Stock Portfolio Manager V3.3
freeware by   ARRAYSOFT
programme, updates and setup instructions avaliable at ARRAYSOFT

 

Background: 

This JAVA(TM)-based program is in its third iteration and was designed and developed out of my personal need to:

  • expand my technical breadth and,
  • my need to monitor the investment I have acquired over the past several years (especially after the last market down-turn!)

What it is/does:

Simply put, it provides you with the following functionality:

  • Monitor the current status of stocks (using a delayed quote server)
  • Allow you to maintain/create stock folders that can be organized virtually any way you like.
  • Allow you to maintain a "log" of your stock closure transaction (useful during tax time)
  • Allows you to maintain/create options folders that can be used to track your position in the market.
  • Allow you to log your options as the expire, are called away or put to you.
  • Provide a total summarized view of stock and options folders.
  • provide a summarized view of each folder (stock or option) and a rolled up view of your stock folders and options folders!

How useful is it? Well using this tool I am able to provide my broker with information before he can get it via his system. In addition, a large number of employees at my Co. use this on a daily bases! The all love it as many of their comments and suggestions have found their way into this program. Try it out and see if it can help you...I'm sure it will!

SECTION 2

Editing Table Data

Editing Data in Folder Tables and Logs

EDITING table data:

System Controls

Adding and Deleting Stocks

Once you have created a folder you will need to add entries (stock) in them. This can be accomplished by using the "+" () control button at the bottom of the frame, the pull-down menu option "new," or the popup menu (the popup will work only after you have at least one entry in the folder as you must have something to select first). Remember you must unlock or unprotect the application first by using the "unlock/lock" control button (--->) also located at the bottom of the frame.

Deleting requires the same methodology as adding only you will use the pull-down menu option , pop-up menu option or the "x"  control button. Keep in mind that you must first select a entry to delete or the operation will not complete.

SECTION 2

Charts

Displaying Historic Performance Data

Displaying graphical performance data is via the pop-up menu associated with either the Monitor, Stock Folder, or Options Folder view. You may display any of the following charts:

  • Interday - the graph for the current day (DELAYED and updated every 10-20 minutes)

  • Week - The previous week

  • Three Months - The three previous monts

  • One Year - The previous year

  • Two Years - Previous two years.

Assume I want to display the "Interday" graph for stock AMD  below.

I select the entry AMD (you can see the "grey" frame around the entry), right mouse click to get the popup, select "Chart" and sub-chart "Week" and release the right mouse button. There will be a "slight" delay (based on how busy the network is) before the graph is displayed.

Known Bugs:

Currently the way library that retrieves the graphs (bitmaps) does not get a "fresh" copy of the bitmap each time it is requested. Instead it uses the internally cached copy to make things go faster if you once again ask for the same bitmap. This is find for all charts except the Interday that is updated on a minute by minute bases. I am looking into how to "force" a refresh for only that Chart type. The only way you can get a fresh copy with V 3.2 is by closing the application and restarting.

 

SECTION 1

Overview

The Main Screen
The main screen consists of:
  1. A set of "view" controls that appear as vertical tab folders on the left
  2. A set of  system controls across the bottom of the main frame
  3. A set of  "pull down" menu controls across the top of the main frame

 

View Control Tab
The view control tab allows you to select the views that will be presented to the right. There are presently eight (8) tabs that present you with the following information:

.

Monitor View

The monitor view allows you to enter ticker symbols in the first column only. These tickers can be any valid ticker following the standard naming conventions for stocks. Bulletin board stocks will most likely take the form xxxx.OB. Don't worry about entering the ticker in uppercase; the application will do that for you! Yellow background fields represent ECN Quotes (Electronic Communications Network) and are a near-real-time, while white background fields are normal 15 & 20 minute delayed quotes. 

NOTE: ALL FOLDER CALCULATIONS ARE BASED ON THE DELAYED QUOTES, NOT THE ECN QUOTES! This is the only display where ECN quotes are used/displayed.

You can add new tickers via either the "new" system control button ( ) or by using the sub-menu "new" under the "edit" pull-down menu. Remember you must "UNLOCK" the cells by clicking on the "unlock" system control button (--->) at the bottom of the application. Re-clicking it will re-lock the application(--->

  .

A blank line will appear. You should select the "blue" field enter the ticker via the keyboard and press tab or move the cursor to another field. The system will only let you type characters in the Ticker column. 

 

Remember, all data displayed is "DELAYED" and may or may reflect market conditions! It is YOUR responsibility to keep this in mind and you assume all liability for the decisions you make based on the calculation and information this application provides! Run and decide at your own RISK!!!

If you don't want to wait for the "timer" to fire (below) you can press the "update now" system control button .

 

  System Summary View

The system summary view provides an executive view of the active stocks and options, and completed stock or option trades. With respect to active stocks and options. It will "roll up" only those stock or options folders that you set with the "summary" attribute. This will be covered in the Stock and Option Folder sections. 

At the bottom of this view are two "net net's"! 

  • The first (Open & Closed Stocks + Options Income) is a roll-up of everything from above.The  Total Net Gain= Total Stock Net Gain + Total  Options Net Gain:

  • The second (Closed Stocks + Options Income) represents all historic transactions. I have a tendency to look at this more frequently then the previous set of numbers.

Each time the automatic timer "fires" or a manual "update now" button is pressed, all values are update based on the most recent stock information.

Stock Folder Summary View

This view allows you to see a summarization of all the stock folders you have set the "summarize" property to true (later). This one line per folder table displays the value of the portfolio, the gain (current value - costs), any commissions you have paid, the net gain of the stock folder (gain-commissions) and the total % of gain of the folder. Of course, if you have some "losers" you will see them as negative numbers in red text.

At the top of the table is a summary of the stock folders. This gives you a rolled-up view of how all those folders are doing. The values are computed from the individual stock data, not the summary. It DOES NOT use the folder summary information to calculate the rolled-up view! Thus...the calculations are correct!

This table is dynamically generated by setting the "summarize" property on the individual tab folders. There are no user inputs on this table.

Stock Folder View

This is the view that allows you to define a set of stock folders that can contain stocks. The rule-of-thumb here is that any column that has a green or blue background is editable. Blue will always represent the ticker or name of the folder (in the Stock or Option Folder Summary Views while green is for parameters relative to that stock. 

In the example above, you see four stock folders, Telecom, Software, Bio/Med, and Chips and Hardware. Each folder can contain an arbitrary number of stocks. A folder summary is provided to show the current value of that folder. Notice that each folder has a little "+" in front of the name. This indicates that you have selected the "summarize" property of the folder. Selecting this option will enter provide the summary information on the Stock Summary View table.  Look at the previous section (Stock Folder Summary) and you will see the corresponding entry for each folder.

New folders are created using the pop-up menu (right mouse click and hold) on the stock folder tab

or by using the pull-down sub-menu item (left mouse click) "insert" from the main menu item "folder." Keep in mind that you need to be over the tab label when you "right mouse click."

 

Stock Log View

The Stock Log view tracks stocks that you have sold. It allows you to put in the selling price, commissions, and other data that you will need as input when you do your (ugh!) taxes. New entries can be created by selecting the "new" from the "edit" pull-down menu,

By pressing the "new" system control button ( ) or directly from a stock folder by selecting the "sell" option on the table's pop-up menu.

Keep in mind that you must FIRST select a stock by "single clicking" (left mouse button) then "right mouse button" click over the stock you just selected!

Option Summary View

This view shows you the current status of all options folders you have set the "summarize" property to true. Since a folder can contain "puts," "calls (naked)", and "covered call" option types it will show the put liabilities and call loss for those stocks. A quick definition of what these to terms mean relative to this program.

  • Put liability: If you have written a "put" and the current price is below the strike price then your liability would be to buy the stock based on the number of shares and the strike price price. This is just an "exposure" calculation.

  • Call Loss: Just a simple calculation defined as (Current Price - (Strike Price + Premium))*  # shares. In other words, If I would have held the stock how much better off would I have been. If the current price is below the strike price + the premium, this number will be 0 (zero).

Option Folder View

The concept behind this view is very similar to that of the Stock Folder View. You can define a set of folders that can contain options that you have bought or sold. The "Type" column represents the type of option; in this release I support Puts (naked),. Calls (naked), and Covered Calls (have the stock in hand), The "Pos" (position) column reflects one of the following:

  • For puts - how much have a made (not to exceed the premiums-the commission) if the stock is assigned to me now, or, how much have I lost on this transaction at this point. This is pretty interesting and give me an opportunity to yell at my broker as to his selection and strategy..

  • For all calls - How much would you have made if you had held the stock and sold it at the current price instead of written an option. This is more applicable to a "Covered Call" and if you are doing a naked call your could be in deeper than this number. I may support a different calculation if you are doing a covered vs. a naked call in the future.

Again, "Put Liability" and "Call Loss" are defined as in Option Summary View.

Creating new folders can be accomplished by the same methods defined in the "Stock Folder View" section.

 

  Option Log View

This view is a list of the results of options that you have traded. It can be used as input to end-of-year taxes.  I have included a column for "BBPrem" (Buy Back Premiums) in the event that you have to buy back an option rather that get it put or called away from you. The Disposition just tells you what was the eventual outcome of the option. valid entries include "EXPIRE," "ASSIGNED", "CALLED," or "BUYBACK."

Entries in this log can be created either manually using the "new" () system control button, the sub-menu "new" under the "Edit" pull-down menu, the "table" pop-up menu "new," or directly from the close pop-up menu item "Close" on the Option Folder table. Remember you must "UNLOCK" the cells by clicking on the "unlock" system control button (--->) at the bottom of the application. Re-clicking it will re-lock the application(--->

System Controls
At the bottom of the screen to the right, you will find a set of icons and system level information.

The DOW and NASDAQ numbers reflect the current level and associated change. As with the bulk of the numbers displayed by the application blue numbers represents positive values while red numbers represents negative values.

The remainder of the controls are defined as:

  • Slider and current setting that adjusts the poll cycle (the amount of time between updates of the DOW, NASDAQ, and any stocks you have specified. The "slider" allows you to set the timer to 10sec, 30sec, 1mins, 2mins, 5mins, 10mins. I typically leave it set to 10 minutes and during times of panic will hit the refresh button control () as the need arises.
  • Remaining time to next stock update. A simple progress bar to indicate the effective time that as gone by (hence the remaining time) since the last update.
  • Insert new stock or option into a table. Keep in mind that this works in conjunction with the "lock" control () below. New folder or log entries are appended to the end of the table.
  • Delete current line in a folder or log. Keep in mind that this works in conjunction with the "lock" control () below. You must have selected a line to delete for this command to work!
  • Fraction/Decimal control. This is a button that toggles the numerical display of stock prices and changes to either fraction or their decimal equivalent. Selecting the button when it shows () will set the display to decimal. The button will then change to () to indicate that the next time you press the button the display will revert to fractional display.
  • Manual update of stock values. Press this when you don't want to wait for the timer to fire! I have a tendency to do more when I'm in the processes of loosing my shirt!
  • Lock control. Disables () or enables () the modification of the information in the stock and option folders and logs. You can still save the files but you can't change the data. I added this after I inadvertently made some changes to my portfolio. Keep in mind that the lock control also disables the "edit" and "folder" pull-down menus at the top of the screen.
Pull-down Menus
Across the top of the application are the following pull-down menus:

  • File - allows you to open, save, save under a different name, and set the properties of the application. The options under file can be seen below:

  • New, Open, Save, Save As - All the same "stuff" that you are use to.The file prefix of stock profiles is "spf". Thus, if you save your information in a file called x, the effective name of the file is "x.spf". When you open a file, the system will automatically "filter" files using the ".spf" postfix.

 

  • Export is a new feature that allows you to export the information in your portfolio to a standard ASCII text file that can be input into virtually any other application. For example, Excel, Word, DB3-4, etc. When you select this option you are presented with the following export option frame where you may specify the exact data you would like to export and the name and location of the file where you would like to save the data:

The default location is the file "Export.txt" on the root C:\. Of course if you would like to change that you would select the "Browse" button and be presented with the "File Chooser" form that will enable you to "Browse" your file systems and select a new location, file name, or both.

  • Properties - The following properties may be set for the system. This information is persistent as it follows the file that you save your stock information to (e.g. x.spf).

The show fractions is actually not needed as it can be set on the system control bar at the bottom of the screen. It will most likely be removed in a subsequent release. For those users that prefer the standard MS window look-n-feel, select "Windows," for the UnixTm look-n-feel select "Motif." For the Java look-n-feel pick Metal .

  • Edit- Allows you to add and delete individual stocks to logs and folders as well as provides "copy" and paste functionality. Keep in mind that in order to copy a line you must first select it and "newing" or "pasting" will always occur at the end of the table.

  • Folders - This is how stock or option folders are created and removed. This pull-down is disabled when you have selected either of the (stock or option) log views. Manipulation of the properties of the folders is accomplished through the associated folder "popup" menus (above).

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