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Text File | 1986-10-19 | 22KB | 661 lines

STOCK PERFORMANCE TRACKER Version 1.2 04/05/86 BY JAMES LUCZAK Stock Performance Tracker is an investment tool that allows you to track the activity of a stock over a period of time. Like a hammer or screw driver, anyone can use Stock Performance Tracker. You don't have to be an expert. Even if you have never looked at the financial page of the newspaper, you can use S.P.T. to follow the activities on the stock exchange. The only requirement for using S.P.T. is a newspaper that contains the stock exchange listings. Standard & Poor's Stock Guide is also handy to gather information about the stocks you wish to follow. However the Stock Guide is not necessary to use S.P.T. FEATURES -------- * Tracks up to 50 stocks for a maximum of 250 quotes each. * Closing Prices are stored in revolving files. This means that stocks can be tracked for an indefinite period of time. After the 250th entry, additional entries are stored at the start of the file, replacing the oldest quotes one at a time. * A Data Sheet is produced for each stock tracked, showing if you made or lost money based on the last closing price. The Data Sheet also shows what the long term and short term taxes are, and your profit after taxes. * A Stock Performance Chart is produced for each stock tracked. The chart displays the activity of the stock, the historical high, the historical low, and the purchase price. If using a color monitor, the stock track will be green if above the break even price or red if below or equal to break even. * All data files are easily accessible. You can correct errors or adjust parameters in any file. Any information you can enter, you can edit. * The Data Sheet, Stock Performance Chart, and a listing of all stocks being tracked, can be output to a printer. - 1 - * A handy Stock Form can be output to a printer for keeping track of closing prices. * Supports both color and monochrome monitors. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS --------------------- * 520ST or 1040ST Computer. * Monochrome or Color Monitor. * One Single or Double Sided Disk Drive. * Printer ( Optional ) GETTING STARTED --------------- Stock Performance Tracker can be used by anyone. If S.P.T. asks for information that you don't have, press the RETURN key. Default parameters will be entered where appropriate. Stock prices are always shown in fractional form (i.e. 22 1/8). Computers can't handle fractions very well, so all entries must be in decimal form (i.e. 22.12). To make the conversion easier, a handy fraction to decimal table is displayed whenever you enter stock prices. The first time you use Stock Preformancs Tracker, a tax table will be displayed. Enter the tax bracket that most closely applies. To find your tax bracket, use the amount and heading that you used on your latest income tax form. You can change your tax bracket as often as necessary from S.P.T.'s Main Menu. After you enter your tax bracket, the disk initialization screen will be displayed. S.P.T. creates files that require a full single sided disk. The only files that should be on the disk are BASIC.PRG, BASIC.RSC, and this program, STOCKS.BAS. When you're ready, press 'I'. Disk initialization will take approximately 2 Min, 50 Sec. After the disk has been initialized, S.P.T.'s Main Menu will appear. CAUTION: THE ONLY TIME YOU SHOULD SEE THE DISK INITIALIZATION SCREEN, IS THE FIRST TIME YOU USE THE PROGRAM. IF YOU SEE THIS SCREEN AT ANY OTHER TIME, SOMETHING IS WRONG!! THE MAIN MENU ------------- The Main Menu is the hub of S.P.T.'s functions. From this point you can perform the following: A) Add Stocks. B) Add Closing Prices. - 2 - C) Edit Stock Listing. D) List stocks to Screen or Printer. Print Stock Form. E) Display a data sheet or performance chart. F) Exit the Program. A) ADD STOCKS ------------- Before you can track a stock, you must enter some information. COMPANY NAME The name of the company that issued the stock. Entering 'Q' at this point will return you to the Main Menu. LISTING ABBREVIATION The abbreviation used by the stock listing to represent the stock. If the company has a short name, the abbreviation may be the company name. If you don't care to enter the abbreviation, press RETURN. The company name will be substituted for the abbreviation. COMMENTS Use this field to enter additional information about the stock. EXCHANGE This is the name of the stock listing the stock appears in. You can use up to 5 characters to identify the exchange. The name of the exchange will be at the top of the stock listing in the newspaper. Some of the more common exchanges are: NY New York, AM American, NASDAQ (OTC) Over The Counter Markets. Press RETURN if the exchange is unimportant to you. RATING The stock rating can be found in the Stock Guide. If you don't have a Stock Guide, press RETURN. A 'NR' (not rated) will be entered. HIGH AND LOWS The next six entries are for the highest and lowest closing prices for the current Year, last Year, and two years ago. The current year high and low can be found in most newspapers, as well as the Stock Guide. The others can be found in the Stock Guide. If you don't a Stock Guide, press RETURN for each of these entries. S.P.T. will automatically keep track of the highest and lowest prices for the stock, and use these values for the historical high and low prices. CURRENT YEAR HIGH The current year high is the highest closing price a stock has had over the past year. In the newspaper, the current year high may appear to - 3 - the left of the stock name. The heading for the column may be 52 Week High Low, 365 Day High Low, 12 Mo High Low, or Year High Low. This information also appears in the Stock Guide. CURRENT YEAR LOW Same as above except for the low price. LAST YEAR HIGH Same as current year high except for last year. Pressing RETURN will enter the current year high as last year's high. LAST YEAR LOW Same as current year low except for last year. Pressing RETURN will enter the current year low as last year's low. TWO YEAR AGO HIGH Same as current year high except for two years ago. Pressing RETURN will enter the last year high as two year ago high. TWO YEAR AGO LOW Same as current year low except for two years ago. Pressing RETURN will enter the last year low as two year ago low. PURCHASE PRICE PER SHARE Enter the price paid per share. If you're just tracking the stock, enter the closing price for the day you start tracking. After you enter a purchase price, the cost of 100 shares will be displayed on the same line. You can use this figure as an aid in determining how many shares you intend to purchase. NUMBER OF SHARES Enter the number of shares that you own or intend to purchase. After you've entered the number of shares, the cost of the shares will be displayed on the same line. You'll be asked if your entry is correct. If you want to change the number of shares answer 'N'. If you are satisified, answer 'Y'. BROKERAGE FEE Brokerage fees vary from broker to broker, and from stock to stock. If you don't know the brokers fee, press RETURN. A 2% brokerage fee will be entered. DO YOU OWN THIS STOCK If you own the stock, enter 'Y'. If you don't press RETURN. DATE - 4 - Enter the date you purchased or started tracking the stock. To abort the entry, press 'Q'. USERS NOTES: ------------ * You can use the DO YOU OWN THIS STOCK entry to 'MARK' a stock of particular intrest even if you don't own it. If a stock is MARKED as owned, two short beeps will sound when the stock's Data Sheet or Performance Chart is displayed. * By pressing RETURN for the six High / Low entries, S.P.T. will calculate the highest and lowest closing prices for the stock. When you display the Data Sheet or Performance Chart, the Highest and Lowest Closing Prices will be displayed as the Average High and Average Low. The Average High and Average Low are calculated each time the Data Sheet or Performance Chart is displayed, reflecting the highest and lowest closing prices for the stock. B) ADD CLOSING PRICES --------------------- This function is used to enter closing prices for stocks. You can enter quotes on a daily basis, once a week, twice a week, or however often you like. You can even enter quotes on a daily basis for one stock and on a weekly basis for another. This function has been designed to take advantage of the numeric keypad. You can enter as many quotes as you like, without using the main keyboard. You can correct any mistakes or make adjustments to closing prices from the Edit Stock Listing function. 1) ENTER CLOSING PRICE At the first prompt, enter the month ( 1 - 12 ). At the second prompt, enter the number or name of the stock. Each stock tracked is assigned a stock number by S.P.T. You can find the stock number by listing the stocks (Function D). If you can't remember the stock number, enter the name of the stock. It's not necessary to enter the entire name. S.P.T. will search (Example: If you want to enter a closing price for Burger King Inc., you could enter B, Bu, Bur, Burg, etc). NOTE: S.P.T. is case sensitive. At the third prompt, enter the closing price. To abort the entry, press RETURN. You'll be returned to the Closing Price Menu. 2) DO CLOSING PRICE FOR NEXT STOCK ON LIST This option works exactly the same as option 1), except S.P.T. will automatically select the next stock on the list. If you start entering closing prices using this option, S.P.T. will select the first stock on the list. The next time you use the option, the second stock will be - 5 - selected, etc. Another way to use this option is in conjunction with option 1). For Example, if you are tracing 20 stocks, and want to enter closing prices for stocks 10 thru 20, use option 1) to select stock number 10. Then use option 2). S.P.T. will select stock number 11, then 12 etc. 3) RETURN TO MAIN MENU Exits the Closing Price Menu and returns you to S.P.T.'s Main Menu. USERS NOTES: ------------ * After you enter the month the first time, S.P.T. remembers that month. When asked for the month for the next stock, press RETURN. S.P.T. will enter the month automatically. * If you're adding several closing prices for the same stock, S.P.T. will remember the name of the stock after you've identified it. Press RETURN when prompted for the stock I.D. S.P.T. will automatically display the same stock for additional entries. (This feature is most useful when transferring closing prices from another source to S.P.T.). C) EDIT STOCK LISTING. ---------------------- The editor allows you to correct errors or make changes to any stock. You can also DELETE a stock or RESTORE deleted stocks. A deleted stock is not really deleted. It's only marked deleted. All information about the deleted stock remains in memory. S.P.T. will not display a deleted stock or allow you enter any information about a deleted stock. However, you can restore a deleted stock with the editor. When a deleted stock has been restored, it's returned to the stock list with all information intact. After S.P.T. assigns a stock the I.D. number 50, deleted stocks can be overwritten with new stock information (function A). Deleted stocks will be replaced in the order they appear in the Restore Deletes stock menu. When a deleted stock is replaced with a new stock, all information about the deleted stock is lost. CHANGING YOUR TAX BRACKET At the prompt, enter 'TAX'. The Tax Table will display so you can change your tax bracket. RESTORING DELETED STOCKS At the prompt, enter '@'. All deleted stocks will be displayed. To restore a stock, enter the stock number. CHANGING CLOSING PRICES At the prompt, enter '&'. At the next prompt, enter the stock number - 6 - or name. A listing of all closing prices for that stock will be displayed. To change a closing price or month, enter the record number and follow the prompts at the bottom of the screen. CHANGING STOCK INFORMATION At the prompt, enter the stock number or stock name. To make a change, enter the field to change (A - P). The cursor will move to the entry to change. If you decide not to make a change, press RETURN. The information at the cursor location will remain unchanged. DELETING A STOCK At the prompt, enter the stock number or name. To delete the stock, press '*'. You'll be asked to confirm the action. If you decide not to delete the stock, press 'N'. USER NOTES: ----------- * The prompt ' Enter Stock Number or Company Name' will remember the last entry made to it. EXAMPLE 1: If you're going to make several changes to a stock, enter the stock number or name. After you've made the change, you'll be returned to the Editor Menu. If you press RETURN at the prompt, S.P.T. will display the same stock for further changes. EXAMPLE 2: If you're going to make several changes to the closing prices for a stock, enter '&' at the prompt. At the next prompt, enter the stock number or name. After you've made the change, you'll be returned to the Editor Menu. By pressing RETURN at the prompt, you'll be presented with the Closing Price prompt. Pressing RETURN again will display the closing prices for the same stock. D) LIST STOCKS -------------- This function displays all stocks except those that have been deleted. The following information is displayed: stock number, company name, rating, exchange, average high, average low, and last closing price. The average high and average low are the historical high and low for the stock; that is, the average high and low over the past three years. If you haven't entered the historical information (function A), the average high and low will reflect the highest and lowest price the stock has reached since tracking began. You may also output the Stock Form to a printer. The Stock Form lists all stocks, the Exchange they are listed on, and whether you own the stock. There's room on the form to write 5 closing prices for each stock. You may be wondering why a Stock Form is necessary at all. After all, why add the extra step of writing down closing prices before entering - 7 - them into the computer? It's a matter of logistics. Newspapers are big. Computer workstations are usually small. At best, entering closing prices from the newspaper is cumbersome. You'll find it's much easier -- and quicker -- to find a place where you can spread out the newspaper when entering closing prices on the Stock Form. Then enter the prices from the form into the computer. E) DATA SHEET AND CHARTS ------------------------ This function will display the Data Sheet or Chart for the stock you specify. At the prompt, enter the stock number to display. If you can't remember the stock number, press RETURN. A list of all stocks and their numbers will be displayed. THE DATA SHEET The Data Sheet is divided into four parts. The first section displays the following general information about the stock: name, listed as, exchange, date, purchase price, rating, average high, average low, if you own the stock, comments, and number of quotes. The average high and low are described fully under LIST STOCKS. The second section displays the number of shares, the purchase price and the amount of the purchase. The next line shows the brokerage fee (%) and the brokerage fee in dollars. The third line shows the total purchase price, including the brokerage fee in dollars. The third section shows the results of the sale of the stock at the last closing price, and if you would have made a gain or loss. The gain or loss is displayed as a percentage and in dollars. If you made a gain on the stock the fourth section will be present. If there was a loss the fourth section is not displayed. The fourth section shows your tax bracket, the tax in dollars, and your profit after taxes. There are two taxes shown. The long term tax is the tax you pay if you've owned the stock for more than six months before selling. (The long term tax is figured at 40% of the gain). The short term tax is the tax you pay if you have owned the stock less then six months before selling. (The short term tax is figured at 100% of the gain). The Menu Bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to move forward or backward through the stock list, produce a hard copy of the Data Sheet, or display the Chart for the stock. THE STOCK PERFORMANCE CHART The Stock Performance Chart displays the stock track, average high, average low, and the purchase price. The average high and low are described under LIST STOCKS. The average high is a green dashed line labeled HI; the average low is a red dashed line labeled LO; and the purchase price is a white dash dot line labeled PCH. The Stock Track will be green if above the break even price, and red if below or equal to the break even price. The break even price is the purchase price of - 8 - the stock plus the brokerage fee. The stock track runs from left to right, with the most recent entry at the right end of the track. The closing price range for the chart is represented vertically along the left edge of the screen. S.P.T. adjusts the price range to keep the stock track on the chart. Depending on the activity of the stock, the average high, average low, and purchase price markers may not always be displayed. If the average high or average low marker is missing, the letter 'H' or 'L' will appear in the closing price range column, with an upward or downward pointing arrow. This indicates that the average high and/or average low is above/below the closing price range of the chart. If the purchase price is above/below the closing price range, it's not displayed. The Menu Bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to move forward or backward through the stock list, display the Data Sheet for the stock, change background color from dark to light, show only the most recent month's entries, and produce a Hard Copy of the chart. The Option 'R' - Most Recent, toggles between showing the entire track of the stock and showing only the most recent entries. The most recent entries are the closing prices for the current month. USERS NOTES: ------------ * To produce a Hard Copy of the chart, press the ALTERNATE and HELP keys at the same time. You must have had the CONTROL.ACC file on your boot disk. (The boot disk is the disk used when you turned your machine on.) * It's a good idea to change the background color to white when making a hard copy of the chart. It's lot easier on your printer. * If the purchase price happens to be the same as the average high or average low, the purchase price marker will be shown. * If the purchase price is above/below the closing price range, the purchase price marker will not be displayed. You can determine if the purchase price is above or below the closing price range by the color of the stock track. If the entire stock track is red, the purchase price is above the closing price range. If the stock track is green, the purchase price is below the purchase price range. * If you mark a stock as owned (function A), two short beeps will sound to alert you that the stock being displayed is marked as owned. F) END ------ Always exit the program from this function. S.P.T. updates files at - 9 - the end of a session. If you exit the program any other way, you run the risk of losing data. USERS NOTES: ------------ * Always make a backup of your S.P.T. disk. It's better to be safe than sorry. - 10 -