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PortTrak 2.0 - Questions & Answers Q: The description in FoolMart says that Portfolio Tracker can update using information from AOL or the internet, can I update without having to key in the information myself? A. You will have to key the information in once to PortTrak (with share price, number of shares, etc), and then once into AOL's Portfolio area, or our newest Foolish quote information area quote.fool.com or Yahoo Finance. (with only the ticker symbol). Then, when you want to update your PortTrak portfolio, you simply go to quote.fool.com, Yahoo or your AOL Portfolio, download the data, and import it into PortTrak. It really is rather simple. If you'd like more thorough directions for it, you can go to PortTrak and click on "Dealing with Data." Then just read the section on updating Quotes via the internet.
Q: I downloaded the portfolio tracker and tried to open it in Excel and I was informed that the program had performed an 'illegal operation' and would be shut down. I tried three times but got the same result. Now what? A. My AOL does the same thing to me from time to time. It's the Windows 95 version of a General Protection Fault. If you restart your computer and try again, it should work fine for you. Let me know if it doesn't... but I can virtually assure you that nothing illegal is going on around here. :-)
Q: When I go to the date cell to start recording information a flag pops up and says that I can't enter this information until I go to tools: submenu unprotected, but my tool bar has no tool menu when tracker is on it. So what do I do to get by this flag without blowing the computers mind. A. You're very close to success. You don't access the spreadsheet directly, but rather enter data via the PortTrak menu (up at the top right of your menu bar). You'll go to "Longs" | "Buy Stock" and enter the data for your stock. The first time you do it, you'll be entering a "New Ticker." As soon as you enter all of the data, PortTrak will prompt you for your ticker symbol, and you'll be on your way.
Q. Help� I am stuck in the PortTrak instruction area and I can't get out!! A. This is basically a quick fix. Find the Return to PortTrak icon located in the left hand corner of the uppermost toolbar. Click on it and poof!, you should find yourself in the spreadsheet area where you can start posting all of your stock transactions.
Q. I would like to start posting my portfolio transactions. Where do I find the different categories? A. The spreadsheet you are looking for is labeled the Separated sheet. To find this sheet, look to the bottom of your page for five different categories placed on five different tabs. The tabs include, in order: Separated, Consolidated, Transaction Log, Chart Info, and Portfolio Chart. Click on the different tabs for whatever category you want to work on at the time. If you have trouble viewing all of the tabs at one time, go to the little black arrows to the left of your screen and adjust.
Q. Does PortTrak track mutual funds too, as well as stocks? I own some funds and DRIPS and would like to track both. A. Yes, PortTrak will actually track anything that you assign a ticker symbol to. The key is the auto update. To make sure the automation will work, cruise on over to quote.fool.com and make sure that you can grab a quote from there for your mutual funds. If you can, then PortTrak will update it.
Q. I put the wrong initial investment amount in when setting up PortTrak, is there a way to change the initial investment without starting over? A. Sort of, but you don't need to. :0) You can change the portfolio cash, move cash in and out, and interest cash in and out. PortTrak has long since forgotten what you told it was your initial investment, since it only used that to establish your first postions.
Q. Is PortTrak really set up for the DRIPS way of investing? A. PortTrak is ideal for DRIPS since:
It accounts for a portfolio with cash movement.
Q. I can't find how to edit a security� in particular, if I entered the wrong amount or want to edit the date. A. If you go to the Separated page, you can just click on the cells for these and change them. You can't change the Per Share Price of a trade, but you can change the Total Cost, which will be reflected in the new Per Share Price, since it is computed. When you do this, make sure to change your cash as well to reflect the difference. You can also modify the date by clicking on the cell and changing it.
Q. Does PortTrak add dividends into the cost basis before calculating rate of return? A. No, you should treat dividend repurchases as a separate event. You should credit the dividend and then do another purchase. These are separate events which your broker, or your DRIP (in either case), tell you about in one step, but they are separate.
Q. I am unable to input specific dates when I added money to my portfolio in the past? Am I only able to track my portfolio versus the S&P from today forward? A. As far as back working, it is very difficult. It would involve letting PortTrak know the condition of your portfolio for each day (since there is no way it could discern that data) and then copying over the Portfolio's VPS for that day to the chart_info page. It is possible, but difficult.
Q. I just downloaded PortTrak 2.0 and when I load it into Excel 97, the first message I get is the macro virus warning. Should I be concerned with this warning? A. You will want to enable Macros so that you can use the routines in PortTrak 2.0. Your caution, however, is well founded, and you should never enable macros when receiving spreadsheets from anyone you don't know and trust. We virus check our files before they get to you.
Q. What is the best way to enter spin-offs into the database? A. One of the things which makes spin-offs such a pain, is that each is a little different. Here is the basic plan: Manually change the Total Cost of the parent company to reflect the portion of cost basis that stays with the parent company (they should tell you what it is in the documentation they send you). Do a purchase of the correct number of shares of the spin-off at the correct cost basis for that company (which will be a specific fraction of your parent company cost basis) Adjust your cash so that you haven't really lost anything by purchasing the spin-off.
Q. Where do I go to download the PortTrak Charting Index update? A. Phew, an easy one. Just stop by our free sample & file download library at http://www.fool.com/Help/TechSupport/Library/Library.htm.
Q. When I updated the indexes I noted the data only goes to mid-late 1996. Is there a data file going back further? How do I isolate a particular timeframe? A. Unfortunately, we don't have a file going back further. You would be able to get the index date from Keyword: Historical Quotes located on AOL, but since the Fool data only goes back so far, and since it would be difficult to grab the day to day numbers, we don't recommend trying this. As far as isolating an area, you can do this when you go to "View Chart" and it asks you for the date range. It will give you a range going back to the first date on the chart_info page, since that is when PortTrak started tracking your portfolio.
Q. I have been having trouble updating my Charting Indexes. I get a run time error. What am I doing wrong? A. Please check your chart_info page to see what the first date listed happens to be. PortTrak is supposed to flag for weekends to make sure that it is not one, but occasionally one will slip through. If you have a weekend date posted, just delete the date and change it to a Friday or a Monday date.
Email us at [email protected].
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