Asset building tips

Leave the Asset Ticker blank and pfolio derives one, appending an extension for every transformation applied so the ticker describes the asset at a glance—a backfilled, 2x, US-dollar version of GLD becomes GLD_e_2x_USD. The full extension scheme is set out in our asset-building options.

When the asset you want to invest in has only a short live record, do not fall back on a longer-running proxy for your analysis. Add the asset you would actually hold and backfill its history backwards with the longer-running index or fund behind it—a recent S&P 500 ETF extended with the index, which runs back to 1927—so you can study the real asset across earlier cycles rather than a stand-in. See all asset transformations.

pfolio keeps two price series for every asset: Close tracks price movement alone, while Adj Close tracks total return, including reinvested distributions. Read Adj Close for performance and risk analysis, and Close when the price path alone is the question. Both are explained in processing asset data.

Before relying on an asset's metrics, open the Data Quality table on the Asset Data tab. A series with many filled days, an oversized maximum daily move, or an unexpected gap between the Close and Adj Close series is worth inspecting first—see processing asset data.

To model a sleeve held at a constant mix, build a synthetic asset: it blends up to five assets at fixed weights and rebalances daily back to them, so the allocation never drifts. Several pfolio lists are built this way already—the Currency Indices in our asset lists are weighted synthetic blends. See building synthetic assets.

pfolio's preloaded assets open read-only, so you cannot edit them directly. To tailor one to your own circumstances, build a Created asset on top of it—for example a currency conversion into your base currency, a fee that reflects what you would actually pay, or a backfill for a longer history—which gives you your own editable asset with the pfolio asset as its base. See our asset-building options and managing assets.

Building or editing any asset requires the Asset Builder add-on; the Continuous Future type additionally needs the Futures add-on; and downloading a processed series needs the Export add-on. Each route names the add-on it depends on in our asset-building options, building continuous futures contracts, and processing asset data.