Iām fairly new to investing and Iāve really been enjoying my journey so far with Freetrade.
Just out of interest - Iāve seen, both on YouTube and on various sites, that some investors track their stocks and shares (inc. dividends) on fancy spreadsheets so Iām curious to know if anyone reading this uses one and which you would recommend?!
Iāve found half a dozen decent looking spreadsheets which Iām happy to share links for here but I just wondered if there was a āgo toā for most people??
I made a quick thing on Google Sheets which has transformed itself into something a bit more complicated over time. Google Sheets has a very useful function to call live prices and share information from Google Finance so it automatically updates everything without me having to do anything.
I use it with a couple of friends to compare performance as we play around and learn.
All I need to do is add an update everytime there is a buy or sell.
Thanks to everyone who has shared possible solutions so farā¦ whatās becoming more and more apparent is there isnāt a one size fits all solution. What Iām finding most frustrating is trying to convert these into GBP based currency spreadsheets, itās such a pain! If anyone manages to turn any of these into a UK friendly spreadsheet please let me know!
Some of the ones Iāve found that I like but donāt really do everything I was after are:
I decided to have a go building my own simple spreadsheet and borrow ideas from the various options already out there. This is how far Iāve gotā¦ what do you guys think??
One of the things Iām noticing is that pulling data from Google Finance doesnāt always give you an accurate output, for example, when pulling share prices I have to divide the figure by 100 to get the correct share price in GBP to the penny. Also, unlike Yahoo Finance, the pricing information is 24hrs old.
Iāve given up my search for a spreadsheet. Some lessons learnt:
There arenāt any LSE / GBP / UK friendly spreadsheets out there - youāll have to do a lot of re-work
You need to be comfortable that your spreadsheet probably wonāt be 100% accurate at all times due to multiple sources of data
Google Sheets is probably the easiest solution to build your tracker but keep in mind that Google Finance data is reflective of the previous days prices (I havenāt confirmed this but it certainly seems to be the case), other platforms such as Yahoo Finance provides live data but pulling this into the spreadsheet requires a more advance user level (more complicated functions etc)
The best answer, in my opinion, is to use a purpose built platform or app. You do not need to incur a cost for this but if your portfolio is significant then a small cost shouldnāt detour you. The best Iāve come across seems to be Sharesight UK
Iām almost done building my own tracker, I just need to add categories and start building a few charts / graphs. If this doesnāt work for me then Iāll be seeking an app (like Sharesight) to manage my portfolio moving forward.
For a bit of fun, Iāve decided to use a colour scheme that reflects my investment platform of choice
Thanks for sharing that. I was wondering weather your buys and sells are entered in a separate tab and then appear in your main holdings list? or is it a manual count?
Have a look at a simple spreadsheet Iām in the process of building (almost done!). Perhaps we can trade some tips?
Thanks for pointing that out @StockTricksā¦ I think what Iāll do is add another column to select the currency or stock region
Then what Iāll do is add LON: in front of any ticker where Iāve selected UK as the region or GBP as the currency?? or am I missing something more obvious? Like just putting it in manually
My biggest frustration with Google Finance is the price data not being āliveā, whatās the point of even offering this tool if the prices arenāt right?! Apparently they used to have a portfolio management feature built in some years ago but theyāve removed it
So, itās not really meant for you to make real-time decisions. Goldman Sachs wouldnāt be using this for multi-billion dollar fractional transactions to the milli-second.
Itās just used as a general quick and dirty overview of your portfolio. so it doensāt really matter if the data is late here or there.
If youāre looking for accurate critical live updates on price data, then Google Sheets is the wrong tool you are using.
@StockTricks youāre right. Thatās why in my lessons learnt I mention that youād have to be comfortable.
Itās a shame and annoying but Iām over it! The spreadsheet will do the job Iām looking for it to do. If I need something more advance Iāll definitely turn to an app of some sort.
p.s. Iāve sorted my spreadsheet to add whatever exchange I put in a separate column so now LAND would be searched as LON:LAND
I created a Google Form which asks for transaction data which it then saves in a sheet in the workbook. The individual pages for each person then only counts the transactions for that person.
Part of the reason it asks which market is to ensure the Googlefinance function gets correct data. It uses that field to call the correct stock and also to convert dollar values into GBP for an accurate valuation.
Itās not the prettiest solution but it does the job for someone (like me!) whoās just playing around.
I like your one, especially the colour scheme (great minds!)
Regarding Google prices Iāve not seen them 24 hours out of date, at most around 20 minutes or so. Certainly good enough to get a rough idea of progress.
it all depends on what youāre looking for. I just wanted to have a better calculator about my own performance to assess my stock picks as I found the Freetrade app to lack in some areas there. I also wanted a way for my small group of friends to compare against each other in one place.
Your spreadsheet seems focused more on in-depth analysis around statistics of each stock and probably more professional!
Thanks for sharing that @investgreg much appreciated. Iām done with my one, Iām not going to make it anymore complicated! I really like the form youāve used to capture the transactions and feed them into the spreadsheet, Iām going to go for something similar. Final touch will be a dashboard of sorts with all the visuals on it.
Iāve put submitted an suggestion in the ideas category to add portfolio trackers to the app, if anyone reading this is up for it please head over and give it a vote!
