Managing Portfolios

A central feature of MI’s portfolio management capabilities is the ability to create reports for any one portfolio or for any combination of portfolios.

Click the Status Reports Button on the Reports & Charts page. From the Menu select Net Worth, then select all portfolios. Note how the report separates the assets and liabilities for each portfolio. Next, run the Net Worth report again and again select all portfolios. This time, place a checkmark in the “Composite Portfolios” check box. Note how the report composites the portfolios together as if they were a single portfolio.

In organizing your finances, you should consider dividing your assets into enough portfolios to show the finest level of detail that you require when reporting on a single portfolio. At the minimum, we recommend that a portfolio be created for each category of tax treatment (taxable, tax deferred, tax exempt, etc.) that applies to your assets and for each brokerage account. In addition, you may want to consider adding hypothetical portfolios to test various trading systems or to monitor the performance of advisory newsletters. To add, rename or delete portfolios from your system, Click the Portfolios & Transactions tab then click Define and choose Portfolios from the list.

MI gives you the ability to move assets from one portfolio to another. For example, to move a share lot from one portfolio to another click the Stocks button on the Portfolios & Transactions page and choose Edit/Delete Transaction from the action list. Select a stock then select a share lot. When the security transaction screen is displayed, click the Portfolio button. From the displayed menu you may then select an alternate portfolio. Optionally, you may click the New button to create a new portfolio where the share lot will reside.

To move a savings account, other asset or liability from one portfolio to another, Click the Define button on the Portfolio & Transactions page then select the type of account to be moved. For example, to move a cash account, click Define then choose Cash Accounts. After selecting the account, click the Portfolio button to change the portfolio.

Note: stocks, bonds and options are defined independently of any portfolio since a given security may reside in many different portfolios. Conversely, savings/cash accounts, other assets and liabilities are defined within a portfolio since they can reside in only one portfolio at a time.