be changed at any time.
- Color Changes -
If you are using a color monitor, you can select alternate color
combinations for your screen displays by using the `Select new
colors for the display' from the "Configure" menu.
If you are using a monocchrome display, this color change option
will ignore you.
******************************************************************
COMPUTER N/HANCEMENT ASSOCIATES
Our company is looking for programming work. We write low cost,
specialized programs to do jobs which aren't well done by the
popular general purpose programs available.
Our customized programs are designed for users with minimum comput-
er skills. We do our best to assure that mistakes made while en-
tering or retrieving information do not damage data files or dis-
able the program. All methods needed when running the programs
are descibed within the program so that you do not have to re-
study a manual even if you haven't used the program in a long time.
You will find it easier and safer to use one of our custom de-
signed programs for handling or manipulating information than to
use any of the major database or spreadsheet programs.
If you have a problem that we may be able to solve with special
programming, call or write:
Computer N/Hancement Associates
315 Tassel Lane
Pittsburgh, PA 15236
(412)-653-3828
Joe Germann
January 17, 1990
