Managing Manual Portfolios

Introduction

This article shows you how to create and manage manual portfolios in Stock Rover. Manual portfolios can be actual portfolios you own, or hypothetical portfolios you have created for investment research purposes. Once a manual portfolio is created, Stock Rover makes it easy to track the performance of the individual positions and of the overall portfolio.

What is a Manual Portfolio?

As the name implies a Manual Portfolio is a portfolio that is “manually” maintained in Stock Rover. You can create a Manual Portfolio and then update it when you want – to add, update, or remove holdings.

Manual Portfolios are an excellent option if you prefer not to use Brokerage Connect ^[27] to link Stock Rover to your brokerage, or if the brokerage for some reason is not supported.

As mentioned in the introduction, manual portfolios can be used to track hypothetical portfolios. Creating a hypothetical portfolio in Stock Rover is easy. It can be populated in a variety of ways, often from results that come directly from within Stock Rover. For example, you can create portfolio positions from an ad-hoc list of tickers, or from stocks or ETFs that pass a screener, from indexes or from tickers in other portfolios. You can even directly import and use any of the guru portfolios maintained in the Stock Rover Investor’s Library ^[28].

Accessing Portfolio Manager

Portfolio Manager gives us access to all things related to portfolios.

Portfolio Manager functions include the ability to view and modify a portfolio’s positions or, if we prefer, view and modify the underlying buy and sell transactions.

As we’ll see in a bit, there are situations where we will need to access Portfolio Manager to affect changes to a Manual Portfolio.

1. Select Portfolios from the Start Menu
2. Choose the desired Portfolio in the Navigation Panel
3. Select Modify this Portfolio in Portfolio Actions or sight

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Positions

Stock Rover’s portfolio tracking is position-based. A position is an individual investment consisting of a stock, ETF, or mutual fund, along with the number of shares owned, and the average purchase price for the shares. For each portfolio, Stock Rover maintains a record of the positions held for the portfolio at the end of each trading day.

As Stock Rover’s portfolio record keeping is position-based, it does not capture individual transactions from day trading (holding a position for less than a day). However, the results will show up indirectly via a change in your cash position and account value. Another limitation is if a position is reduced, the sale price used is the end of day price, not the actual sale price. Typically this effect is minor and the small missed gains or losses tend to average out, resulting in portfolio analytics that are still accurate and useful.

Below we see a sample portfolio in the Portfolio Manager ^[30] containing four positions for the tickers AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, and META.

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Transactions

Although Stock Rover is position-based, Stock Rover provides a transactions-like view. Stock Rover can infer the underlying buy and sell transactions from the position changes over time, and then list them in a table in ledger like format. The transactions view provide an audit trail of why your positions changed.

You can also enter individual transactions (buys and sells) in the Portfolio Manager ^[30] and they will be used to compute new positions for the portfolio based on the dates of the transactions.

The Buy Transactions shown below for AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, and META were inferred based on the change in positions.

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Creating a Manual Portfolio

The first step to creating a Manual Portfolio is to access the Create Portfolio menu, where you can:

1. Enter positions
2. Enter transactions
3. Import holdings from a file

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There are three ways in Stock Rover to quickly access the Create Portfolio menu:

• You can right-click on Portfolios in the Start menu.

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• You can right-click on the Portfolios folder in the Navigation Panel or select “Create a New Portfolio” under Portfolio Actions.

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• You can also launch from within the Dashboard ^[36] by clicking on the Portfolios button and selecting the Actions pull-down menu.

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Entering Positions

The Enter Positions ^[38] option allows us to enter our portfolio’s holdings for a selected date.

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When we select Enter Positions we are brought to the Portfolio Manager, with the Positions tab selected.

To enter positions we’ll input:

1. Name: We can optionally change the portfolio name.
2. Description: It is a good idea to enter a portfolio description.
3. Date: Select a “date of record”. By default, the date will be today or the most recent trading day. You can change this date to enter positions on a selected date.
4. We’ll then enter the Ticker(s) and the Quantities directly into the appropriate cells in the Table.

   The Cost Basis is calculated based on Quantity and Cost Per Share. The Cost Per Share will default to the current price of the ticker (if the date of record is the current date), or the closing price of the ticker on the selected date.

   We can optionally override the Cost Basis to reflect what we actually paid for the ticker and a new Cost Per Share will be calculated.

5. Click on Save

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Below we’ve entered two positions, Intel and NVIDIA, and we are getting ready to add a third position.

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Entering Transactions

The Enter Transactions ^[42] option allows us to enter buy and sell trades to create a portfolio.

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When we select Enter Transactions we are brought to the Portfolio Manager, with the Transaction tab selected.

To enter transactions we’ll input:

1. Name: We can optionally change the portfolio name.
2. Description: Optionally enter a portfolio description.
3. Click on Add Trade.

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In the Enter Trade window:

1. Ticker: We’ll enter a trade for the ticker LRCX.
2. Date: The date of record is 02/21/2023.
3. Type: (Buy or Sell) – We’ll choose Buy.
4. Quantity: We bought 23 shares.
5. Price: We paid $478.29 per share.

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Please note: Price is handled differently in a “Buy” versus a “Sell” transaction.

• Buy – we can adjust the Price to reflect our actual cost per share.
• Sell – as Stock Rover’s Portfolio tracking is position-based the Price cannot be adjusted.

  Note that for sells, the Price will show as the current price of the ticker (if the date of record is the current date), or the closing price of the ticker on the selected date.

Once we’ve entered a Transaction we can select Add to enter another Transaction.

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Once we’ve entered all our Transactions we’ll then select Add and Finish to return to the Portfolio Manager.

Below we can see our newly entered buy trade for LRCX.

Clicking Save adds the Transaction(s) into the Portfolio.

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Importing Holdings From a File

Selecting the Import holdings from file ^[47] option makes it easy for us to create a portfolio using the contents of a file (.csv, .xls, .xlsx, or .txt).

This option is especially useful when we have a portfolio with multiple holdings and we want to quickly upload them into Stock Rover.

For example, we can import hypothetical portfolios contained in spreadsheets or we can import portfolios using an export from our brokerage house.

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Holdings on One Date

We can easily create a portfolio using a file that contains our portfolio’s positions as of a selected date.

Keep in mind, this is a moment in time import of the portfolio with no buy or sell history.

The import file should have columns for Ticker and Quantity.

The import file can also have a Price column. If the price column exists, it will be used for the cost basis. If it is omitted, then the close price for the Position as of date will be used to compute the cost basis.

Here is a sample CSV file ^[49] with Ticker, Quantity, and Price that can be imported.

1. Content Type: We’ll select Holdings on One Date.
2. File: Select the file to import.
3. Positions as of: Enter the date of the portfolio positions.
4. Name: Optionally change the portfolio a name.
5. Description: Optionally enter a portfolio description.
6. Click on Import.

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Holdings on Multiple Dates

We can also create a portfolio based on the buy and sell history.

A portfolio with buy and sell history provides Stock Rover’s Portfolio Analytics with more detail, enabling it to compute more accurate returns.

The import file should have columns for Date, Ticker, and Quantity. The Quantity column refers to the number of shares purchased or sold for the ticker on that date. Sales are indicated by negative quantities.

The Price column is used for setting the cost basis for the purchase of shares. The Price column is optional, if it is omitted, then the close price for the Date will be used to compute the cost basis.

If a sale occurs on a selected date, the sell price will be set to the closing price for the ticker on that date, based on Stock Rover’s position-based portfolio tracking system. As previously mentioned, sales are indicated by a negative quantity.

Here is a sample CSV file ^[51] with Date, Ticker, Quantity, and Price that can be imported.

1. Content Type: We’ll select Multiple Dates.
2. File: Select the file to import.
3. Name: Optionally change the portfolio a name.
4. Description: Optionally enter a portfolio description.
5. Click on Import.

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Entering from the Table

We can also create a Manual Portfolio by entering trades directly from the Table ^[53].

For example, in the course of our research we can load the Table with any combination of tickers – from an ad-hoc list of tickers we requested quotes on, to stocks or ETFs that pass a screener we have just run, to indexes such as the Dow 30 or the S&P 500, to tickers from other portfolios.

Then directly from the Table, we can select a ticker or set of tickers and trade them into a new portfolio.

The Table below is displaying the results of a Safe Dividend Growth screener. We’ve multi-selected four rows with the tickers we would like to use to create our new model dividend portfolio and then right-clicked to choose Trade in Portfolio.

Multi-select tip:  Ctrl + A will select all tickers in the Table. We can also hold down the Shift key and click on a row to select consecutive tickers. Lastly by holding down Ctrl and clicking on a row, we can select non-consecutive tickers.

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A Trade window then launch with input options:

1. Portfolio Name: Click the New button and enter the new portfolio name in the text box.
2. Type: We’re going to Buy All Equally.
3. Date: We’ll set the purchase date to 2/23/2023.
4. Amount($) Each: A $1,000 purchase of each ticker.
5. Update: Click Update to create the portfolio.

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We’ll select our newly created “My Dividend Growth” portfolio, then in Portfolio Manager ^[30], click on Positions.

We see our portfolio was established on 02/23/2023 and that there are 4 positions – each with a Cost Basis of $1,000.

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Updating a Manual Portfolio

Once a Manual Portfolio is created we may want to update the portfolio to reflect a recent change in holdings or to add past history.

Updating by Position

From the Portfolio Manager’s Positions ^[57] tab we can add or remove positions, and we can also update an existing position to adjust the quantity and/or buy price.

1. We’ll select Portfolios from the Start menu.
2. Choose the Portfolio we would like to update and run the Portfolio Manager ^[30].
3. Select the Positions tab.
4. Date: Select a “date of record”. By default, the date will be today or the most recent trading day. We can change this date to update position(s) as of a specific date.
5. Update the position(s)

   – Add: Enter values in the cells for Ticker, Quantity, Cost Per Share, or % of Portfolio

   – Remove: Click on “X” to delete a position

   – Edit: Select a position and update the cells for Quantity, Cost Basis, or % of Portfolio

6. Save changes.

   Note that in the transactions tab, Stock Rover will infer the necessary buy and sell transactions to match the change in positions.

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Updating by Transaction

From the Portfolio Manager’s Transactions tab ^[59] we can update our portfolio by entering buy or sell trades, updating existing trades, and deleting trades.

Stock Rover will then compute the new Positions in the portfolio based on the buy/sell, adjustment, or removal of transactions.

To update a portfolio via Transactions:

1. We’ll select Portfolios from the Start menu.
2. Choose the Portfolio we would like to update and run the Portfolio Manager ^[30].
3. Select the Transaction tab.

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Adding a Transaction

We can update our portfolio with Buy and Sell Trades by selecting the Add Trade button.

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An Enter Trade window will then launch where we input the Ticker, the Date of record, the Transaction Type (Buy or Sell), and the Quantity.

Below we entered a trade for the ticker INTC – Intel, on February 23, 2023 we bought 200 shares, and we paid $25.61 per share for a total investment of $5,122.00.

Please note: Price is handled differently in a “Buy” versus a “Sell” transaction.

• Buy – we can adjust the Price to reflect our actual cost per share.
• Sell – as Stock Rover’s Portfolio tracking is position-based the Price cannot be adjusted.

  The Price will show as the current price of the ticker (if the date of record is the current date), or the closing price of the ticker on the selected date.

Once we’ve entered a Transaction we can select Add to enter another Transaction.

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Once we’ve entered all our Transactions we’ll then select Add and Finish to return to the Portfolio Manager.

Below we see our newly added Buy Transaction in the Portfolio Manager.

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Updating a Transaction

We can also update individual Transactions simply by selecting a Transaction and editing the appropriate cell in the Table.

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Deleting a Transaction

To delete a trade we can click the “X” to the right of the Transaction we want to remove.

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Once we’ve completed all our updates, we’ll click Save to make our changes permanent.

Updating Position History

We will want to Import Updates ^[66] if we want to include position history in a Manual Portfolio or account for new position changes – using a file as input. This is much easier and far more efficient than entering multiple changes manually.

With Import Updates, we will be importing .CSV or .XLSX files. It is important that these import files contain all portfolio positions. For example, if the file being imported only contains detail on 12 out of 15 of your holdings Stock Rover will assume we sold the 3 missing holdings.

Below we went to the Positions tab in the Portfolio Manager ^[30] and selected a model portfolio called “Automobile”. The portfolio consists of holdings for Ford, General Motors, Ferrari, and Tesla.

All four holdings were purchased on 06/02/2022. If we were to display the portfolio’s Transactions we would see there have been no buys or sells since the inception of the model portfolio.

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We are going to update the portfolio with a recent change in positions. We are going to reduce our Tesla holding and add a new holding for Lucid.

1. First we want to make sure to set the date to when our positions changed – 03/02/2023.
2. Then we’ll click the “Import” button.

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Clicking the Import button will then launch the Import Portfolio window, where we then can Browse for the file with our most recent portfolio positions and then Import.

Notice our file ^[69] contains all portfolio positions whether they’ve change or not.

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1. We’ll reduce our Tesla position from 66 to 56 shares
2. We’ll add a new position for LCID – Lucid of 308 shares

The Cost Per Share will default to the current price of the ticker (if the date of record is the current date), or the closing price of the ticker on the selected date.

We can optionally override the Cost Per Share to reflect what we actually paid for the ticker by adding a Cost column to the import file.

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Now that the import is complete, we can see there is a new position for Lucid and that the share count for Tesla dropped to 56.

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Updating from the Table

We can also update a Manual Portfolio by entering buy and sell trades directly from the Table ^[53].

The Table can be loaded with anything from an ad-hoc list of tickers we requested quotes on, to stocks or ETFs that pass a screener we have just run, to indexes such as the Dow 30 or the S&P 500, to tickers from portfolios.

The Table below is displaying the tickers from a watchlist called “Stocks of Interest”.

We have selected two tickers VLKAF – Volkswagen and JEF – Jeffries Financial Gr.

We’ll right-click and choose Trade in Portfolio.

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A Trade window will then launch with input options:

We are going to trade these tickers into a model portfolio called “My Dividend Growth”.

1. Portfolio Name: We’ll select “My Dividend Growth” from the pull-down.
2. Type: We want to select Buy All Equally.
3. Date: Let’s set the buy date to 03/01/2023.
4. Amount($) Each: We want a buy of $2,500 per position.
5. Click on Update

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Stock Rover will then compute the Portfolio’s Position(s) based on the trade(s).

We’ll select our updated “My Dividend Growth” portfolio, then in Portfolio Manager ^[30], click on Positions.

We see our portfolio now has two new positions – each with a cost basis of $2,500.

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Viewing a Manual Portfolio

As we’ve seen when we create or modify a Manual Portfolio using Positions, Stock Rover will infer the Transactions.

Conversely, if we create or modify a Manual Portfolio using Transactions, Stock Rover will compute the Positions.

Displaying Positions

The Portfolio Manager offers a convenient way for us to display a Portfolio based on its Positions.

We can not only see our most recent Positions, but we can also display the positions on past dates when there was a change in Positions.

1. We’ll select Portfolios.
2. Then we’ll select the appropriate Portfolio to display and then run the Portfolio Manager ^[30].
3. We’ll click on the Positions tab.
4. Lastly, we’ll select a trading Date from the list that corresponds to when the Portfolio’s holdings changed.

In our example we want to display the Positions as of the end of trading on 03/09/22.

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Here we see the Portfolio’s Positions as of the end of trading on 03/09/22.

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Displaying Transactions

The Portfolio Manager also makes it quite easy for us to display a Portfolio’s Transactions.

We can select to display the Transactions created since a selected time period.

1. We’ll select Portfolios.
2. Then we’ll select the appropriate Portfolio to display and then run the Portfolio Manager ^[30].
3. We’ll click on the Transactions tab.
4. Lastly we’ll select a Since date, which corresponds to the earliest Transaction date to display from.

In our example, we are displaying the Buy and Sell Transactions starting from 07/01/2013 thru today.

Note, we can also choose a preselected time period to start from; ranging from 1-month ago to All-time.

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Backcasting

Even when there is no position history, we can always analyze a portfolio and view its historical performance via Stock Rover’s Backcasting feature.

Backcasting works by projecting a portfolio’s returns as if the holdings were held as far back as the earliest report date supported in Stock Rover, which is January of 2007.

Backcasting is configured in the Portfolio Manager ^[30] and is enabled by default. However, once we have updated the portfolio’s history we can turn backcasting off ^[79] so that the Portfolio Analytics ^[80] uses the earliest buy date entered as the earliest date it will report on.

The portfolio in the screenshot below was established on February 21, 2023 – with Performance Backcasting.

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Clicking Explain launches the Performance Backcasting window, which explains the feature in more detail, as shown below.

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We can also “Disable Backcasting”. In our example, we’ll leave Backcasting enabled.

Below we can see Backcasting in action as the Portfolio Analytics is showing both the portfolio’s returns and its value over time going back 5 years even though the positions in the portfolio were established on February 21, 2023.

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Tracking Assets

When we add tickers to a portfolio they are verified to make sure that they can be priced from any of the supported exchanges ^[84]. If a position cannot be priced, then the tickers will be classified under “Assets”.

Assets help us distinguish between tickers that are included in Stock Rover’s research and analytics and those that are not.

An Asset will typically be classified as a Fund, a Stock, a Bond, or an Option, but there are also many other classifications, such as a money market fund, CD, real estate, or commodities.

When a Portfolio contains assets, they will be listed following the alphabetical list of positions in the Portfolio Manager ^[30]. In the example below the symbols MAX202745 and P3MOV678G are listed at end of the alphabetical list of positions just after META.

1. MAX202745 corresponds to a Fidelity 529 fund College Savings Plan
2. P3MOV678G corresponds to a Money Market Fund

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When we load a Portfolio with Assets into the Table ^[53], an Asset summary row is displayed at the bottom.

The screenshot below shows the portfolio’s positions along with a summary line of Assets using the Portfolio Performance View. ^[86]

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When we click “>” on next to the “> Assets” label, a popup will appear with details for each of the Assets.

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Summary

We hope you have found this post on Manual Portfolios useful. Manual Portfolios offer a convenient way for you to track stocks that you actually or hypothetically own.

Once you have created a Manual Portfolio, you can quickly and easily keep the portfolio up to date to reflect changes in your holdings. New portfolio positions can be entered manually or imported from a file.

Manual portfolios also integrate with Stock Rover’s Portfolio Analytics tool, making it easy for you to receive detailed analytics for any time period you choose.