INVESTMENT TRACKER V1.0 (Siena)

Following the success of my Home Accounts  program for 
the S3A & S3C, S3ABANK,  a number of people suggested 
that I issue some of the optional modules as standalone 
programs.  This was the first of these modules.  (The others 
are a fuel consumption tracker, S3AFUELx.ZIP, a Home 
Inventory program, S3AHOMEx.ZIP, an Expense Account 
Manager, S3AEXPx.ZIP, and a Financial Planner, 
S3APLANx.ZIP, where 'x' is the version number). This 
program is the Siena version of S3AINVEST and allows 
you to keep track of the value of your  investments (Shares, 
Stocks, Bonds etc) but, in addition, it also allows you to 
keep a history file of their performance, which can be 
displayed graphically.

To Install the program :

1.	Put SNAINV0.APP in your \APP\ directory

2. 	If you want to use the optional On-Line Help 
(Highly recommended) put the file SNAINVH.OVL into an 
\APP\SNAINV\ directory.

3.	If you want to use the optional Print option put the 
file SNAINVP.OVL into the \APP\SNAINV\ directory and 
the file SNAPRINT.DYL into an \OPD\ directory.  Note 
that this file is common to all my programs, so if you have 
more than one of them you only need one copy of this file.

4.	Install (PSION-I)

To start the program highlight the 'Invest' under the Icon.  
You can either use this as a Group name, in which case just 
press <Enter>, or use <PSION-N> to select your own 
name.

Now go into the program.  The 'nag' screen can be removed 
by registering the program, which will also allow you 50 
entries.  The unregistered version allows you just 3 entries, 
to see the capabilities of the program. Working through the 
MENU commands will show you the capabilities of the 
program.	The usual File Handling Commands are 
available for building and deleting groups, as well as the 
Password option.  The Edit Menu provides Enter, Update, 
and Delete options, plus a 'Move' option if you wish to 
manually reorder the entries, and an 'Update All' option 
<PSION-L>.  I use this once a week to update every 
investment at once.  (See later for Currencies).  The 
Print menu (only visible if you have the Print Module
loaded) allows you to output the details, the 'Sort' menu 
allows you to quickly re-order the entries based on any of 
the fields, and the 'Special' menu allows you to configure the 
program, look at the full details for an entry, look at the 
Total History screen (see later), use a separate memopad (as 
in Agenda) and select the size of font.

The 'Set Preferences' menu allows you to specify the type of 
font, the date format, whether you wish to be prompted to 
include any updates in the History file, how many decimal 
places you wish  for each  column, configure the printer, 
(if the print module is loaded) and decide if you want to stay 
in the 'Set Preferences' menu while setting up the program 
(instead of having to keep re-selecting it).

Finally, there is a diamond menu to show the ways of 
viewing the long-term performance of an investment.  Note 
that, provided you load the optional overlay file, the <Help> 
key will show similar information to that contained in these 
instructions.

To demonstrate the program, enter an investment <PSION-
E>, specifying the start date, Company, how many shares 
and the present price.  Now update the entry  using 
<PSION-U>, or <PSION-L>, or <TAB>.  When it has been 
entered say 'Yes' to  the 'Update History' question.  (This 
can be bypassed if a flag is set from the 'Set Preferences' 
menu) Now update it twice more, to generate a decent 
history.  Now select the share and press  the Diamond key 
(or <PSION-SHIFT-H>) and you will see the history 
display.  While you are in this screen, you can amend the 
History file if you require, delete the file and Export the 
history (see later).   Pressing the Diamond key, or <PSION-
SHIFT-G> will display the same information in graphical 
format.  In this screen you can set the Date X-Scale Factor 
<PSION-A> to 'Auto' or to the number of pixels/day, and 
the Price Y-Scale factor <PSION-P>, to the max/min values 
of price or an automatic scaling).  In this mode, you can 
also define the gain/loss figure, and the number of decimal 
places to be used for the display.

If you have more than one share, you can select them by 
either using the cursor keys or pressing the first letter of the 
title.  In the History views, you can switch shares quickly 
using <PSION-S> (unfortunately, because of the limitations 
of the Psion, only the first 31 entries can be switched this 
way) or use the right/left arrows to cycle through.  Also, as 
usual, <Fn-Menu> switches the Info Window on and off.

If you want to use multiple groups of investments, simply 
use the <PSION-N> command to generate multiple groups.

If you want to use the foreign currency option in any of the 
Groups, select the 'Currencies' option from the Menu, and 
enter a symbol for the primary currency (i.e. US$) and for 
the second currency, and then the exchange rate.  The 
Group will now show the primary currency in the top right.   
If you now want to use the secondary currency option, 
select 'Enable on' in the same dialog. The secondary 
currency will now be shown in brackets after the primary 
currency and when you Enter or Update entries, you will 
offered the option of using either currency.  (The currency 
will default to the one you used last time)

Every time you do an update, the total value of your 
portfolio is stored, and the history of this can also be viewed 
using <PSION-T> from the menu.  However, a word of 
warning.  When you first start setting up your investments, 
the program will begin the total calculation from the value 
of the first investment entered.   Therefore, if you enter 4 
investments immediately, the program will think you have 
made a massive gain !!  To sort that problem out, once you 
have initially entered ALL your investments, just go into the 
Total History screen, and delete the earlier lines, so that the 
first line represents a true starting value for your portfolio.

Finally, the History details can be exported in a <Tab> 
delimited format which can be imported in the built-in Sheet 
application.  To use this option, press <PSION-O>, and just 
specify the location of the output file (it defaults to \WRD\ 
SNAINV.TXT).    Now load that file into the Word 
application, highlight it all and then use the Bring function 
from within a spreadsheet to import the information.

If you find the program useful and wish to register it, please 
see the file REGISTER.TXT for up-to-date instructions on 
how to register.  Apart from giving you a 'warm' feeling, 
allowing  you  50 entries, and getting rid of the 'nag' 
screens, registering will give you access to full support and 
access to regular, free, updates.   If anyone has any useful 
suggestions for improvements, I will always try and include 
them in the next version.

Al Richey 
