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About This Dashboard (and Why It’s Only One Possible Form)
There are many useful tools for thinking about investing—Excel, Google Sheets, Notion, custom Python scripts, and more.
The Excel dashboard provided here is not “the one correct answer.”
It is simply one practical form I arrived at through trial and error while continuing to think alongside AI over the long term.
1. What This Dashboard Tracks
This journal intentionally focuses on a small set of essentials:
- What you own, and how much
- Your current portfolio weights
- Your target weights
- The gap between current vs. target
- Your investment thesis
- Quarterly reviews and notes from AI discussions
The goal is not to track every short-term price move.
The goal is to keep the essential information about your portfolio organized and coherent in one place.
2. Structure of the Excel Journal
The journal consists of three main sheets:
(1) Dashboard
The main sheet for viewing your portfolio at a glance. It includes:
- Name (auto-fills when you enter a ticker)
- Ticker / Industry / Market Price
- Position (shares; manual input)
- Market Value
- Portfolio Weight (auto-calculated)
- Target Weight (manual input)
- Progress (auto-calculated)
With this sheet, you can quietly see what your portfolio looks like right now.
(2) Template (Whiteboard Template)
A sheet for organizing your thinking per stock.
It provides large text boxes where you can paste your thesis, quarterly reviews, and key takeaways from AI discussions.
(3) Stock Sheets (e.g., MSFT / AAPL)
These “thinking history” sheets are created by copying the Template.
Over time, your thesis, assumptions, and focus points accumulate for each stock.
3. Manual-Input Workflow (No Automation Required)
This dashboard is designed to work fully with manual input.
If you want the simplest workflow, these steps are enough:
Step 1: Enter a ticker in the Name column
Enter a ticker such as MSFT / AAPL / GOOG, and the company name (and related fields) will populate automatically.
Step 2: Enter Position (shares) and Cost Basis manually
You may also enter the Market Price manually if you prefer.
Market Value is simply Price × Shares.
Step 3: Portfolio Weight updates automatically
Based on the market values you entered, Excel calculates each position’s weight.
This is when your portfolio structure becomes visible.
Step 4: Enter your Target Weight
Example: “I want this position to be 10%” → enter 10.
This is not a technical operation—it reflects your investment judgment.
Step 5: Progress updates automatically
You can instantly see how far each position is from your target allocation.
4. How to Think About This Sample
As noted above, this journal works perfectly well with manual input.
The file provided here is a clean baseline—a structure you can expand or modify to suit your own thinking style.
You may customize it freely:
- Add formulas to reduce manual work
- Add your own metrics or indicators
- Expand review or memo sections
- Enhance readability with formatting or conditional rules
My personal version is not identical to this sample.
It evolves gradually as I add what I need and remove what I do not.
A journal is not something you “follow perfectly.”
It is a tool you shape and refine to match your investment process.
Use this file as a foundation.
Advanced: Auto-Updating with Interactive Brokers (Optional)
This section is for users of Interactive Brokers (IBKR).
If you want to automatically reflect account data (positions, market values, cash, etc.) in Excel, you can.
Here is the key point: you do not need to write code.
You only need basic Excel knowledge—and AI can guide you through the details as needed.
1. What You Can Pull from IBKR TWS
TWS (Trader Workstation) is IBKR’s trading and account platform.
Using IBKR’s ActiveX-based TWS API sample file, you can connect Excel and retrieve:
- Tickers you hold
- Position size
- Cost basis
- Market value
- Average cost
- Unrealized P/L
- Cash balance
- Total account value (NAV)
2. Auto-Update Structure (Diagram)
Here is the simplest setup:
┌───────────────────────┐
│ IBKR TWS (Live) │
└───────────┬───────────┘
│ Connect via ActiveX
▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TwsActiveX.xls (IBKR sample file) │
│ NAV / Cash / Positions update here │
└───────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ Referenced from Excel
▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Your Dashboard (this file) │
│ Position / Market Value automated │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
You are not writing API code inside your dashboard.
You simply use IBKR’s official sample Excel file (TwsActiveX.xls) as a data source and reference its cells.
This approach is simple and stable.
3. Connecting TWS and Excel (High-Level)
Ask AI for environment-specific instructions.
Here is the basic flow:
- Launch TWS and log in
- Open TwsActiveX.xls (IBKR’s official sample)
- Enable the settings required for TWS ↔ Excel connection
- Click Connect in the General tab
- Click Request Account Updates in the Account tab
- Data appears in the Account / Portfolio tabs
- Reference the needed cells from your Dashboard using XLOOKUP / VLOOKUP
4. Why Basic Knowledge Is Enough
“TWS API” sounds advanced, but the actual skills needed are simple:
- How to connect TWS and the sample Excel file
- Basic Excel lookup functions (XLOOKUP or VLOOKUP)
- Cell references
You can even let AI guide you using a prompt like:
"Teach me how to set up IBKR TWS API (ActiveX) so that the sample file 'TwsActiveX.xls' works on my PC. Please guide me step-by-step."
5. Adding Auto-Updates to the Provided Dashboard
The dashboard you downloaded is intentionally clean—it contains no external links.
This ensures compatibility with any environment.
You can add automation step-by-step, for example:
- Position → reference the Position column in TwsActiveX.xls
- Market Value → reference the MarketValue column
- NAV → reference the NAV cell in the Account tab
You are simply selecting which cells to reference.
The process is straightforward.
6. Automation Is Not the Point
The value of this dashboard lies in the structure itself:
numbers (current reality) and text (your reasoning) living side by side.
Automation is convenient, but manual input remains perfectly sufficient.
In fact, it can strengthen your understanding of your portfolio.
Think of automation as an optional enhancement—not a requirement.
Summary
- If you use IBKR, you can automate updates via TWS + TwsActiveX.xls
- The setup is simple, and AI can assist
- Manual input alone is fully functional and complete
Adopt what fits your style and keep your workflow sustainable.