Old School Value Investment Portfolio Spreadsheet

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Jae Jun

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[edit] Newer Version of Investment Portfolio Spreadsheet Available

There is now an even better version available. A brand new and updated version of the best stock portfolio tracking spreadsheet. Go check it out now.

Go see how the stock value calculator can help you value stocks quickly, accurately and save you time.

Continue on with the Original Article..

For an investor, keeping track of personal performance and gains is important. Many people believe they know their return rate in their head, but surprisingly, this is always overestimated. Our actual return usually come out a few % lower and these few percentages can add up to ten of thousands. That is why a investment portfolio spreadsheet is important to track performance.

Tracking Your Performance

Tracking performance also allows an investor to be honest with themselves. As human beings, we tend to dismiss the failures much more often than when we try to acknowledge and learn from them. Everyone has made investment mistakes and it is vital to know what went wrong and then to never redo those mistakes. I believe that monitoring your portfolio in a spreadsheet or other form reminds you of those mistakes.

The Original Excel Investing Portfolio Spreadsheet

I was sick of all the portfolio managing programs that you had to buy and install etc, so I made my own. But one day, I came across a great blog titled ‘Experiments in Finance’ where the author had created a great Portfolio Performance vs S&P 500 spreadsheet. Please visit the blog to get the original file and see the instructions.

But before I continue, click on the image below to be a VIP and get all the free hidden content and exclusive resources we don’t publish anywhere else.

Automated Excel Investment Portfolio Spreadsheet

Now if you’re like me and can’t be bothered looking up the latest prices and then recording them manually, a great plugin for excel, written by Randy, is available at Randy’s Yahoo Group. You can find more info by going to ‘Files > Documentation’ section on the Yahoo group. For your convenience, I’ve made a link so you can download it right here.

Utilizing the excel add-in, the latest and historical stock prices for all tickers can be retrieved. You just add the stock symbol, no. of shares bought, purchase price and date of purchase and the rest should be updated.

Spreadsheet Installation Instructions

The instructions are pretty simple, download the zip file containing the add-in and its supplementary files and create a folder called “SMF” directly under C: and then extract all of the files into the “C:\SMF\” folder on your computer.

Then open Excel, make sure a blank workbook is open, choose the menu Tools->Add-Ins, in the dialog box which opens choose Browse and choose the folder “C:\SMF\” and then choose the file “RCH_Stock_Market_Functions.xla” and click OK.

edit: follow the link to view the full and comprehensive installation manual and FAQ.

Few Quick Comments

The #DIV/0! error you see is nothing. Just ignore it. It is the excel function spitting an error because there are no values available for an empty cell.

Feel free to modify it and share it.
If you are having trouble let me know and I will try to help.

Download Section

Randy’s SMF Add-in
Original Portfolio Performance vs S&P 500 spreadsheet & Instructions
Automated Portfolio Spreadsheet – Old School Value Version

How to Install

edit: (view the installation guide linked above)

You have to unzip the file into c:/SMF
If you put it in any other folder it wont work.

For Excel 2003:

1. On the Tools menu, click Add-Ins
2. Click the Browse button and navigate to the smf add ins folder
3. Select the add in file that you see and then click OK
4. Click Yes to any file copy or overwrite prompts
5. Verify the Stock Market Function add in box is checked
6. Press OK

For Excel 2007:

1. Click the orb and then click on excel options
2. Click Add in
3. Down the bottom there is a drop down list and next to it there is a move button (I think). Click on the button
4. Navigate to the SMF add in folders
5. select the file and then click OK
6. Verify the Stock Market Function add in box is checked
7. Press OK

Open the spreadsheet, enter and ticker and you will see a “calculating xx%” in the bottom right corner. You are good to go.

Note: if you download the file, copy it to a USB and then copy it back to another folder or computer, MAKE SURE that the data in the “Statements” tab is pointing to c:/SMF and not your USB drive.