PortTrak 2.0 - Dealing with Data, Shorting Stock

The Big Picture

When you instruct PortTrak to short a stock, it will prompt you for all of the relevant information needed to enter the short into your portfolio. It needs to know what the ticker symbol of your short is, how many shares you are shorting, what the cost per share is, and how much you will be paying in commission.

If you are not already short this security in your portfolio, you should tell PortTrak that it is a <new ticker>, and then continue to enter the rest of the data. When you are finished and hit OK, PortTrak will ask you for the symbol.

When you enter all of the information for PortTrak, make sure to only enter positive numbers with decimals. You should not enter fractions or symbols (like dollar signs), or negative numbers.

Once you are finished, PortTrak will take your information and create a transaction on the Separated portfolio sheet. This item will be distinct from the rest of your portfolio because of its color scheme. It will include the date (which you may change), as well as the rest of the information you have just entered. On the Consolidated portfolio sheet, there is an aggregate of all of the transactions in a given stock, with the average price, average cost, etc.

PortTrak neither adds nor subtracts funds from your portfolio until you cover your short, at which time whatever gain or loss is moved to your cash. Until then, the gain or loss of the short is credited to your portfolio value, but not to your cash.

Step By Step

1) Choose "Short Stock" from the menu
2) Choose the ticker symbol, or <new ticker> if you are not already short any of this stock
3) Enter the number of shares you are shorting
4) Enter the price per share
5) Enter the commission you are being charged
6) Hit the "Calculate" button to see what the total values of the short are going to be
7) Hit the "OK" button to enter the transaction
8) PortTrak will enter the data into the Separated portfolio sheet, and onto the Consolidated portfolio sheet

Back to Dealing With Data

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