History

In order to determine the performance of a portfolio and also of individual securities, it is extremely important to obtain reliable historical price data. Portfolio Performance integrates a large number of different Internet sources that make such data available. These web services not only let you search for a share during the inventory process, but also form the basis for all historical views. You can view the price history for each security as a table in its individual view in the All Securities group in the lower window panel of the Historical Quotes tab.

The way the price development is displayed – you will find this on the left side of the Chart tab – is also based on historical data. In order to limit the charts in terms of time, you will find several buttons to the right of the graphic display that represent the corresponding time periods to be selected for the display. 6M covers the last six months, while 10Y, for example, shows the price development of the current share over the past 10 years.

Based on the same data, the software also displays a line chart in Reports | Chart, which – when sorted by different time periods – gives you a clear view of the overall development of your portfolio.

Reporter

In the Reports category, you will find detailed information on the performance of your portfolio in several separate views. This is not about drawing pretty charts, but about visualizing popular performance indicators. On the dashboard, which you call up via the Performance entry, the program calculates all the key performance indicators for various periods of time that can be set as desired.

If required, you can create additional dashboards with your own criteria. The Calculation group lists all your securities and their performance in a table; the desired view period can also be selected in the top right-hand corner of the window. In contrast to this, the Chart option shows you a clear-cut line graph for performance evaluation (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Portfolio Performance visualizes your portfolio's performance as a line graph.

In the Securities section, you can also view the performance of each individual security. The program lists this in a table by default. But in the lower part of the window the application also displays a line graph for each individual security selected in the upper window segment. Transactions and trades can also be called up in separate tabs specifically for the selected security.

Overview

A complete overview of all your financial investments including paid fees and taxes is provided by the Earnings & Expenses view. The dialogs linked there show you all income and expenses sorted by the categories Dividends, Interest, Earnings, Taxes, and Fees. In addition to tabular lists, you will also find graphic display options that show the reference accounts. In a horizontal tab-like bar above the display area, you can also select different time periods as the basis for the display (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Earnings and expenses can be displayed in great detail.

Portfolio Performance also lets you classify your securities. You can do this manually in Taxonomies | Asset Classes. You can assign your assets to individual, freely definable classes. To do this, right-click in the free area of the table view and select the option Add new class from the context menu. Then assign your assets to the individual classes.

For a useful overview of the individual classes even if you have a large portfolio, use the small horizontal toolbar on the right above the table view. By clicking on one of the symbols, you can visualize the individual asset classes and their percentage values. Pie, tree, and area diagrams are available (Figure 8).

Figure 8: A chart highlights the portfolio performance of individual asset classes.

To share the collected data with other applications and services, Portfolio Performance offers an import and export function that can be accessed via the File menu. When importing, the program not only reads bank documents in PDF format, but also comma-separated (CSV) files and templates from Comdirect, Consors, and Deutsche Bank. The program also understands Ebase account statements. In a separate dialog, Portfolio Performance lets you export to CSV tables, which are usually supported by spreadsheet programs.