Making the weekly changes easy to manage
To help you invest successfully using the Saltydog strategy, we’ve created a web app for you.
It makes it much easier to do the adjustments to your portfolio each week.
(We’re always delighted to get your feedback so that we can improve the app and make it more useful for you – so please let me know any suggestions).
Depending on what you want to do, the Saltydog web app has three possible uses. It will help you to:
- Follow the Saltydog portfolios (Tugboat or Ocean Liner) exactly, week by week.
Based on the overall value of your portfolio, the app calculates the exact value of the trades – buys and sells – you need to make, to keep in line with the percentage allocations of our Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolios. - ‘Combine’ the Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolios, depending on how cautious or adventurous you want to be.
You can decide that you’d like to combine elements of the Tugboat (cautious) and Ocean Liner (more adventurous) portfolios.
Depending on the percentage split you decide – e.g. 60% Tugboat, 40% Ocean Liner - the app calculates the precise combination of funds to achieve this, and which buys or sells you need to make this week. - Keep track of the balance of your portfolio, according to the Saltydog groups.
If you’re not directly following the two Saltydog demonstration portfolios, it’s still important that you keep track of your risk exposure. In other words, what proportion of your funds are allocated to low risk, medium risk or high risk groups?
Just enter into the app your funds and amounts invested, and it will immediately show you how your portfolio is split between the Saltydog groups.
Two important points
These are two pretty obvious points, but I do need to make them clear from the outset.
First off, this app is a tool to help you with your weekly calculations. It does not perform the trades for you! You will still need to go and manually perform the trades (buys and sells) on your investment platform.
And secondly, all your investment decisions and actions are down to you, and you use this app at your own risk. Please don’t follow the ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ instructions on the app blindly. The app is just a tool, and the final decisions are your responsibility.
Getting started: entering your portfolio details for the first time
Here’s how you get started.
- Go to the app page.
Login to the Saltydog website, so that you’re in the Saltydog members’ area.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, below all the data and the ‘Recommend a friend’ box.
Under the heading ‘Account Management’ you will see a link: “Manage your portfolio”. Click on this link to open the app page. - Create a new portfolio.
You’re now on the app page. You’ll see a heading “Portfolio management”, and some introductory text. Under this text is a drop-down box, saying “Select portfolio to manage”.
Click on the button and select the option, “Add new”. A box will appear, saying “Enter portfolio name”. Enter the name you want, and click “Add”.
N.B. If you want to delete a portfolio, just click on the orange button on the right, “Delete [NAME] portfolio”. - Enter your funds
Now you need to add in the funds that you currently own, along with the amount in pounds.
Immediately under the “Your portfolio” table and above the ‘Cash’ box is an orange button saying “Add new fund”. Click on this button.
A pop-up box will appear, allowing you to search for funds. Type the name of the fund in the box, and a drop-down list will appear.
After selecting the fund, then enter “No. units held” and “Original/total cost”.
Then click “Add/Update”.
N.B. If you want to close the pop-up search box, click on the X at the top right of the box.
Continue to add your fund details until your portfolio is complete. - Enter your cash
Now enter any cash in your portfolio.
Below your portfolio table, enter the cash amount in the “Cash” box, and click the “Update cash” button.
Now your portfolio is complete.
The app table automatically calculates the current price and current value of each fund, along with the profit/loss in pounds, and the percentage change.
In addition the table tells you which Saltydog group each fund is in.
Below the table you will see three pie charts. These show you, in graphic form:
- The allocation of your portfolio by Saltydog groups.
N.B. To see the precise numeric figure, just hold your cursor over a section of the pie chart and the percentage figure will appear. - The allocation of your portfolio to each fund, and to cash.
(Again, to see the precise percentage figure, just hold your cursor over the relevant section of the pie chart). - The profit/loss you’ve made on each individual fund.
If you’re making your own decisions about the funds you’re investing in, this is all you need to do. Just update the values of your funds and cash each week, and the app will show you the balance of your portfolio, according to the Saltydog groups.
Alternatively, if you want to match your portfolio to either (or both) of the Saltydog portfolios – please see the next section but one below, “Matching your portfolio to the Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolios”.
Week by week: amending your porfolio
To make changes to your portfolio is simple:
- If you’ve increased or decreased the amount of a fund in your portfolio, click the small white box on the left hand side of each line in the portfolio.
A pop-up box will appear where you can amend the ‘No. of units held’ and ‘Original total cost’, and then click on the ‘Add/Update’ button.
N.B. If you clicked on this ‘Edit’ icon by mistake, you can get rid of the pop-up box by clicking on the ‘x’ button at the top right of the box. - If you’ve completely sold a fund, then you delete it from your portfolio by clicking on the white box on the left and then clicking on the ‘Delete’ button on the top. (The dustbin icon).
- To add a new fund, click on the ‘Add new fund’ button, which appears immediately below the table.
- Amend your cash balance to match the exact amount in your portfolio. To amend your cash balance, click the white box on the ‘Cash’ line at the bottom of the table, put in the correct amount and click on the ‘Update’ button.
Matching your portfolio to the Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolios
If you want to follow one or both of the Saltydog portfolios – Tugboat or Ocean Liner - here’s how the app helps you do that.
Scroll down past your portfolio table and pie charts, and you’ll see the Saltydog ‘Tugboat’ and ‘Ocean Liner’ portfolios laid out in the same format.
Right at the bottom of the page, under the Ocean Liner pie charts, you’ll see three orange boxes with the heading, “What would you like to do?”
There are three options:
- Align to Tugboat
- Align to Ocean Liner
- Align to both
If you want your portfolio to perfectly match the Tugboat portfolio – i.e. with the same percentage allocations of funds – then click on ‘Align to Tugboat’. If you want to match the Ocean Liner portfolio, obviously click on ‘Align to Ocean Liner’.
A new table will appear which show you exactly all the trades (buys and sells) you need to make.
Once you’ve made a particular trade, click on the tick box in the right-hand column. Once you’ve ticked them all off, click on the ‘Update my portfolio’ button at the bottom of the page, and the app will update your portfolio accordingly.
IMPORTANT!
When using the app to help you make your weekly portfolio adjustments, please pay particular attention to these points:
1. Check that all your values in your portfolio match those in your online investment platform account. Obviously you need to update these values every week (or every time you want to make a change).
Pay particular attention to the number of units and the original cost. These may be not aligned depending on the amount you actually received once your trades were completed from the previous week. Delete any funds that you have sold.
2. Update your cash value to match that in your investment platform.
3. Making the trades (buys & sells)
- The list of trades is based on the values you have entered and your selections i.e. your existing funds, their values, your cash balance, and the portfolio(s) you wish to follow.
So please ensure that you’ve entered all the correct information and values. - This list is just an information list of the trades that you will need to manually perform. Just to repeat: It does not perform the trades for you! You still need to actually make the trades on your investment platform.
- We only recommend making trades that are higher in value than your investment platform’s cut-off level. E.g. We only make a trade if it’s higher than £250.
- As you make each trade, tick the box in the column on the right of the table. Once you’ve finished all the trades, click the ‘update my portfolio button’ (at the bottom of the page) and this will update your portfolio.
Applying a ‘combined’ Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolio
You may feel that the Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolios don’t exactly match your requirements.
Maybe the Tugboat is a bit too cautious, or the Ocean Liner is a bit too adventurous. You’d like to combine a bit of both. The Saltydog app allows you to do that.
First click on the ‘Align to both’ button.
A sliding scale will appear showing the percentage allocation to the Tugboat and Ocean Liner portfolios.
By default, the slider is set at 50/50. Just slide it to the left to increase the Tugboat percentage, or to the right to increase the Ocean Liner percentage.
The actual percentage allocation is displayed, in numbers, underneath the slider.
When you’ve chosen the percentage allocation you want, click on the ‘Update’ button.
Again, a table will appear showing you all the individual trades (buys or sells) you need to make.
We do hope you find the app helpful, and that it saves you time when making your weekly changes to your portfolio.
How to give us feedback
To give us your feedback – whether that’s problems you encounter, or suggestions for improvements – please click on the “App Feedback” button near the top of the app page. You will then see a feedback form to fill in.
We really appreciate any feedback you can give us, as it will help us to improve the app.
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