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An absurd amount of information is freely available across a plethora of sites today. We have instant access to more data than at any time in history.
I'm a Software Engineer so my primary job description is to reinvent the wheel. Just kidding. Kinda. For our brand of investing, Dividend Growth Investing, I can't help but feel even with all the information available to us, there's still some resources missing that would be extremely valuable.
I have some ideas floating around for what I'd like to build next but I'd like your thoughts:
What are we missing? What would be valuable to you?
I'm a software engineer myself and what I am missing (and planning on writing when I get a break... good luck with that...) is some kind of portfolio tracking solution that is focused on dividends and YOC without the extra "current market price" noise.
I would like to enter my trades in that software and let it scan the web for relevant dividend news and showing me updates (maybe via emails).
I would also like to set it to send an "high-important" alert to my phone when a dividend is decreased!
I'll probably have time to work on it when I retire @67...
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daat99,
I developed an MS Excel workbook for portfolio tracking several years ago. I have been using this tool for the past 7 years tweaking the features as I go. It allows me to track my basis in a given stock, calculate my dividend income and trading income returns for individual stocks, track portfolio value, annual returns, etc. It also has external links to various fiinancial websites. You can view parts of the portfolio tracking software on my website shown on my profile page.
M$$I
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11-12-2014, 10:48 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-12-2014, 10:51 AM by rapidacid.)
This screenshot sums up the majority of what you guys are discussing
![[Image: Xqzed0D.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Xqzed0D.png)
I'm thinking more on the analysis / fundamental / technical side.
Displaying metrics + doing simple calculations on them is the easy part.
Estimize, YCharts, FAST Graphs are 3 that immediately come to mind that have gone beyond just simple portfolio tracking
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Software Engineer here as well. The key would be to separate out noise from the valuable data.
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(11-12-2014, 02:08 PM)Roadmap2Retire Wrote: Software Engineer here as well. The key would be to separate out noise from the valuable data.
I like it. Got an example of a what you're thinking?
I've also thought that most screeners / algorithms / calculations are a bit too one size fits all ... meaning you can't really compare O metrics to PG metrics to KMP metrics but that's what the majority of stuff that I've seen does
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(11-10-2014, 01:24 PM)rapidacid Wrote: An absurd amount of information is freely available across a plethora of sites today. We have instant access to more data than at any time in history.
...
For our brand of investing, Dividend Growth Investing, I can't help but feel even with all the information available to us, there's still some resources missing that would be extremely valuable.
Maybe it's old age but I'm coming to the conclusion that it's just the opposite.
Once you've found some interesting businesses, gone through the vetting process (read: due diligence) and selected some to either put in your portfolio now or in the future at a better value, then constantly watching them for any tidbit of news or statistic may be more detrimental to your financial health. My spreadsheets include a prospective portfolio along with a sheet of the current holdings. I'll add to what I have or open a new position when the price seems fair but, other than that, I don't go chasing for some statistic that will lead me to beat the market to the next "hot" thing. BTDT in my younger years and didn't get anywhere.
I was one of those that got disgusted with JNJ's management a few years back and bailed out. Fortunately, I landed in ABT, now ABBV and ABT, which has been berry, berry good to me. In the meantime, JNJ got rid of the lousy management suite and has done quite well for its owners since.
I'm now to the point where I update my spreadsheet when there's a dividend reinvested (or several). I look for big changes in price and then do a little search to see if there's a reason, or I go through the numbers again when I decide to make a meaningful change which is getting less and less often. Other than that, I just come here to join in the banter, read a few articles on SA and then go back to other things in life.
DGI is not some 24/7 investment technique that requires a multitude of inputs. Find good companies, buy them, add when cash is available, reinvest and then sit back and let time and compounding work its wonders. I've been doing it for 5 years now and every month I am beginning to see it incrementally having an increasing effect. All that for sitting on my keister.
=====
“While the dividend itself is merely a rearrangement of equity, over time it's more like owning an apple tree. The tree grows the apples back again and again and again, and the theoretical value of the tree doesn't change just because of when the apples are about to fall.” - earthtodan
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(11-12-2014, 07:52 PM)Dividend Watcher Wrote: Find good companies, buy them, add when cash is available, reinvest and then sit back and let time and compounding work its wonders.
Good post, warrants a longer reply, but for now I'll just state the bolded part is the reason I created this topic ... everything else I totally agree with
(11-12-2014, 10:48 AM)rapidacid Wrote: This screenshot sums up the majority of what you guys are discussing
I'm thinking more on the analysis / fundamental / technical side.
Displaying metrics + doing simple calculations on them is the easy part.
Estimize, YCharts, FAST Graphs are 3 that immediately come to mind that have gone beyond just simple portfolio tracking
Where did you get that screenshot from?
Which website/software are you using?
(11-12-2014, 10:31 AM)Main Street Stock Investor Wrote: daat99,
I developed an MS Excel workbook for portfolio tracking several years ago. I have been using this tool for the past 7 years tweaking the features as I go. It allows me to track my basis in a given stock, calculate my dividend income and trading income returns for individual stocks, track portfolio value, annual returns, etc. It also has external links to various fiinancial websites. You can view parts of the portfolio tracking software on my website shown on my profile page.
M$$I
I'll look into it, thanks.
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(11-13-2014, 08:50 AM)daat99 Wrote: Where did you get that screenshot from?
Which website/software are you using?
stockrover.com
Awesome 
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(11-12-2014, 02:25 PM)rapidacid Wrote: (11-12-2014, 02:08 PM)Roadmap2Retire Wrote: Software Engineer here as well. The key would be to separate out noise from the valuable data.
I like it. Got an example of a what you're thinking?
I've also thought that most screeners / algorithms / calculations are a bit too one size fits all ... meaning you can't really compare O metrics to PG metrics to KMP metrics but that's what the majority of stuff that I've seen does
Im thinking both along the lines of measurement metrics and news/articles. For metrics, I really like some visualizations used by MacroAxis and how it breaks things down for easier consumption. And very nicely puts things into perspective with industry peers.
I dont use that site as much as I like to, but its something I have considered paying for, in the past. The other one I want to try, but never tried so far is FAST graphs. Ive only heard great things about it.
About the news/articles/updates - thats a tough one. I try not to bother myself reading every single article written on a subject or company. Trying to consume everything produced by, say SA writers, is a losers game...I could spend days just reading about a company like Apple - which as someone in this forum said a few days ago - "Apple makes for 110% of all articles written in business and finance."
I follow some writers/bloggers whose opinion I value - and read what they have to say, but that also means I miss some great articles out there due to the noise. Equally important is article curation for that reason - and that is one of the reasons I have a weekly link curation on my own blog. Most other bloggers also have a link curation on a regular basis, but more often than not, it turns into sending traffic to other blogger friends (Ive noticed that I do this too...I seem to lean a bit more towards some of the bloggers like dividendgrowthinvestor.com, dividendmantra, and the like ... but I try to avoid falling into that trap and share more good articles I find elsewhere)
Heres a thought: Perhaps we can build a better article curation for the benefit of all and crowd source it from this forum's members? Im not sure if the forum itself is the best platform for that, but something to think about.
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