Question for the long term investors...

[Werner_1]

I want to build a list of features that long term investors would like in software that could benefit the way they go about their investment business, recently i have started making a 'fun project' of creating a program that can plot charts of my holdings (pie chart), column chart for annual dividend paid, stats for total gains, total charges paid, total contributions and dividends, etc. Also plotting a chart of the daily change in your overall portfolio, I am in discussion with McGegorBFA for the datafeeds containing data, but with a fundamental orientation as opposed to most packages with a technical orientation, this will allow me to build my analysis system into the application, also plot charts like the Du-Pont ROE automatically and rank the shares (all on JSE) based on certain fundamental criteria... I plan to build something that i can manage all my investments with, keep a record of comments on my strategy, easily group my monthly statements and all supporting data, annual reports, financial data, etc... My question: what features would you guys like that is not easily accessible elsewhere, but with a long term approach...

[HungryPunter]

A relative comparative index, if you are to use the metastock formula -> ROC((C/P),12,%). Where ROC represents the Rate of Change, the R/P represents the rate of change, 12 could represent a period and % the stock / share / Index you would like to compare. I see this as the formula which would bridge the gap between your fundamentals and if the market is responding to these fundamentals in the rate at which the stock / share responds to the underlying fundamentals. Just a thought.

[richardw]

Great idea, werner. Have thought about it myself but if you build it, I'll use it :)

[Werner_1]

lol, just trying to think of features that could be used, but will let you know when i have something...

[SIMBA]

If i could compare my portfolio value against what it would have worth had the cash been banked, including compounding. To have this info on a daily basis would be a boost for me as i only devote +\- 10% of my time but 30% of my assets,to my share portfolio. regards .....

[#6]

Fantastic idea, Werner. This comment id perhaps more from a value perspective, what about the NAV of companies, perhaps users can also rank according to NAV. Just a thought around the portfolio representation on a chart, is it possible to have the portfolio performance according to sectors, and when you select a sector, it drills down shows you the individual shares performance within that sector. For us long term guys, i think having that view of the sector performance is as important as individual stock prices as it assists in the decision making process with regards to diversification etc. Keep us posted on the developments :)

[Werner_1]

Thanks for the ideas, i will make note of them, the NAV idea is almost what i thought about, it is one of the main factors i thought about when thinking of this idea. I like the sector idea as well, but remember i will not have a charting program as amibroker or so, but could show charts but without functions to draw lines etc. I want to create a user-defined sector as well, i have both MDC and APN in my portfolio and like to group these together, but they are actually different sectors, so this would also be there. About the sector idea, would it show all the shares in the sector, or only the ones that you hold?

[#8]

I think from a overall diversification perspective it would be to have sectors, sub sectors and sub sub sectors. For example you may be diversified between resources, financials, industrials - however, within financials you may not be diversified between retail banks and insurance etc. And just taking it one step further, within insurance there is Short Term and Long Term. Just a thought. What do you think Werner?

[#9]

Werner, what is McGegorBFA's tariff on a file with end-of-day prices each day?

[Werner_1]

Will let you know when i have the prices, still waiting on the detailed info from them.

[Werner_1]

I know that it will differ based on what and how much data one wants on an EOD basis, but maybe we can organise something with them if many people want to get the data, are you interested in getting such a feed, what data you looking for?

[Werner_1]

The sectors sounds cool, i like the idea, but version 1 will only have sector and share, i will think of a system to have sectors linking to sectors, etc. for later on.

[#13]

Also, in terms of opportunity cost or a benchmark portfolio. In terms of a risk free opportunity cost - the interest if funds were in a bank account as Simba pointed out. And, a benchmark portfolio - say Satrix 40 for example, against which we can monitor our active strategy against that of a relatively passive Satrix 40 strategy. Werner, all the comments i am providing is the best case scenario (eutopia), i understand that all these bells and whistles can not be rolled out in the first version...

[Werner_1]

This obviously started out as a fun project, so please dont expect too much, but i think the ideas are quite interesting and it was also on my mind to have a benchmark on our portfolios, currently i have a excel document that i use to measure these things but it is a hassle to keep updated thats the cause of this project.

[#15]

Just the usual stuff most programs with daily prices have. Share name, sector, open-close-highest-lowest price, volume, PE ratio, earnings, dividends, etc. And info on unit trusts, some SAFEX info if possible.

[Werner_1]

What i have learnt is that the data has royalties from the JSE, so if one wants it for a public website it could cost much more than private sites, but i will speak to my contact and see how much they charge if one only wants it for a single person's needs. Other alternatives is to go to someone like Sharenet, they also have EOD data, but this doesnt include much fundamental data which i am after, but for open/close/high/low/pe, etc this could do. once i paid about R1100 per year for the sharenet data, but now i want much more fundamental data, dont know costs of that yet.

[#17]

I would like to know what the prices for public sites are. Would like to know how much some of these guys make from people who pay them R100 bucks per month to download the data each day. If it is possible.

[Werner_1]

will let you know when i get the details.