VestEgg.com Investment Manager Documentation

The Investment Manager allows you do track your investments and perform analysis in much the same way as you might do with a spreadsheet program. The convenience of the Investment Manager is that it will update your prices and get historical data automatically. You don't have to enter current prices manually, there are no spreadsheet ranges to change, and sorting is easy. Just select the Update button then sort and analyze.

Select from the following links to jump to specific topics.

• Program Highlights
• Quick Start for the Investments Panel
• Quick Start for the Analysis Panel
• Error Explanations
• Investments Panel Full Documentation
• Analysis Panel Full Documentation

Program Highlights

The Investments panel allows you to enter a fund/stock symbol, date, price, and total for an investment. When you select Update you get the current value, the change from the purchase value, and the change from the highest price since your purchase.

The Analysis panel allows you to enter a list of fund/stock symbols and get updated prices including current, 30, 60, 90, YTD, the change since the buy cycle start, and the change from the highest price since the buy cycle start. To sort, just click on any column header. Click multiple times to change the sort order or Ctrl-click additional columns to sort multiple columns.

The program contains many other convenient features to make your investment management easier.

Investments Panel Quick Start

Select the Investments Tab at the top of the Investment Manager program dialog. Select the Add button. Double click on the "NEW" tab of the new investment panel. Enter a valid ticker symbol, an optional name, and select the Ok button. Enter the unit Purchase Price and the Purchase Total. Select the Update All or Update Selected button and the current value and change percentages will be displayed. You can save your investment panels using the Save button and you can reimport them using the Import Button.

Analysis Panel Quick Start

Select the Analysis Tab at the top of the Investment Manager program. Select the Add button. Enter a valid ticker symbol, optional name, and select the Ok button. Select the Update button and the current data will be displayed. Position the mouse cursor over any active cell to view the tool tip that displays the date and price used for the calculation. You can sort by selecting the column header cells multiple times. Combine sorting by holding the control (Ctrl) key and selecting multiple column header cells. This Analysis panel table is designed for updating and sorting large lists of symbols. You can use the Add button to create more entries and then you can use the Save button to save the list for future use. Using the Import button you can import a Saved list or any list of symbols and names from a text file. The symbol and name must be separated by a comma and each symbol and name pair must be on their own line. Most spreadsheet programs can export data in this format which is commonly referred to as CSV or comma separated format.

Error Explanations

If you get errors when you use the Update button check for the following:

• -999 The symbol was not found or an IO error occurred. Check that the fund/stock symbol is typed correctly. Try updating again by selecting the row and running Update Selected. If you consistently get an error on a symbol, information for this fund may not be available. Please send the symbol to VestEgg support.
• -777 Most likely the symbol is new and data is not available for that column date.
• -555 A format error was found. This will only occur when you import analysis table lists that already have price/date pairs. Usually these files are created with the Save button and unless you have edited them this error should not occur.
• Update stops. Check the Status Messages dialog and determine what the program is doing. If the program does hang you will need to restart your browser. If the problem persists then send our symbol list and the text from the Status Messages dialog to VestEgg support. You can select and copy the text in the Status Messages dialog and paste it into an email message.

Investments Tab:

The Investments tab allows you to create panels to track each investment that you have make. You must enter a valid symbol (double click on the NEW panel tab ), the purchase date, the purchase price, and the purchase total. Then select Update All and the panel will display:

• The current value
• The current change since the purchase date
• The change from the highest price since the purchase date

Investment Tab features:

• Select the Add button to add an Investment symbol and name.
• Select the Move buttons to move panels in the order that you want.
• Select the Import button to load a list of investment you have saved with the Save button.
• Select the Update All button to get updated prices for all investments automatically.
• Select the Update Selected button to update prices for the selected investment. Only one investment may be selected at a time.
• Select the Remove button to remove the selected investment.
• Select the Save button to save the investments.
• Select the Help button to display this file.
• Select the Find button to search the symbol and name of each investment.

Investment Panel features:

• Each investment panel is numbered in case you have multiple purchases of the same symbol
• You can change the symbol by double clicking on the numbered investment panel tab.
• If you position the cursor over the symbol you will see symbol name.
• If you position the cursor over a percentage cell you will see the date and price used for that calculation.
• You can change the order of the investment panels with the Move buttons.
• The percentage fields are color coded. Green is used for positive values, Yellow is used for negative values. Red is used for negative values below a certain threshold. The default is -7%. See Preferences below for details.
• You can enter a sale date and price for historical purposes.

Add Button:

Select the Add button to add a new investment panel. Double click on the new panel tab and enter a valid ticker symbol. Then enter the purchase information. Then select Update to get the current performance.

Remove Button:

Select the Remove button to remove the currently selected investment panel. Click anywhere on an investment panel to select it. The selected investment's symbol name will appear in blue. All others will be gray. Only one investment may be selected at a time.

Move Button:

Select the Move button to move the currently selected investment panel. Click anywhere on an investment panel to select it. The selected investment's symbol name will appear in blue. All others will be gray. Only one investment may be selected at a time.

Import Button:

Select the Import button to load a list of investments from a text file.

Investments text file format:

The file must be a text file in comma separated format or (.csv). Word, Notepad, and Wordpad can all save as text files. Just separate each field with commas and change the file extension to csv. You can also save files from popular spreadsheet programs in csv format. A comment line must begin with a ';'and empty lines are ignored. The following is a list of fields which must be separated by commas.

• The ticker symbol eg. fdgx
• The symbol name eg. Fidelity Growth and Income
• The purchase date eg. 1-Jan-05
• The unit price eg. 23.05
• The total purchase amount eg. 4000.00 (no commas allowed)

Example investment file:

; IRA Investments
FDGX, Fidelity Growth and Income,1-Jan-05,23.05,4000.00

Save Button:

Select the Save button to save the investments data to a file. The data is saved in the order of the investment tabs.
The data is written in a comma separated (.csv) text file format which can be loaded back into the Investment Manager with the Import button.

Update All Button:

After importing or creating one or more investments this button is used to get updated prices and display the calculated percentages into the investment panel.

Update Selected:

After importing or creating one or more investments this button is used to get updated prices and display the calculated percentages for the selected investment panel. Click anywhere on an investment panel to select it. The selected investment's symbol name will appear in blue. All others will be gray. Only one investment may be selected at a time.

Find Button:

The Find button can be used to search the symbol and name of each investment panel. Enter a search string in the field next to the Find button and press the Enter key or select the Find button. If the search string is found that panel will be selected and scrolled into view if necessary. If the string is not found a dialog will appear to indicate that the search failed. If you continue to press the Enter key or select the Find button additional searches will be performed using the same search string. Searching is performed in a continuous circular queue starting at the panel after the currently selected panel.

Help Button

The Help button displays this help file in a separate scrolling window. The help window can remain open while using the program. You can click on links highlighted in blue to jump to a specific location. You can use the scroll bar on the window to move quickly through the document.

Analysis tab:

• The current price
• The percentage change for 30/60/90/YTD
• The percentage change since the Buy Cycle Start Date
• The percentage change from the Buy Cycle Start Date
• The percentage change from the highest price since the purchase date

Analysis Tab features:

• Select the Add button to add a symbol and name to the Analysis table.
• Select the Import button to load a list of symbols from a command separated text or CSV file.
• Select the Update All button to get updated prices for all items in the table automatically.
• Select the Update Selected button to update prices for one or more selected symbols.
• Select the Remove button to remove selected symbols from the analysis table.
• Select the Save button to save the table data.
• Select the Help button to display this file.
• Select the Find button to search the symbol and name columns of the analysis table.

Analysis Table features:

• You can sort the table by clicking on any column heading.
• You can sort ascending, descending and none by clicking through the cycle three times.
• You can sort more than one column by Ctrl-clicking multiple column headings in the preferred order.
• If you position the cursor over a percentage cell you will see the date and price used for that calculation.
• If you position the cursor over a date column (Current/30/60/90/YTD/Buy/High) you will see the date used.
• The symbol rows have color coded backgrounds. Yellow indicates the data has not been updated. Green indicates the data has been updated. Red means an error occurred when the symbol was being update. See Error Explanations for details.

Add Button:

Select the Add button to add a new symbol to the table.

Remove Button:

Select the Remove button to remove the currently selected symbol rows. You can select one or more rows using the Ctrl and Shift keys and clicking the desired symbol rows. Selected rows have a blue background.

Import Button:

Analysis table text file format:

The file must be a text file in comma separated format or (.csv). Word, Notepad, and Wordpad can all save as text files. Just separate each field with commas and change the file extension to csv. You can also save files from popular spreadsheet programs in csv format. A comment line must begin with a ';'and empty lines are ignored. The following is a list of fields which must be separated by commas.

• The ticker symbol eg. fdgx
• The symbol name eg. Fidelity Growth and Income
• If an updated table is saved then the date/price pairs will be listed after the symbol and name separated by commas. There will be seven date/price pairs (Current/30/60/90/YTD/Buy Cycle Start/High Since Buy Cycle Start Date). These files can also be re-imported and the saved data will be displayed.
• A comment line must begin with a ';'and empty lines are ignored.

Example table file:

;IRA Investments
NMTAX,Nations Marisico 21st Century Fund INv CL A
BARAX,Baron Asset Fund Reinv Divs/Reinv Cap Gns
EWO,Nations Marisico 21st Century Fund INv CL A
EEM,Ishares MSCI Emerging Market Index Fund

Example table file with date/price pairs:
(This example would be all on one line within the file.)

EEM,Ishares MSCI Emerging Market Index Fund,12-Mar-05,132.05,12-Feb-05,130.05,12-Jan-05,128.05,12-Dec-04,126.05,05-Oct-04,127.00

Save Button:

Select the Save button to save the investments data to a file. The data is saved in the order of the investment tabs.
The data is written in a comma separated (.csv) text file format which can be loaded back into the Investment Manager with the Import button.

Save Button:

Update All Button:

Update Selected Button:

Find Button:

The Find button can be used to search the symbol and name of each investment panel. Enter a search string in the field next to the Find button and press the Enter key or select the Find button. If the search string is found that panel will be selected and scrolled into view if necessary. If the string is not found a dialog will appear to indicate that the search failed. If you continue to press the Enter key or select the Find button additional searches will be performed using the same search string. Searching is performed in a continuous circular queue starting at the panel after the currently selected panel.

Help Button

The Help button displays this help file in a separate scrolling window. The help window can remain open while using the program. You can click on links highlighted in blue to jump to a specific location. You can use the scroll bar on the window to move quickly through the document.

Preferences

The program runs at the default settings unless you change your preferences. You can select the preferences tab and change the preferences by selecting the Apply button. You can also save your preferences to a file with the default name invmgr.ini. The file is a text file and can be edited.

RedFlag=-.07
GreenFlag=+.05
BuyCycleStartDate=10-Oct-04
DefaultInvestmentDir=
DefaultAnalysisDir=

The RedFlag parameter is the value at or below which the investments panel will display the Current Change value in red, The default is -.07 (-7%).

The GreenFlag parameter is the value at or above which the investments panel will display the Current Change value in dark green to indicate that the investment has grown by a certain percentage. The default is -.07 (-7%).

The BuyCycleStartDate is the date that you began your investment cycle. This value is used in the Analysis panel of the program. The default is 10-Oct-04. The format of dd-mmm-yy is the only format allowed. For single digit days use 1-Oct-04.

The DefaultInvestmentDir parameter can be used to change the default directory for importing and saving investment files. It must be a full valid path on your system and it must be enclosed in double quotes as shown above. The default is your My Documents folder.

The DefaultAnalysisDir parameter can be used to change the default directory for importing and saving data analysis files. It must be a full valid path on your system and it must be enclosed in double quotes as shown above. The default is your My Documents folder.