In order to understand how well your investment portfolio is performing it is necessary to have the proper tools at your disposal. Many different metrics can be kept in regards to your portfolio, some at a point in time, others displaying trends over a time period. It is vital, however, to understand what the current rates of return on your investments are and how that compares with your expectations of that investment.
Click on the icon to the left to download the Excel spreadsheet that is used for ascertaining the performance on the Market Mondays virtual portfolio. The data inside is a good starting point for understanding how to fill out the template. Only fill out the cells that are white with black text. The required inputs are:
- Company Name and ticker symbol
- Date of Purchase
- Share price or Net Asset Value (NAV)
- Number of shares purchased
- Transaction fees + Broker’s commission
- Required rate of return (input the percent return that you would realistically like to obtain for the investment)
- Current date (in Today’s Date column)
- Current share price
The spreadsheet has several formula driven columns. These cells are yellow with blue text so that you do not accidentally overwrite the formulas. The calculated fields are:
- Total purchase price (adds investment amount plus transaction and broker’s fees)
- Current rate of return
- Current value (refers to investment value – number of shares times share price (or NAV)
- Increase / (Decrease) – calculates the change in dollar value of the investment while taking into account transaction fees
Recap of Market Mondays Virtual Portfolio
Aflac (AFL) has hurt the Market Mondays virtual portfolio value big time. This past week Aflac experienced large per share price drops (10.43% down from purchase price), along with the broader market, to erase the positive returns generated by the other three investments in the portfolio. Datascope (DSCP) has lost some ground from last week, but is still positive over the purchase price with a 2.96% return to date. AIG Retirement I Government Securities (VCGSX) has continued to do well with an increase in NAV of 1.25%. The most recent addiition to the virtual portfolio, James Market Neutral (JAMNX), has also provided a positive return of 1.03%.
2 Comments
Even though Aflac has been a dog, this excel template is great. As the weeks go by we can just keep adding the new Market Monday picks into our portfolio.
Aflac had way more troubled assets on their balance sheet than I suspected. In the end, you have two courses of action with a stinker like this one: (1) set a reasonable loss threshold and set up an order to sell at that price point, or (2) keep holding it and try to ride the storm out. As this is fake money, I am going to try and weather the storm.