investment tracking

[SteveSxx]

I have invested a small amount in FTSE100, Nikkei 225 and DJ Eurostoxx 50 and would like to track them - is there some way that I can do this without resorting to creating my own spreadsheets ?

[ewand]

I'd like to help, SteveSxx, but I suppose it would be a bit easier with a bit more info. For example, how long do you want to track them for, how regularly, do you wish to make comparisons with alternative stocks etc.?

[SteveSxx]

Well - my planned investment period is 5 years - I just wanted to track them simply out of interest
I could do it with a simple spreadsheet (manually) but prefer automated.....

[SteveSxx]

Just actual values - for example - say I bought x in number on 1st August when they were �y each - and now they are worth �z - then the total value of my profit would now be
(z-y) * z
But I would have to enter z manually and was wondering if this could be automated

[BenDToy]

If they are standard unit type investments then iii offer a portfolio service which tracks the price of specific investments. I think they may also allow customised things as well. Got to be worth a look. www.iii.co.uk

[ewand]

Good answer from BenDToy but to supplement....there may be online investment tools to do this, though i'm currently not aware of any. On the automation front, what you could do is use VBA in Excel to develop a macro which esentially (when you click a button) goes off to the internet, grabs the latest quotes what you need and then returns them into an empty row in Excel. You could then do this as often as you need, though it would need a bit of programming knowledge. However, as you only have a few, for all the bother it might just be worth you setting your own sheet up and spending 2 mins once a week grabbing the quotes and then typing them into the sheet yourself for your own analysis.

Sorry if this isn't much help!

[SteveSxx]

Does MS Money allow you to "take" info from the 'net ?

[ewand]

To be honest, i'm not sure and i've never used it! I'm sure some other ABer's might be able to contribute though.

[ewand]

One thing I did notice is you can get some software for PDA which does something similar, so there might be something out there for your computer which does the trick if you look hard enough:

http://www.ipaqchoice.com/info.aspx?cat=21&num files=5&id=223&Name=Stock_Manager

[WendyS]

There is a well-known firm of financial advisors called Hargreaves Lansdown who, if you transfer your investments into their "Vantage" scheme, will allow you to track your investments online. You can get all the details from their website. Try Googling Hargreaves Lansdown as they've just changed their website address.

[SteveSxx]

"well known" ?
never heard of them ....
and why should I want to transfer any of my funds to them ?

[ewand]

You wouldn't........