Investing

Intraday mutual fund estimator

  • Last Updated:
  • Aug 29th, 2013 4:48 pm
Tags:
None
Newbie
Jul 23, 2013
89 posts
14 upvotes
Victoria

Intraday mutual fund estimator

I am making the transition from mutual funds to ETFs (plus occasional individual equities). Try not to laugh at my MF holdings: I aim for <= 1% MER if I use them at all! My portfolio is only now big enough to start to worry about the MER.

Does anyone know if there is software to estimate intraday mutual fund values? It's nice to know roughly where one stands on a given day when selling or buying units.

I wrote one for myself in OpenOffice Calc for the ING Streetwise funds. These funds are easy to "hack". I just weight and combine various ETFs in this case. My program is amazingly accurate on backtesting and is generally +/- 1 cent from being accurate each day on closing.

If I publish, say, an Android app that does this and include plenty of disclaimers, will anyone buy it? Will I go to jail? Will the banks sue? My defense is that mutual fund holdings are public knowledge, and the intraday price can be estimated based on this. I suppose banks would argue that this promotes abuse of the funds, but this is a weak argument.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I am not offended if you reply "who cares". :D
4 replies
Newbie
Jul 23, 2013
89 posts
14 upvotes
Victoria
[QUOTE]Mutual Funds are "Buy and Hold" type investments with "short term trading fees" if sold within a certain time frame. There is no good reason to try to time the market, especially with MF's as they are not designed for quick pricing. [/QUOTE]

I completely agree. I will note, though, that funds (by law, I think) post prices daily. People have every right to check prices daily for tracking portfolios, and some may want to (out of sheer curiosity) have an instant portfolio estimate.

[QUOTE]If an individual wants to estimate if they should sell on a certain day, simply looking up the individual companies that make up the top 10 holdings and see how they are doing will be decently accurate.[/QUOTE]

Again, I totally agree. But it wouldn't be the first time someone has used software to automate what several minutes of research could do (nearly as well).

Regardless of how actively you participate in MFs (from monthly management to watching only) it is potentially helpful to track the integrity of the fund. While I trust that 99.9% of funds comply with law, are there not infamous examples of funds that deviated from their components (illegally)?
Newbie
Jul 23, 2013
89 posts
14 upvotes
Victoria
By the way, intraday estimation can be used in completely innocent ways that have nothing to do with short-term trading.

Suppose someone's a couch potato holding MFs and just rebalances every quarter. An intraday estimate gives a slightly more accurate rebalancing calculation. If that person believes in his own portfolio allocation, this saves a little money in the long run. (Personally, I believe the optimal allocation is 100% equity, most non-Canadian. Holding bonds/bond funds to "soothe" your worries through downturns is irrational and loses money in the long run.)
Deal Expert
Mar 25, 2005
22706 posts
3697 upvotes
As an investor, what value is there in intraday MF pricing? I cannot trade on it, the information is simply a sum product of quotes and weights.
Newbie
Jul 23, 2013
89 posts
14 upvotes
Victoria
Kasakato wrote: As an investor, what value is there in intraday MF pricing? I cannot trade on it, the information is simply a sum product of quotes and weights.
Yes, I realize you can't trade the intraday estimates.

(Obviously) the value to investors is that the estimate at MF cut-off time is more accurate than the prior day's close (which is all that's officially published).

Besides, on typical days there is not much volatility after 2:00 PM.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)