A couple of (probably fairly obvious) questions about HL

andrewm1981

Hi,

I have a couple of probably fairly obvious questions about HL, which hopefully a seasoned pro can help me with....

1) If I want to know overall how much up (or down) I am on a share, including dividends, is that possible? I can tell how much I've lost on the share price, but short of creating my own spreadsheet on Excel by using the income history page combined with the summary page, is there a page somewhere that'll say "on share xyz, gained £100 on share price, plus £24 on dividends, overall gain £124"?

2) With shares, on the most part you get dividends. If I have funds, which are essentially a collection of shares, dividends are still paid I assume? so who gets the dividends? or are they somehow reinvested into the fund,increasing the price, giving more growth overall?

Thanks! (I suspect the answers will be "No, and Yes)!

Eco_Miser

1) I don't know, but I'd want my own spreadsheet anyway, instead of relying on someone whose interest may one day be best served by 'losing' my records.

2) You get the dividends and get to pay tax on them if they exceed your allowances.
If the funds are income (inc) you get the cash and the price drops, if they are accumulation (acc) they are rolled up in the fund, and the price stays the same, all other things being equal, which they won't be.

masonic

andrewm1981 wrote: »

1) If I want to know overall how much up (or down) I am on a share, including dividends, is that possible? I can tell how much I've lost on the share price, but short of creating my own spreadsheet on Excel by using the income history page combined with the summary page, is there a page somewhere that'll say "on share xyz, gained £100 on share price, plus £24 on dividends, overall gain £124"?

This is quite possible if you invest in open ended funds rather than individual shares. Just buy the accumulation class and your total return will be reported.

andrewm1981

Hi, thanks for your replies. Probably not a bad idea with the spreadsheet. I'll get on that case. But a page on the HL site would be good if have thought. There must be a reason why it's not there. It would encourage people to invest more probably. I'm £200 up on shares, but probably £1,200 including dividends, and probably therefore more likely to invest!

I'm only in acc, as I'm buy and hold for a long time (prob 30 yrs+) so thanks for the answer. Essentially it's represented in the increasing price, right?

masonic

andrewm1981 wrote: »

I'm only in acc, as I'm buy and hold for a long time (prob 30 yrs+) so thanks for the answer. Essentially it's represented in the increasing price, right?

Yes, that's right.

george4064

andrewm1981 wrote: »

1) If I want to know overall how much up (or down) I am on a share, including dividends, is that possible? I can tell how much I've lost on the share price, but short of creating my own spreadsheet on Excel by using the income history page combined with the summary page, is there a page somewhere that'll say "on share xyz, gained £100 on share price, plus £24 on dividends, overall gain £124"?

If you do not reinvest the income it will only show the share price performance, if you chose to reinvest dividends it will skew your weighted average price paid as HL treats dividend reinvestments as purchases (whereas in reality its just you rolling your income back in, not adding new money).

So for me, I have a lot of shares whose gains are lower (or a greater loss) than what it actually is because of reinvesting dividends pushing up (or down!) the weighted average price paid.

bigfreddiel

Get yourself a google drive account then you can use the functions that grab the share price from a data source, LSE, you can get yesterday's share price as well, so now you can calculate the daily increase or decrease. There are many other functions as well and it's all free.

Or use the free portfolio manager on the Investors Chronicle website. This can accumulate dividends or reinvest them. You can buy shares at any price in the past to check how well a particular share or portfolio could have done.

It's all out there to be used good luck fj

Apodemus

george4064 wrote: »

If you do not reinvest the income it will only show the share price performance, if you chose to reinvest dividends it will skew your weighted average price paid as HL treats dividend reinvestments as purchases (whereas in reality its just you rolling your income back in, not adding new money).

So for me, I have a lot of shares whose gains are lower (or a greater loss) than what it actually is because of reinvesting dividends pushing up (or down!) the weighted average price paid.

I would imagine that the information they are providing you with is so that you have the correct information for capital gains tax purposes. In reality you are taking income and making new purchases with it, albeit that this is being done automatically for you.

le_loup

In your account, click on the investment name and a list of dividends paid is shown. However, always keep your own spreadsheet or, in my case, keep records in MS Money.

colsten

The question you didn't ask is whether there are cheaper providers offering similar functionality. The answer to that question would have been yes. Helpful comparison: http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/