Portfolios
The portfolio section allows you to create, and edit, portfolios of funds, equities, benchmark or synthetic measures and can include sectors, indices, asset classes, currencies and other portfolios. The entire portfolio or its constituents may then be selected for use in tables and custom reports.
Portfolio Builder
To create, or edit, a portfolio, select "Create new" or "Edit" from the portfolio section of the Active List or go to the 'New' menu and choose 'Portfolio'. Now choose your portfolio items in a similar way to building your Active List by simply highlight the item and clicking 'add'.
Alternatively a portfolio can be created from instruments displayed in the Active List by choosing 'Import Holdings from Active List' in the Data drop down menu.
Once the components are included in the portfolio contents you can input the percentage holding or number of units for each component and the total will add up automatically.
Note: Items from different universes may be added to the same portfolio. Also the value currency is dependent on your set portfolio currency. To change this, please see the following Portfolio Settings section.
Portfolio Benchmark
As standard the system provides the FTSE All Share as the benchmark for portfolios but this can be easily changed by the user. To add a new benchmark you need to identify your benchmark in the usual manner and then clicking on 'add as benchmark' rather than 'add'.
Note: You can only select one benchmark at a time and if a second is selected the system will overwrite your first choice with the new selection.
Alternatively you can create a benchmark using the sector averages of your holdings by ticking the box next to "Use Sector Average of Holdings". This will create a benchmark of the sector averages with the same weightings as the funds within your portfolio. Any instruments in your portfolio that do not have a sector, for example an index, will have the same weighting in the sector average benchmark.
The sector average benchmark is added in the portfolio section drop down and you can add this as an instrument in the active list. If you create a scan of the sector average benchmark, your original portfolio will be used as the benchmark within the scan.
Note: You can select to have each individual fund use its own benchmark (where known) or its own sector average within the portfolio scan. See Portfolio scan for more info.
Portfolio Settings
The portfolio settings can be found under 'Portfolio Settings' in the 'Options' menu option.
The portfolio setting are as follows:
Start Date – Enter, or change, a start date for your portfolio which is required to calculate current weightings and portfolio drift. Once a start date is entered, a new tab will appear above the portfolio contents and any portfolio charts, tables, etc will use this date.
Note: If you have the historic portfolio module, the date option will be greyed out within the portfolio settings.
Currency - You can rebase the portfolio performance from a list of currencies in the drop down and this feature is only relevant for units/value portfolios.
Charges - You can apply charges to your portfolio by entering an initial and/or annual percentage charge.
Display Name – Add a display name to appear on the portfolio scans. This is particularly handy when you want to save the portfolio as a client reference, yet want to give the client his scans with their name on it.
Rebalancing - Portfolio rebalancing allows the user to rebalance the portfolio back to the original percentage splits at selected intervals. To set the intervals, click on the "rebalancing calendar" link.
The rebalancing calendar allows the user to select the intervals at which the portfolio is rebalanced by clicking on the relevant "Qtrly" link or selecting individual months. All months will ensure that rebalancing is carried out monthly.
Note: You must save your portfolio for the settings to take effect.
Saving a Portfolio
Once the portfolio is complete it can be saved choosing Save from the File menu. Once named and saved your portfolio will appear in the list of available portfolios from the Active List Selection screen. As with Saved Lists, the Portfolios can be saved in the public domain by changing your privacy settings.
A portfolio can be saved with a separate display name in 'Settings' so that you can have a client friendly name on Portfolio Scans and still save them in public folders or under administrative names, etc.
If you have a previously saved portfolio you can also use the Quick-save icon which will appear next to your portfolio Total weighting/value.