Evaluating Mutual Fund Performance

Updating fund activity on Google Finance

Export Fund Activity

• Log in to fund manager.
• My Accounts > click account name > Activity tab
  • Using the date filters, filter out past transactions that have already been imported into Google Finance.
  • Click Search to update the listings.
• At the bottom of the listings:
  • Transactions: Selected Activity
  • File Format: CSV
  • Click Export

Correct formatting of CSV

• Open the CSV in a text editor (Sublime Text, Notepad++, etc)
• Edits to facilitate importing the CSV:
  • Add leading zeros where the value is between 0 and 1, i.e. search & replace ",." > ",0."
  • Update transaction values (available options: Buy, Sell, Buy to cover, Sell short):
    • "Purchase" > "Buy"
    • "Redeem" > "Sell"
• Save and close the file.

Import activity into Google Finance portfolio

• Navigate to the portfolio holding mutual funds.
• Import transactions
• Choose file button > select the CSV file
• Preview import button
  • Make sure to select the correct data type for each of the columns, esp. confirm that Gross Amount is not marked as Purchase Price
  • Select the top row containing the column headers & Delete button.
  • Confirm that the correct portfolio is selected in the dropdown menu at the bottom of the listings.
• Import button.

Confirm values on Google Finance

Open up the My Accounts tab on the fund manager site side-by-side with the Google Finance site. The totals should match.

If they don't match, click on each of the fund accounts to view the individual investments and compare them with what's listed on the GF site.

Dividends paid that haven't been tracked in GF may add to the value of a particular fund. Find the funds with amounts that don't match what's displayed in the GF portfolio, and then look for recent activity in the account. Import any new activity (i.e. dividends reinvested, etc.) into GF.

Setting up stock and/or fund alerts

• Yahoo Finance > My Portfolio (requires login)
• Set Alerts

Charting multiple funds performance side-by-side

• Morningstar
• Enter fund ticker (e.g. USCGX) in the Quote field at the top of the page.
• Switch from Quote tab to Chart tab.
• Enter another fund ticker (e.g. USATX) in the Compare to Symbol field.
• (Extra benchmarks can be removed from the chart by hovering over their names in the chart legend, and then clicking the X button that appears.

Generating John Bogle's "telltale" charts

• Chart Generator
• Enter the two funds in Hypothetical Portfolio and Baseline Portfolio.
  • Commas delimit multiple funds.
  • Asterisk is a wildcard for fund names.

N.B. The data for these charts comes from Yahoo Finance.