NEW Features (See "Menu > Help > New Features" in the Steele Expert program)
►
New Fixed-Income Sectors & Super Sectors:
These new classifications can help investors and investment professionals
easily compare and understand the sector exposures of each portfolio. The data
is especially useful for comparing two investments that may be in the same
category.
►
Expense Ratios and 12b-1 fees are now provided with three decimal places for
greater accuracy when comparing fund costs.
To be able to see all
the new report/graph changes, you should create a new Notebook, which will
automatically contain all new objects and settings, and then copy your own
reports into it. (Menu > File > New notebook). When we make improvements and
additions to the standard reports, graphs and settings, this is currently the
best method to view and take advantage of them. See "Copying a Page or a
Folder" in the program's help system for copying any reports you have created
into a new notebook.
►
Added comprehensive "Risk-Return Comparison Analysis" landscape report (Pro
Plus): It allows the easy comparison of risk and return of multiple funds and
benchmarks at the same time.
►
Graph Options: Easily change the automatic benchmark for Performance, Growth
and Risk/Return graphs
►
Risk/Return Graphs: 1) Now
the user can graph any risk measure in the database: Standard Deviation,
Downside Deviation, Upside Deviation, Semi-standard Deviation, Loss Deviation,
Volatility, Beta. 2) The user can also select any rolling time period: 1, 3,
5, 10, 15, or 20-years. 3) Beta Risk/Return graphs and improved reports have
been added.
►
Personal edition: Annualized
Standard Deviation and monthly data for graphs for the last 10 years have been
added.
►
New: Post-Modern Portfolio Theory statistics columns for 1, 3,
5, 10, 15, and 20 years, and "Risk Analysis" report added to the Pro Plus
edition. They include Sortino Ratio, Information Ratio, Upside/Downside
Capture Ratios, Tracking Error, Batting Average, Relative Risk, Percent Of
Positive Months, Downside Deviation, Upside Deviation, Semi-standard
Deviation, Loss Deviation, Skewness, Kurtosis. Read in
"Menu > Help > User's Guide > Data Definitions > Risk and Statistics >
Modern & Post-Modern Portfolio Theory"
about how to utilize these statistics to construct safer, more profitable
portfolios.
►
New: Equity Style Complete Breakdown columns, graphs, and
"Equity Style Analysis" report added to the Pro Plus edition.
►
Category changes: Replaced Long/Short with
Long/Short Equity. Added: Managed Futures, Multialternative, Volatility,
Trading-Leveraged Commodities, Trading-Inverse Commodities, Trading-Leveraged
Debt, Trading-Inverse Debt, Trading-Leveraged Equity, Trading-Inverse Equity,
Trading-Miscellaneous. For their definitions see "Menu > Help > User's Guide >
Data Definitions > Investment Category".
►
New Equity & Fixed-Income Sectors & Super Sectors:
The new sector structure allows more intelligent sector analysis and
diversification when constructing portfolios. The Personal edition includes
the new Top 10 Sectors, while the Professional and Pro Plus editions now also
include the complete equity and fixed-income sector and super sector
breakdowns, allowing those to be automatically calculated by user-created
portfolios. All new fields are available for all operations including ranking,
filtering, graphing, exporting, etc. See "Equity Sectors" and "Fixed-Income
Sectors".
►
Top 10 Countries breakdown and graph is now included for all funds in
the professional editions as well.
►
New reports & graphs: The Fund Allocation Analysis & Portfolio
Allocation Analysis reports have been
added and several other reports have been updated. Graphs for Equity &
Fixed-Income Sectors and Super Sectors have been added. The graphing options
have also been upgraded.
►
Automatic Updating of installed program and database files: Now, if
there is an update to the software or data after the initial publication of an
issue, Steele Expert will notify you and will download, install and restart
the program. This way you are ensured to have the latest version of the Steele
software and data that is installed on your computer.
►
Added new
fields to the Professional & Pro Plus editions:
Oldest Share Class (Y/N): It identifies whether this is the oldest
share class for a mutual fund. This allows users to evaluate a series of
multi-class funds by looking at one representative share class for each unique
portfolio. You can add this condition to your filter to ensure that it only
contains unique mutual fund portfolios. If several classes of the same fund
were started at the same time, only one of them is designated as the oldest
share class.
Oldest Share Class Security ID: The Security ID of the oldest share
class for each mutual fund. This allows users to evaluate a series of
multi-class funds by identifying all the share classes that are represented by
the same unique portfolio.
►
Investment Category changes: Added Aggressive Allocation, China Region and
Market Neutral categories. Removed Muni Single State Short category. You
should review any filters that contain categories as they may be affected by
these changes.
►
The user
interface has been revamped.
►
The "Quick
Filter" feature has been added as a toolbar button (lightning bolt) and to the
Filters drop-down list. It allows you to click first on any cell value in the
database (spreadsheet) display, and then click on the "Quick Filter" button to
instantly filter the database by that value.
►
Now you can
rapidly select many columns to display or hide on the "Database Options"
dialog box by using the Spacebar key.
►
Morningstar
Market Indexes were added to provide better performance benchmarking.
►
Upgraded
Growth Graph Options for Hypothetical Illustrations:
1) They can now use an additional user-supplied annual
rate of return applied to the investment each interval (yearly, quarterly,
monthly). This rate can represent additional investing based not on a fixed
amount, but an amount based on a rate such as the rate of inflation. It can
also be negative to represent management fees of an advisor or the erosion of
a forecast inflation rate. The annual rate will be converted to quarterly or
monthly based on the selected interval.
2) Growth graphs can now be displayed on a Relative basis against any other
benchmark, fund or portfolio in the database.
To see the Graph Options dialog box, simply double-click on a stand-alone
graph. (If a graph is placed on a report, enter "Design Mode" first so you can
modify the objects on the report, including report graphs).
►
New data added (and
improved reports):
- Equity & Bond Style Boxes (See Style Boxes in the program's Help)
- Share Class (for easier filtering distinction among share classes)
- Since inception Average & Total Return (Pro Plus)
- Portfolio Date (See General Portfolio Information)
- Number of holdings in each fund portfolio
- Top-10 Holdings Percent
- Exact most Senior Manager Starting Date
►
Filtering Fund
Characteristics (Y/N): ( See Fund
Characteristics)
- True No-Load
- Systematic Withdrawal Plan
- Fund of Funds
- Index Fund
- Enhanced Index Fund
- Socially Responsible Fund
- Life Cycle Fund
- Hedge Fund
- Institutional Only
- Master-Feeder
- HOLDR
To be able to see all the new report/graph changes, you should create a new
Notebook, which will automatically contain all new objects and settings, and
then copy your own reports into it. When we make improvements and additions to
the standard reports, graphs and settings, this is currently the best method
to take advantage of them.
See
"Menu | Help | Pages | Copying a Page or a Folder"
in the program's Help system for details.
►
The Variable Annuities database has been very extensively upgraded with many
new fields added. Some user filters may need to be rebuilt due to the
extensive field additions and changes.
►
New equity & fixed-income sectors, additional portfolio data for selected
indexes, increased decimal places in various fields such as Yield/Turnover,
minimum load no longer supported.
►
Set any report or graph for Quick Access: Designate a page to go to when F7 is
pressed, or when a row is double-clicked in table (database) view. See
"New Features" in the program's Help system for details.
►
Updated Up/Down/Full Cycle reports & graphs.
►
New
Categories: Precious Metals was renamed to Equity Precious Metals. Added
Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Equity Energy and Industrials.
Added six Commodities categories: Broad Basket, Energy, Precious Metals,
Agriculture, Industrial Metals and Miscellaneous. For descriptions click
in Steele Expert "Menu | Help | User's Guide | Data Definitions | Investment
Category". If you use categories in your filters, you may need to
reassign some of them.
►
Now you can place any .gif, .jpg, and .bmp image file on single page reports.
In Steele Expert see "Menu | Help | New Features" or "Menu | Help | User's
Guide | Menu Commands | Pages | Insert Object | Image (Logo)..."
►
Upgraded the Portfolio environment dialog and Portfolios management.
►
Upgraded the Filter environment dialog and Filters
management.
►
Variable Annuities: Added Category Averages to the database and to all graphs,
added Star Ratings, and 1-Year ABCDE Ratings, and updated the VA reports to
include the Star Rating.
►
Share portfolios, filters, fund groups, user notes with
others. See
"Menu/Help/Portfolio/How to share portfolios", etc.
►
Steele Expert now sets up a dedicated user data folder where all user-created
data reside. Its default name is "Steele Expert" and it is located under "My
Documents" in Windows XP or "Documents" in Vista. All user-created files are
now found there.
(You can see it in Steele Expert by clicking "Menu/Pages/Global
Options/Settings/Change the User Data Folder". If you change the user data
folder, all your notebooks will be closed and you will have to open a notebook
again or create a new one by clicking "Menu/File/New notebook / Select
Database...".)
See also the new procedure for
Transferring your data to Another Computer.
►
The Open & Save As dialog boxes default to the user data folder.
►
Several Categories have been renamed/changed/added. You may need to review any
filters that use Categories. See Investment Categories in the Help in Steele
Expert.
►
An upgraded User's Guide
in pdf format can be found in the "Support" section.
►
New File menu command to save Portfolios, Filters, Tagged Pools, and Global
Options without having to wait until you exit the program. That way your data
can be saved at any time, in case there is a Windows system crash.
►
The "New Notebook" dialog box remembers the last folder and database name
used.
►
The Copy command (Ctrl-C) will now copy the current cell in Database view, if
no records are tagged. If there are tagged records, they will be copied
instead. To paste in another application such as Excel, use the Paste command
(Ctrl-V).
►
All color settings for all graphs, reports, tables and
the user interface can now use any of the millions of colors available under
Windows for full creative control in customizing graphs and reports.
►
Changed the quick "Find" function to be able to easily search the
most commonly searched columns in Database views such as Name, Symbol, etc.
►
Changed the full "Find" function to also display a search column
drop-down list for more intuitive and flexible searches. It is
accessible by pressing Ctrl-F or clicking on the magnifying glass button in
the middle of the toolbar.
►
The Variable Annuities database
now includes a view sorted by Company/Product/Fund to facilitate finding sub
accounts.
►
Added new toolbar buttons to quickly switch among Report viewing modes: Page
Width, Full Page, and 100%.
►
Added the capability to use half font sizes, e.g., 8.5 instead of just 8, 9,
10, etc. and improved the font selection dialog boxes.
►
Added message that the program will not run under Windows 95/98/Me/NT: The
program needs Windows 2000, XP, or Vista.
►
New softer colors used as defaults in the application and added for use in
program settings, graphs and reports.
