Hi,
I'm new to this group. I'd like to know what software
tool/program/programming language do you investors use to help manage
your portfolio and help with long-term financial planning.
TIA
--
SO
I don't brake for FEMA.
s okura wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to this group. I'd like to know what software
> tool/program/programming language do you investors use to help manage
> your portfolio and help with long-term financial planning.
>
> TIA
Microsoft Money and Excel are my primary desktop tools. But your
favorite browser (I'm looking for a new one - I've finally given up on
Netscape) is probably your single best friend.
-Will
Ah's is o-o-old fashin'd - ah use books .... (Accounting, market,
charting, stock analysis, read news, 10K's, and keep data on
spreadsheets, whether Excel or 123 or Quattro - and of course, the
browser.)
The old maxim still applies, though ... you know, "garbage in; garbage
out". There are guys better than I who use paper and pencil!
"dapperdobbs" <> wrote in message
news:
> Ah's is o-o-old fashin'd - ah use books .... (Accounting, market,
> charting, stock analysis, read news, 10K's, and keep data on
> spreadsheets, whether Excel or 123 or Quattro - and of course, the
> browser.)
>
> The old maxim still applies, though ... you know, "garbage in; garbage
> out". There are guys better than I who use paper and pencil!
>
here's some useful Excel tools:
For me, there is nothing better than Quicken. Check it out at
quicken.com.
In article <>,
Will Trice <> wrote:
> s okura wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm new to this group. I'd like to know what software
> > tool/program/programming language do you investors use to help manage
> > your portfolio and help with long-term financial planning.
> >
> > TIA
>
> Microsoft Money and Excel are my primary desktop tools. But your
> favorite browser (I'm looking for a new one - I've finally given up on
> Netscape) is probably your single best friend.
>
> -Will
Thanks. For a browser may I suggest Firefox (free, for Macs or PCs at
getfirefox.com). Don't even think about IE.
--
SO
I don't brake for FEMA.
"s okura" <> wrote
> For a browser may I suggest Firefox (free, for Macs or PCs
> at
> getfirefox.com). Don't even think about IE.
Seconded. I switched a few weeks ago to (Mozilla) Firefox,
and I'm not going back. Much faster, and with no serious
disadvantages. Also downloadable from www.mozilla.com . It's
much talked about at Windows software newsgroups, for one. I
hate downloading software, because it has numerous risks,
but Firefox is worth it.
I use several ordinary MS-Works spreadsheets for my
household budget, stock and bond positions, and taxes. I
draw on finance.yahoo.com, etfconnect.com,
quantumonline.com, morningstar.com, treasurydirect.com,
fidelity.com (need an account for the good info), several
online investing and portfolio allocation calculator sites
(all free) etc. for planning.
Elle wrote:
> "s okura" <> wrote
>
>>For a browser may I suggest Firefox (free, for Macs or PCs
>>at
>>getfirefox.com). Don't even think about IE.
>
>
> Seconded. I switched a few weeks ago to (Mozilla) Firefox,
> and I'm not going back.
Coincidentally, I just started downloading the various parts you need
these days to make a full Firefox browser today. One of my biggest
peeves is that Netscape will no longer open my portfolios at
finance.yahoo.com, so I'm going to give Firfox a try. Already I'm
finding that it doesn't play nice with my firewall (ZoneAlarm), but I
think I can get it configured to do so.
Thanks to you and S for the advice,
-Will
Believe it or not, you can create simple spreadsheets using the "table"
function in Word Perfect. They work great for basic calcuations when you
don't want all the bells and whistles of Excel.
I also like Firefox as a browser. Although occasionally you run into a web
site that expects to see MSIE.
"Will Trice" <> wrote
> Elle wrote:
>> Seconded. I switched a few weeks ago to (Mozilla)
>> Firefox, and I'm not going back.
>
> Coincidentally, I just started downloading the various
> parts you need these days to make a full Firefox browser
> today. One of my biggest peeves is that Netscape will no
> longer open my portfolios at finance.yahoo.com, so I'm
> going to give Firfox a try. Already I'm finding that it
> doesn't play nice with my firewall (ZoneAlarm), but I
> think I can get it configured to do so.
I haven't installed ZoneAlarm yet, though it's on my To-Do
list. I also haven't installed any of the add-ons or
extensions etc. for Firefox; I did just the one download
from the mozilla.com site.
Right now I can't get to my play portfolio on
finance.yahoo.com using Firefox or Internet Explorer. I can
get to the page that allows me to edit it. But I can't get
to the link that allows me to view it.
For the record, all of the dozens of sites I use regularly
work fine. Two sites (one a commercial site for I think
Hewlett Packard; another someone's personal home page) I do
not use regularly don't come up properly.
"s okura" <> wrote in message
news:
>
> I'm new to this group. I'd like to know what software
> tool/program/programming language do you investors use to help manage
> your portfolio and help with long-term financial planning.
I use Microsoft Money. Quicken's the obvious comparison to Money, but I've
never used it and can't make comparisons.
I'm happy with Money for the most part, but there are a few irritating bugs
and inadequacies. It's pretty good at transaction tracking, budgeting, and
cash flow and long-term forecasting. I don't trade investments extensively,
so can't say how well it arcane handles details of that. It does download my
transactions accurately from Fidelity and Hewitt, the manager of my wife's
401k at HCA.
What it does not do well is asset allocation. It knows the class allocations
of publicly-traded stocks, bonds and mutual funds and applies those in the
'Lifetime Planner' to forecast expected return. Unfortunately, the
classification is rather coarse. It's simply large, mid, small, bond, cash,
and other. There's no international component, nor does it distinguish
between growth, value, or blend for stock funds.
Allowing for those limitations, it seems to do a decent job of forecasting
returns. Unfortunately, the allocation tool is primitive. Even though it
knows the allocations of a fund already, for the purposes of allocating
where you invest it allows you to assign a fund to only a single class.
That's true even for a balanced fund containing large, small, bonds, and
cash.
To do allocation better, I've just finished building an Excel spreadsheet.
That's a PIA, but one of the worksheets is an export of my holdings from
Money. That way I can plug my current holdings in to get an accurate picture
of allocation and plan my investment changes.
HTH
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL
Zone Alarm causes me a lot of trouble - reminds me of the telephone
modem days. It may be that it's necessary to actually read the
instructions, and get in and tweak it to run properly, but as it is
now, it sure slows things up.
Will Trice wrote:
>> Seconded. I switched a few weeks ago to (Mozilla) Firefox, and I'm not
>> going back.
> Coincidentally, I just started downloading the various parts you need
> these days to make a full Firefox browser today. One of my biggest
> peeves is that Netscape will no longer open my portfolios at
> finance.yahoo.com, so I'm going to give Firfox a try. Already I'm
> finding that it doesn't play nice with my firewall (ZoneAlarm), but I
> think I can get it configured to do so.
I've been on Firefox since it was released, I migrated over from NS.
Some tips I'd share:
* the best feature is tabbed browsing which is a carry-over from
netscape. You can have 3, 5, 10 web sites open at once in a single
session of Firefox. This is reason enough to use it (IE is adding it
soon - 5 years late?).
* you can create a single bookmark that opens up multiple web sites in
tabs. This is very handy, with one click you can open up all the web
sites that are your "regulars". EG I have one bookmark for "WSJ plus
portfolios" that opens up the Wall St Jnl home page and five separate
portfolio pages.
* speaking of that, something MIFP...if you use the WSJ site...it's not
100% firefox-friendly, it can't seem to figure out multiple tabs. Sounds
like there are some issues w/Yahoo too.
* the search box is a nice feature, you can add "engines" so it searches
something other than Google. I added Wikipedia and IMDB, for example,
and here's a Marketwatch add-in. You add these by pulling down the
search bar on the right and clicking on "add engines".
And if you like Firefox try Thunderbird, it's a great (free, open
source) email client. Outlook worms don't seem to affect it which
reduces one potential headache, though I imagine the Estonians are out
there writing Thunderbird worms now too.
-Tad
"TB" <> wrote in message
news:Zq1Rf.46219$
>
> And if you like Firefox try Thunderbird, it's a great (free, open source)
> email client. Outlook worms don't seem to affect it which reduces one
> potential headache, though I imagine the Estonians are out there writing
> Thunderbird worms now too.
I tried an early version and it did not support forwarding emails using a
rule. Has that been added?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL