One page per job
Which file your broker gives you and which columns matter, what to do when a row refuses to go in, and what the assistant can answer once you switch it on.
Start with the first guideGetting started
Install Stonqs and set up your first portfolio
In about five minutes you have an empty portfolio in a file on your own disk, a cash account, optionally a securities account, and a decision about price sources. There is no sign-up. Until you turn a price source on, the app fetches no prices or exchange rates.
5 min readChoose where prices and exchange rates come from
A new Stonqs profile fetches no prices and no exchange rates until you turn sources on, keyless ones included. You need one source of prices and one of exchange rates. This takes about five minutes, and ends with holdings in other currencies valued instead of blank.
5 min read
Getting your data in
Import a broker's CSV export
You will load one broker export into a portfolio in four steps: choose the file, check the column mapping, link the instruments, write. Nothing is saved before the last button, and importing the same file twice adds nothing.
7 min readImport an Interactive Brokers Flex Query
Define a Flex Query with Trades, Cash Transactions and Corporate Actions, turn currency rates on, and download it as XML. Stonqs recognises the file, asks only which account it belongs to, and previews everything before writing. Options, futures, corporate actions and cancelled trades are not imported; the last step counts them.
5 min readFill the gaps after an import
A broker's export holds only that broker's half of the story. Four gaps follow: no deposits, a transfer read as a withdrawal, shares carried in at zero cost, a sale with no purchase. Each has a symptom on screen and a fix in the app.
8 min read
Reading the figures
Read your returns
Performance shows two returns because they ask different questions. TWR is what the investments did, and the one Stonqs sets against an index. XIRR is what your money earned given when you paid it in, and it is always a yearly rate. Seven minutes, then you can follow the TWR in the calculation sheet and rerun the XIRR yourself.
7 min readTrack dividends and the tax withheld
Income shows three numbers for the same dividends: Accrued (before withholding), Tax withheld, and Received in the period (what reached your cash), across every account in view. Tax withheld fills only when the tax sits on the dividend's own row. Allow about six minutes.
6 min readExport a tax year's gains, dividends and costs
In Reports, pick a period that covers your year, then use Export CSV on the Realized, Dividends and Costs tabs. Each table becomes a file in your base currency, about eight minutes in all. Stonqs adds up what you imported and computes no tax: give the files to your tax adviser beside your broker's statements.
8 min readRead your portfolio's risk
The Risk screen answers two questions about one window of your past: how much the portfolio moved from day to day (volatility), and how deep its worst fall from a peak was (maximum drawdown). It takes five minutes to read, and it describes what happened, not what will.
6 min read