Hi Jack, Good question. I wish I had a simple answer!
First, I usually have an account in Newport with the ticker symbol "CASH" where I keep un-designated money from selling out of one position and before I start a new one. I keep 10 shares of $1 equity in it and then use Newport's CASH ADD or DECREASE options in the TRADE window to change its value. So the cash side of the CASH account floats with need. This money was what was exhausted first.
Next, I let the Cash Reserve level of those stocks in need of more cash than is on hand go to negative cash reserve positions. This takes care of the "borrowed" money. Then, as I sell shares in accordance with AIM, that negative cash position gets back filled.
Finally, I keep track of my overall cash position by printing out Newport's total value from the Print options list. There the negative and positive cash positions are all listed. Here I can see in the summary just what my overall cash position is and if there's anything left to "borrow."
I started the year with about 36% overall cash reserve for the composite of all my investments. By mid-August it was down to 16% and most recently bottomed at 5%. The few sales I've had recently have been in accounts where there was either some cash already available or where I'd zero'd out the cash. There's still a bunch of stocks, like VLSI, MXF and others that are deep into negative territory and will need lots of selling just to be back to no borrowed funds.
So, as you see, I sort of do all of the things you asked. What I don't do is, for instance, take VTSS's indicated Cash Reserve and reduce it when I've "loaned" the cash to VLSI. I just let the overall positive and negative values cancel each other in the overall statement.
Hope this helps. The last few days have helped my net worth quite a bit, but as Steve Kaufman's football coach used to tell his team, "If you're going to come from WAY BEHIND, first you have to BE WAY BEHIND!!!" Well, I'm set to come back from way behind!
Best regards, Tom |
