Need a symbol whose value is always 1

[lhbaum]

It would be helpful to have a symbol whose value is always equal to 1. This would allow cash and money market holdings to be calculated in a P&L worksheet. Say I have 10000 in cash and 100 shares of AAPL. I would like to calculate the value of these together using the quote sheet function TOTAL as follows:

10000 CASH 1.00 = 10000.00
100 AAPL 245.00 = 24500.00
TOTAL = 34500.00

Anyone know of such a symbol? If not, could we please create one that would always return a price of 1.

Thanks
Good trading to all
Les

[Larry Marchman]

Hi Les,

QC:ONE-QC

LAM

[lhbaum]

Need a symbol whose value is always 1

Thanks Larry, just what I was looking for.

Best regards,
Les

[Larry Marchman]

Re: Need a symbol whose value is always 1

Great. Thanks for the Thanks and feedback.

LAM

Originally posted by lhbaum
Thanks Larry, just what I was looking for.
Best regards, Les

[RobertPaloAlto]

Several years ago I raised this question and there was some discussion, but it came to nothing and IMO remains a serious deficiency in QCharts. To summarize:

QC:ONE-QC only returns integer values. If you need to record a cash value such as 9876.49 and enter that as #Shares, the calculated Value will appear as 9876.00. Then you have to adjust the Total in the Value column for the missing cent values in all such entries included in the Total, if you're going to be using it somewhere where you'd like things to balance to the penny. If there are several such entries, the Total value may be off by several dollars.

Back then I was also advised to use the symbol SMPRX and did so with partial success until very recently. It handled two-digit decimal values OK, but had two other problems:

1) Its value occasionally changed from 1.00 to 0.99 for a few days. During such periods, it was necessary to divide the number of shares entered by 0.99 in order to get the total to come out right.

2) If the number of shares entered was larger than about 220,000 it would give ridiculous negative value for the Total. Probably some sort of overflow problem.

However, a few weeks ago, QCharts seems to have stopped giving any current value for that symbol, making it useless.

I hope that this seemingly straightforward problem may finally be resolved someday.

Robert

[RobertPaloAlto]

Clarification to the second paragraph of my previous post:

You actually can't "adjust the Total in the Value column for the missing cent values" within the QCharts Quote Sheet, because that Total is a system-calculated sum of the system-calculated products in the Value column (#Shares x Last). Similarly for products in a Cost column (#Shares x Basis). You have to keep track of the truncated cents in any QC:ONE-QC rows and add them to the Total yourself if you're going to be using that total elsewhere, e.g., in a spreadsheet or for reconciliation with your end-of-session brokerage statement.

[JayF]

Thanks Robert for the post. The next major version of QCharts (due out late this year, or possibly Q1) will have ways of better handling a cash position (as well as many, many other things.) I do wish I had a sooner release coming out to solve this for you, but in the interim, you may want to try a Money Market symbol, which is almost always trading at 0.01 (e.g. AEBXX, AEAXX, AIIXX, etc.)

[RobertPaloAlto]

Thanks very much! Those symbols seem to work very well at present and overcome all the problems I mentioned. Of course, the number entered under #Shares has to be 100 x the desired cash value, so that the calculated Total comes out correctly.

However, when I look at their daily charts it appears that while they've all been at exactly $0.01 since the end of 2009, their values varied wildly prior to that. So in the long run a better solution, preferably a dedicated constant-value symbol, will still be essential.

Robert

[RobertPaloAlto]

JayF,

Does the new version 6.2.1 that I just downloaded have the promised "better way of handling a cash position" per your post on 4-27-2010, or is 6.2.1 not yet the "next major version" that was "due out late this year"?

Robert

[JayF]

6.2.1 is a vital update, so it's important to download it. That being said it is a maintenance release, and does not carry the new features such as those described earlier in this post.

QCharts 7.0 has been pushed out to an indeterminate date. It is certainly still on our development list; we just don't have a firm date for its release at this time.