# Portfolio management - multi currency



## titl4 (29 January 2010)

I've been trading / investing for a longish time with local brokers in ASX listed stocks.  To keep track and provide reporting when needed I use Stator which has done a good job although it has many bells & whistles I don't have a use for.  Now though I'm also trading US shares through IB - shares in US$, base currency AUD$.  I continue to use a local broker for another account.

I can continue with Stator Standard by just doing the currency conversions by hand first.  I could also buy Stator Pro which presumably would simplify that but at a significant upgrade cost - again for many more other features that I don't need or want.

I have looked at Personal Stock Monitor and Fund Manager.  I like both to use - imports from IB files are great and being able to check performance in either currency works well.  However 'fixing' exchange rates at transaction date takes much more effort, standard reporting is less than I need, and devising customized reports might well be beyond me.

Most of the otherwise good packages do not handle multiple currencies.

For the moment I will stick with Stator Standard but if anybody has an alternative I'd appreciate it.

Thanks


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## Trembling Hand (29 January 2010)

Set up an excel template that you can cut and paste your IB statement/reports into that do the conversion back to AUD before importing into Strata. If you're swing trading or longer timeframe it shouldn't take too much time per week from your golfing, yachting and general rock star time. :band


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## titl4 (30 January 2010)

Trembling Hand said:


> Set up an excel template that you can cut and paste your IB statement/reports into that do the conversion back to AUD before importing into Strata. If you're swing trading or longer timeframe it shouldn't take too much time per week from your golfing, yachting and general rock star time. :band




Thanks TH.  That's close to what I do and works fine.  A better paper trail would be good in case of an audit so I guess I thought with many on this forum trading multi currency shares & derivatives somebody might have located the ideal software.  Cheers.


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## lasty (30 January 2010)

titl4 said:


> Thanks TH.  That's close to what I do and works fine.  A better paper trail would be good in case of an audit so I guess I thought with many on this forum trading multi currency shares & derivatives somebody might have located the ideal software.  Cheers.




What are you prepared to pay for it that does the lot ?
Asx,intl shares, derivatives, property,fx,cfds etc


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## kardkovacsi (30 January 2010)

Try TradingDiary Pro. The software has one click import support for IB clients.


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## titl4 (1 February 2010)

lasty said:


> What are you prepared to pay for it that does the lot ?
> Asx,intl shares, derivatives, property,fx,cfds etc




I don't want the lot - only ASX and US shares.  I also don't want position sizing, charts, etc - or at least be able to 'hide' those functions so they don't get in the way.

I haven't really got to cost yet as I haven't found a package to do what I want except ones tied to advisors etc.  I currently have Stator Std.  if paying the extra for Stator pro would be what I want I'd do that - but it has too many bells & whistles which get in the way and doesn't do the direct imports I'd like.


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## titl4 (1 February 2010)

kardkovacsi said:


> Try TradingDiary Pro. The software has one click import support for IB clients.




Thanks for that.  I've just downloaded a trial and have asked the support section a couple of questions about reports.  Good so far though.


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## Trembling Hand (1 February 2010)

titl4 said:


> I don't want the lot - only ASX and US shares.  I also don't want position sizing, charts, etc - or at least be able to 'hide' those functions so they don't get in the way.
> 
> I haven't really got to cost yet as I haven't found a package to do what I want except ones tied to advisors etc.  I currently have Stator Std.  if paying the extra for Stator pro would be what I want I'd do that - but it has too many bells & whistles which get in the way and doesn't do the direct imports I'd like.




Just get a decent bookkeeper/accountant. Hand him/her your statements in quicken form and they take care of them. No stress, no mistakes all for a few dollars per month.


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## skc (1 February 2010)

Trembling Hand said:


> Just get a decent bookkeeper/accountant. Hand him/her your statements in quicken form and they take care of them. No stress, no mistakes all for a few dollars per month.




I don't give my accountant trading statements...

I just tell her my account balance on 1 July, cash in/out during the period, and closed balance on 30 Jun. Done.

If the tax man wants to audit, they can go through 300 statements for the year all they want.


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## Trembling Hand (1 February 2010)

skc said:


> I don't give my accountant trading statements...
> 
> I just tell her my account balance on 1 July, cash in/out during the period, and closed balance on 30 Jun. Done.
> 
> If the tax man wants to audit, they can go through 300 statements for the year all they want.



 I never did either, firstly i use to do it all myself but now cannot be stuffed. Then I stated giving my account similar to you. Just the basic figures. And they still stuffed it up.

So I dumped them and found one that knew how to deal with my biz. Now I don't do anything 

Just on that what about GST, Tax, Super, Workcover(if you pay wages) and all the other scams and BS one must take care of?


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## titl4 (4 February 2010)

Further to my post of 1 Feb where I said I was trialling Trading Diary Pro.  I had a few issues with the program (one I thought was a deal killer) and contacted Istvan at support.  

Support was outstanding in response time and fixed my 'deal killer' problem with a program update in not much more than a day.  The program does what I want and lets me concentrate on trading rather than book-keeping (I'm happy to let my accountant do the 'real' books but like to keep a finger on the pulse).

I bought a licence today.


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