Set-up, Fund Prices & Graphs
Durell allows you to store the names and codes
for an almost unlimited number of investment funds, along with their current
price and historic prices. The codes should preferably be the standard ones
used by the “Financial Times” and most other providers of investment data for
computers.
This set-up utility allows you to manually
create or edit fund names and prices, but if you require fund pricing for
business purposes you are advised to use the automatic data feed available from
“Financial Express” (see Set-up, File
Paths). As this data feed is inexpensive, and automatically provides over
2,000 up-to-date prices per day or week, it would seem a false economy to enter
prices manually.
Create New Fund
If you subscribe to
“Financial Express” then all of your funds will be created automatically.
However if you’re determined to work without an automatic data feed, then to
create a new fund…
- Click the
“Setup” button on the main menu
- Double-click
the words “Fund prices & graphs” in the list on the right of the Setup
screen…
- Click the “Starburst” or “New” button
- Enter a unique fund code of up to 10 characters (e.g. USEQMSORD)
- Use the “Type” drop-down to select the type of fund (e.g. Equity)
- Enter the fund’s name (e.g. Microsoft Ordinary Share)
- Optionally enter the sector, if known (e.g. Technology)
- If you can’t find the sector you want you can create one by
clicking the “Setup” button, as shown below.
- Use the “Currency” drop-down to select the currency
- Select a risk factor from the “Risk” dropdown
- Click and thereby tick the box “Do not overwrite currency, sector
and fund name during update”
- Click “Save”
If you
click and thereby tick the box “Do not overwrite currency during update”, as
suggested above, then your automatic data feed will be prevented from changing
these details. This sometimes happens, for example, when the fund price changes
from pennies to pounds, or cents to dollars.
Risk Factors
You do not need to use fund risk
factors, as the standard valuation report will not include them. However if you
want to include a “Risk Factor” pie diagram at the end of your
valuations (see “Investments, Valuation
Report”) then you must first allocate a “Risk” value to each fund that you
deal with (see example screen above), where the values and meanings (e.g. “2 –
Medium”) are set-up via the “Signpost” button’s option to “Edit Risk Factors”.
Use the “Risk factor” dropdown to re-select an existing value so you can edit
and re-save the meaning. Alternatively to create a new one you simply
over-write an existing “Risk factor” and “Description”, then click “Save”.
Risk Factors for Investment Products Without
Funds
Certain product types, like bank accounts or fixed
interest accounts, do not involve funds, so instead you set a sector and risk
factor for the entire product type. To do this you click the “Signpost”
button’s option to “Edit Non-Fund Risk Factors” and set the rate for each
product type, as shown below…
Update Funds, Prices and Yields
To update fund prices, starting from the “Fund
Prices” main screen…
- Click the “Binoculars” button
- Use the “Show funds of type” drop-down to select the type of fund
(e.g. “Equities”)
- In the “Search for…” field enter part of the fund’s name (e.g.
“Abtrust”)
- Click “OK”
- If you don’t see your intended fund highlighted immediately, then
scroll up or down till you do
- Click the “Spectacles” button to change to the flat view (or
Double-click or press “Enter” on the highlighted line)
- Click “Add” to add a new price, or “Edit” to edit the currently
highlighted one
- Enter or edit the date, bid and offer prices and yield %
- Click “OK”
- Click “Close”
Automatic Fund Price Update
If you subscribe to “Financial Express” you
will periodically receive Emails from them with new fund names and prices in
file attachments. As this is a third-party product Durell cannot guarantee
exactly how this data will arrive, but typically you should be able to
double-click each attachment in order for it to unpack itself into your
preferred location (see Set-up, File Paths).
Typically this will be a folder called “FundPrices”, which will be a sub-folder
of your main Durell data folder called “Imw-Data”. Provided you have unpacked
the files into the location specified in your Set-up File Paths utility, then
to load the new prices, starting from the “Fund Prices” main screen…
- Click the “Signpost” button
- Click the “Update prices” option
- Click “Yes”
Graphing Funds
To view one or more funds in a graph, starting from
the “Fund Prices” main screen…
- Click the “Binoculars” button
- Use the “Show funds of type” drop-down to select the type of fund
(e.g. “Equities”)
- In the “Search for…” field enter part of the fund’s name (e.g.
“Abtrust”)
- Click “OK”
- If you don’t see your intended fund highlighted immediately, then
scroll up or down till you do
- Click the “Add fund to graph” button, at the bottom right corner of
the scrolling list
- Repeat the above for each fund you want to include in the graph
- Click the “Bin” button to remove unwanted funds from the graph
list, as required
- Click the “Show graph” button, at the bottom right corner of the
scrolling list (or via the “Signpost” button)
Printing Graphs
To print a graph displayed on screen, either
simply click “File / Print current screen”, or…
- Click the “Signpost” button
- Click “Link to Word”
Then edit and print the resulting Word
document.
Graph Options
When a graph is on screen (i.e. after clicking
the “Show graph” button) you can use the “Signpost” button options…
- “Percentage growth” to select absolute prices or the percentage
change in prices
- “Show gaps” to replace missing prices with average ones or leave
gaps
- “Show for date range” to specify start and end dates for the graph