Mutual Fund Screener- Google Sheets Edition

Mutual Funds

I am delighted to announce that the freefincal mutual fund screener which is a macro-based Excel file has now been extended to work on Google Sheets.

I constantly receive requests to make calculators in non-Excel or online platforms. I have finally been able to do so thanks to the support and motivation of friends and readers. In particular,

Ramesh Venugopal who waded this rather complex Google Apps Script for importing CSV data into a Google Spreadsheet late into the night, modified it to login to our Value Research account and retrieve annual returns for a particular mutual fund category. His modified script is seminal to the development of this sheet.

I also thank Ramesh Vijayaraghavan and Gaurav Aggarwal who also took a crack at this problem and were close to a solution.  Without such support, I would have never touched a Google sheet.

Speaking of which, although it is slow it is crucially more advanced than Excel in handling formulas linked to data that can change by running a marco (or script). Without this, the sheet would have required additional scripts.

How does the screener work?

Once the sheet is set up to work (see detailed slideshow and video below), the user has to login into Value Research (via the sheet) to retrieve annual returns of a particular category.

Then the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.10,11,12 year CAGRs are computed.

Three screens are available:

  1. Consistency in above CAGRs falling in the top 15 (can be varied) for each duration.
  2. Consistency in above CAGRs falling above category average for each duration.
  3. Consistency in each year’s annual return falling above category average.

They can be used together or individually to create a shortlist.

Here is a screenshot of the input page.

mf-screener-N4

The sheet involves entering an username and password. Therefore, I do not wish to share the sheet online. Can it be done without affecting privacy?

Please follow these instructions:

  1. The screener file (.xlsx) and the script file (code.gs) are available as a zipped file at the end of this post
  2. Upload the .xlsx file to Google drive. This will not work in Excel and you need not open it offline
  3. Remaining instructions are here in the form of a slide show and a short video

[slideshare id=57189515&doc=freefincalmutualfundscreener-160118174327]

Download the Freefincal Mutual Fund Screener- Google Sheets Edition pack

Thanks to Riyaz (see comment below) we now have have a wonderful alternative:

1. go to this link
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HzG1hg2N7yOdpNVFun7bljMgaTpvj7LPItcXCjPBzps/copy

2. click ‘make a copy’

3. when loaded click menu Freefincal -> Authorize

4. Freefincal -> Get data (observe validation of username and password if its empty)

Do not share the sheet online with your friends! You may end up accidentally sharing your password!! Freefincal will not be responsible if that happens. 

Do give the sheet a try and let me know your feedback.

Note that all Excel sheets which do not have a macro will work in Google sheets. I will convert the ones with macros with this technique. Let me know if you have any favourites so that I can focus on them first. Personally curious to try out the freefincal stock screener next.

Alternative

Ramesh Vijayaraghavan figured out that authentication is necessary for CSV files only. Their html can be imported without username and password. I tried to do this, but failed.

1. go to this link

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17QQ12-4w5zR-q1SD-Z29BTcIuEnVV45725xkVbdIx_c/copy?usp=sharing

2. click ‘make a copy’

3. Select fund category and screen!

Ramesh and Riyaz sent me these modifications within minutes of each other!

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Updated: March 27, 2016 — 12:08 pm

The Author

M. Pattabiraman

This article is authored by M. Pattabiraman. He is the co-author of two books: You can be rich too with goal based investing and Gamechanger. He is a patron and co-founder of "Fee-only India" an organisation to promote unbiased, commission-free investment advice “Pattu” as he is popularly known, publishes research, analysis and holistic money management advice at freefincal.com which serves more than one million readers a year. Frefincal.com has more than a 100 free calculators on different aspects of insurance and investment analysis, including a robo advisory template for use by beginners.

14 Comments

  1. Raghu

    Thanks a lot! I do not have MS Excel, tried my hands at Libre office, but couldn’t make it work. Google Sheet is universal, now anyone can access your amazing tools.

  2. DILIP

    http://freefincal.com/freefincal-mutual-fund-screener-google-sheets-edition/

    bit technical
    upload to goggle drive…………….HOW?
    and
    open via google sheets………HOW?
    THERE ARE SO MANY EXCEL FILE FOLDERS AFTER EXTRACTING….which file is to be uploaded?

    thx.

    1. freefincal

      There is only one excel file in the zip file. Pl follow instructions. If you dont know how to upload to google drive and how to open in google sheets, please find out from elsewhere.

  3. tejas

    Thanks for team’s hardwork.

    I tried running the script after following steps and getting following error:

    “Running on: Tue Jan 19 2016 18:51:03 GMT+0530 (IST)
    Found 1 report configurations.
    Getting CSV: query1
    Error executing query1: Incorrect range width, was 1 but should be 2
    Script done”

    1. freefincal

      It works fine. Check if you have logged in right.

  4. Jig

    Uploaded perfectly. seems worked fine till the google hanged when tried to sorting the funds.
    Also password field should be like ****** instead of letters shown.
    Superb verb guru.
    thanks to all for their efforts for making such useful sheet online

  5. Riyaz

    Awesome work. I have simplified few things in the sheet,

    1. Made it easily sharable without sharing username/password( no longer import the xlsb and copy scripts)
    2. Added easy Menu with help
    3. Added validations for user name and password
    4. Added menu for authorization

    How to use?

    1. go to this link
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11FepRp-WKcIEQaGmu2iz_NJUdbsSY_Z8pS_DAt9E2hg/copy

    2. click ‘make a copy’

    3. when loaded click menu Freefincal -> Authorize

    4. Freefincal -> Get data (observe validation of username and password if its empty)

    Please let me know if you need any help with the new sheet.

    1. freefincal

      Awesome thank you so much. Works like a charm.

    2. Raghu

      Thanks Riyaz! Works perfectly!

  6. Atul Agarwal

    Sir, I am using Riyaz’s version.
    It is giving an error “Running on: Mon Apr 18 2016 12:01:12 GMT+0530 (IST)
    Found 1 report configurations.
    Getting CSV: query1
    Error executing query1: Incorrect range width, was 1 but should be 2
    Script done”

    Please guide on how to fix this.

    1. freefincal

      I just checked it now and it seems fine. Please use Ramesh’s version and check if itworks for you.

  7. Harshdeep Mehta

    Hi There,

    I am also getting same error same as of Atul Agarwal. Appreciate your help.

    Thanks,

    1. freefincal

      Please use Ramesh’s version. I just checked. It works fine.

  8. Killol Ringwala

    hi! used Ramesh’s Version, though, not able to get data

    Running on: Thu Mar 23 2017 17:30:17 GMT+0530 (IST)
    Found 1 report configurations.
    Getting CSV: query1
    Error executing query1: Incorrect range width, was 2 but should be 1
    Script done

    Plz help

Comments are closed.