Bill:
Yes, I agree, good record keeping is essential. Imagine how you would feel about a company whose record keeping was poor and could not report earnings accurately? SELL!!
My record keeping is impeccable, if I do say so myself. If only I could say the same about my trading!
I have five broker accounts, including MBT. I keep Quicken open at all times. (This is computer resource heavy, so NT works better than Win98 - I've just switched over).
Every trade gets entered into Quicken immediately upon execution. I do not enter the commissions at that time.
Later, as confirmations arrive, I edit the Quicken entries simply by entering the total trade in dollars. If the difference between my total and the confirm's total is more than the appropriate commission I am immediately alerted. This way I double check the confirmation against my own records.
When the monthly statement comes I reconcile using Quicken's reconcile function. I find broker errors as frequently as my own. Reconciling is very quick and easy.
BTW, I also keep a running total based on the moment's market value of my open portfolio using the DDE link to Excel. Quotes update automatically in Excel, updating the value of each position with gain/loss, and the value of the entire portfolio value across all brokers.
It helps to know exactly where you are at all times.
peter |
