I have a financial spreadsheet that I use to track the distribution of my portfolio. I follow a system where I have a target allocation for each of a small number of assets, and then I buy or sell shares when any given asset gets beyond a certain tolerance of its target allocation.
Using Google Spreadsheets and the Google finance API available with Google Apps script, I was able to automate every part of this except syncing it with my account (since there's no API to access my financial records.) All I have to do is click a button, and the cells change color based on whether I should buy, sell or hold.
I'd be really interested to see how your set-up works. Would it be possible for you to share your files/code and a short description of how you implemented your set-up? I am happy for you to remove/sanitize sensitive details relating to your portfolio. However, I would love to understand how I can develop a solution like this for myself.
What I have is a sheet which says how many of each asset I own, and the desired allocation. Then, there is a cell that calculates the current allocation, based on the number of shares, and the current price of the share.
The current price of the share is fetched from another sheet using a vlookup. That sheet is populated by the script. The script is here! https://gist.github.com/2717042
> I was able to automate every part of this except syncing it with my account (since there's no API to access my financial records.)
It's actually possible to simulate a browsing session and have the App Script log in to your broker's site and scrape the data you need. Here is some prototyping code: https://gist.github.com/aaf74e50b9a281396722
Using Google Spreadsheets and the Google finance API available with Google Apps script, I was able to automate every part of this except syncing it with my account (since there's no API to access my financial records.) All I have to do is click a button, and the cells change color based on whether I should buy, sell or hold.