I Created a New 13-F Screener

[SlowAppreciation]

I've been a longtime user of other 13F screeners, but have found them cumbersome, buggy, ugly, and unintuitive. I also always wanted to see other information about the stock (e.g., valuation metrics), so a few months ago I decided to build the tool I always wanted. So here's v1:

• Collective Portfolio
  
• Individual Investor Portfolio
  

The "Total Portfolio" is comprised of all the holdings of ~130 top investors, and the individual portfolio lets you filter to a specific investor and see their individual holdings.

 

This is still very much a work in progress, but wanted to post the first version here for initial feedback. I may try to turn it into a little side business once all the kinks are worked out, but for now it's free for people on CoBF. I would appreciate ruthless criticism and feedback so that I can continue to improve it and make it a tool that people will enjoy using (and some day pay for).

[longlake95]

Looks like a nice start! I would pay (what price? a function of the quality and experience I get from the site) for well designed, great user interface, clean and crisp site that would aggregate news and company releases, without all the noise I get from Yahoo (which I stopped using 6 months ago) and Google "news" feeds. They are full of scrapped news bits that are totally useless. I don't need to know what the "stock rover" or "Rives Journal" has to say about my companies. A feed from legit news wires would be great. the 13F info would be nice too along with a simple stock tracker. My 2cents from a non-techy.

 

LL

[formthirteen]

Very nice for a first version!

 

The good parts:

- your site has a lot of data that I haven't seen on other 13F screeners

- it has most of the investors I personally follow

 

The not so good:

- site loads slowly for me

- blue font on a blue background is very difficult to read

- the default sort order is not optimal for me

 

 

[SlowAppreciation]

Looks like a nice start! I would pay (what price? a function of the quality and experience I get from the site) for well designed, great user interface, clean and crisp site that would aggregate news and company releases, without all the noise I get from Yahoo (which I stopped using 6 months ago) and Google "news" feeds. They are full of scrapped news bits that are totally useless. I don't need to know what the "stock rover" or "Rives Journal" has to say about my companies. A feed from legit news wires would be great. the 13F info would be nice too along with a simple stock tracker. My 2cents from a non-techy.

 

LL

 

Reading my mind.. I too feel there's a dearth of quality info out there and I have to go to a bunch of different sites for the info I want:

 

• Screeners: Datorama, GuruFocus, WhaleWisdom
  
• Shareholder/Fund Letters: Reddit, CoBF, Mailing Lists
  
• Company Research & Analysis: CobF, Reddit, Seekingalpha, VIC
  
• News: Reddit, CobF, Yahoo News, Seeking Alpha
  
• Data & Financials: YCharts/Morningstar
  

 

and I don't "love" any of them save for maybe ycharts. They either have tons of junk/spam, bad user experiences, and a general spammy feel. So very long-term, I would love to build a premium service that performs all these functions with a nice user experience. But to start, I'm going to focus on a Screener, Shareholder/Fund Letters, and high-quality company analyses (if anyone wants to do a write up for it, please let me know and I'll be glad to discuss more).

 

If I can get some paying customers for this those first 3 offerings, I'll just reinvest it back into adding more value in the form of high-quality news, and possibly company financials. I definitely think there's a market for it.

 

What other features would you need to see in it today so that you would become a paying customer? And what do you think is a fair price?

 

I think most of the other options out there—like $800/year—for GuruFocus are way too high and I would probably come in much lower than that.

[SlowAppreciation]

Very nice for a first version!

 

The good parts:

- your site has a lot of data that I haven't seen on other 13F screeners

- it has most of the investors I personally follow

 

The not so good:

- site loads slowly for me

- blue font on a blue background is very difficult to read

- the default sort order is not optimal for me

 

Thank you!

 

Yes, I'm working on the sorting functionality and should have an improvement next week. Out of curiosity, how would you like to sort? I think default should be position size for the individual portfolio, and total # of investors for the Total Portfolio; otherwise it just becomes the Berkshire portfolio....

 

Performance is going to be a challenge without opening up my wallet. Right now just trying to see if there's a market for it, and if so, I can invest more accordingly. I like to consider myself a steward of shareholder capital... :P

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

[SlowAppreciation]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 

Meaning my screen could be improved or Dataroma's screen?

 

There are some performance-related issues with letting users see the entire portfolio history on a single page (rather than having to filter to a specific quarter), but long-term it's something I would like to do. FWIW I never found the Dataroma history page all that useful just because it's presented poorly. But I think given enough time and resources I could improve upon it.

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 

Meaning my screen could be improved or Dataroma's screen?

 

There are some performance-related issues with letting users see the entire portfolio history on a single page (rather than having to filter to a specific quarter), but long-term it's something I would like to do. FWIW I never found the Dataroma history page all that useful just because it's presented poorly. But I think given enough time and resources I could improve upon it.

 

This one for example, like you said, it could be better.

 

http://www.dataroma.com/m/hist/p_hist.php?f=aq

[SlowAppreciation]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 

Meaning my screen could be improved or Dataroma's screen?

 

There are some performance-related issues with letting users see the entire portfolio history on a single page (rather than having to filter to a specific quarter), but long-term it's something I would like to do. FWIW I never found the Dataroma history page all that useful just because it's presented poorly. But I think given enough time and resources I could improve upon it.

 

This one for example, like you said, it could be better.

 

http://www.dataroma.com/m/hist/p_hist.php?f=aq

 

Yeah that's the one I had in mind. Always kind of felt it was worthless... I had something in there originally that I thought was better, but it needs more work which is why I didn't include it in v1. Here's the early draft if you're interested: https://public.tableau.com/profile/mine.safety#!/vizhome/MineSafetyDisclosures/MobileIndividualPortfolioOverTime

[longlake95]

depending on what the site offers, without seeing the final product, I can easily justify $150 (Canuck bucks) per year. If it saves me time sifting through clutter. Simple company financials both in text and graphically would be a nice add. Along with simple portfolio tracker, with price flags.I'm not a fan of Gurufocus - sure it's nice to see what the Guru's are buying, but I think 13F data should only be a smallish part of the site. That info is pretty easy to source. less clutter. If your going to have people post research...I'd limit it to the paying users who can post research...hopefully the serious investors. If you link to Seeking Alpha or others, you get a lot of fluff - VIC notwithstanding.

 

[formthirteen]

Very nice for a first version!

 

The good parts:

- your site has a lot of data that I haven't seen on other 13F screeners

- it has most of the investors I personally follow

 

The not so good:

- site loads slowly for me

- blue font on a blue background is very difficult to read

- the default sort order is not optimal for me

 

Thank you!

 

Yes, I'm working on the sorting functionality and should have an improvement next week. Out of curiosity, how would you like to sort? I think default should be position size for the individual portfolio, and total # of investors for the Total Portfolio; otherwise it just becomes the Berkshire portfolio....

 

Performance is going to be a challenge without opening up my wallet. Right now just trying to see if there's a market for it, and if so, I can invest more accordingly. I like to consider myself a steward of shareholder capital... :P

 

Yes, I prefer the sort order to be "% of total portfolio" and "total # of investors". The best way to see if there's a market, IMO, is to ask if people are willing to pay. If you think of the project as a learning experience then it's a win-win for you regardless of the outcome.

[SlowAppreciation]

Very nice for a first version!

 

The good parts:

- your site has a lot of data that I haven't seen on other 13F screeners

- it has most of the investors I personally follow

 

The not so good:

- site loads slowly for me

- blue font on a blue background is very difficult to read

- the default sort order is not optimal for me

 

Thank you!

 

Yes, I'm working on the sorting functionality and should have an improvement next week. Out of curiosity, how would you like to sort? I think default should be position size for the individual portfolio, and total # of investors for the Total Portfolio; otherwise it just becomes the Berkshire portfolio....

 

Performance is going to be a challenge without opening up my wallet. Right now just trying to see if there's a market for it, and if so, I can invest more accordingly. I like to consider myself a steward of shareholder capital... :P

 

Yes, I prefer the sort order to be "% of total portfolio" and "total # of investors". The best way to see if there's a market, IMO, is to ask if people are willing to pay. If you think of the project as a learning experience then it's a win-win for you regardless of the outcome.

 

That's the plan. So, are you willing to pay....?  ;)

[formthirteen]

That's the plan. So, are you willing to pay....?  ;)

 

I prefer not to pay for online services. A one-time payment for lifetime membership would be easier to swallow ;)

[SlowAppreciation]

I might be able to arrange something if you're interested

[DW]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 

 

I was thinking the same thing

[SlowAppreciation]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 
 
I was thinking the same thing

 
how about something like this:

• Portfolio Over Time
  

[John Hjorth]

You're a wild thing, SlowAppreciation!,

 

- Sell the whole thing to Google when done! [ : - ) ]

[SlowAppreciation]

You're a wild thing, SlowAppreciation!,

 

- Sell the whole thing to Google when done! [ : - ) ]

 

Haha would be nice, but I think they're getting out of the Finance game unfortunately...

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 
 
I was thinking the same thing

 
how about something like this:

• Portfolio Over Time
  

Works better for portfolio's where you don't have lots of smaller positions, ie. search for Allen Mecham. I would say it's a graph that's worth including.

[SlowAppreciation]

One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

 
 
I was thinking the same thing

 
how about something like this:

• Portfolio Over Time
  

Works better for portfolio's where you don't have lots of smaller positions, ie. search for Allen Mecham. I would say it's a graph that's worth including.

 

Yeah I need to work on the filter... will probably limit it to top 15 positions in a given quarter or something like that.

[Jurgis]

Honestly, maybe it's just me, but I find the whole portfolio stats part pretty worthless. Yeah, I know you did this site partially because you wanted these stats... There's at least couple issues with it:

 

1. Why does anyone care about portfolio P/E, ROE, etc? These are company metrics and aggregating them into a portfolio metric is IMO close to meaningless. Assume my portfolio is a company X that currently loses money, GOOGL and FCAU. What is the portfolio P/E of this and is it meaningful in any way? Not to me really.

2. Related to above: how do you average P/E, ROE, across companies? Do you account for position size, market cap, what? Or do you just simply average? (Academic questions somewhat, since I still think 1.)

3. Sorry to say, but I don't trust FCF calculation of even Morningstar and they are probably the best in doing it. I would not trust FCF calculation of random website at all. Mostly because FCF calculation really depends on what you subtract to get FCF and there's no agreement on that.

 

To say something positive:  8) - Holdings by Value is a nice visualization.

 

Regarding paying for a site: sorry, Dataroma is free. Morningstar is free (with free US library card). So, no I would not pay for this... Same for the news/etc.

 

Hope you wanted negative feedback.  8)

All the best. You might find others who are more positive and would pay.  :)

[SlowAppreciation]

1. Why does anyone care about portfolio P/E, ROE, etc? These are company metrics and aggregating them into a portfolio metric is IMO close to meaningless. Assume my portfolio is a company X that currently loses money, GOOGL and FCAU. What is the portfolio P/E of this and is it meaningful in any way? Not to me really.

 

Well sure, but just like looking at the P/E of a company and calling it a day isn't really telling you much, the same goes for an investor's total portfolio. So yeah, if a company takes a bath or doesn't report a lot of GAAP earnings like a Charter or Liberty or Amazon, then that's going to inflate the P/E even though it may not represent actual intrinsic value. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone though.

 

But I think it's interesting to see that someone like Chuck Akre is comfortable having a higher total portfolio P/E than someone like Buffett is.

 

When you get into investors like Howard Marks or Klarmann, P/E loses it's relevance. But that's the same when looking at the P/E of specific companies too. 

 

 

2. Related to above: how do you average P/E, ROE, across companies? Do you account for position size, market cap, what? Or do you just simply average? (Academic questions somewhat, since I still think 1.)

 

I'm simply taking the total value of the portfolio (based on current prices), divided by the total look through earnings (shares x EPS). Same approach for all other metrics.

 

3. Sorry to say, but I don't trust FCF calculation of even Morningstar and they are probably the best in doing it. I would not trust FCF calculation of random website at all. Mostly because FCF calculation really depends on what you subtract to get FCF and there's no agreement on that.

 

And that's why everyone should still do their own due diligence. What you consider true FCF is going to be different from what I consider true FCF even if we have the same exact data and info to go off of.

 

I can't go in and massage the #s for each company to determine what I think is their true FCF, so the best way to handle it is just do CFO-CapEx. Everyone is free to make their own adjustments from there.

 

FWIW, I'm using Morningstar data for the FCF calc.

[John Hjorth]

Berkshire:

The limited information that follows in this press release is not adequate for making an informed investment judgment.

 

Please substitute "press release" with "website", and you get the picture. [ ; - ) ]

[SlowAppreciation]

I made some updates around auto-sorting and portfolio weighting over time.

• Collective Portfolio
  
• Individual Investor Portfolio
  

[Cevian]

SlowAppreciation, I'm really enjoying this screener. Very well done and simple to use.

 

One wish list that may be a feature that is far fetched and difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, would be to be able to track the level cash as a holding of the collective portfolio. I believe this would be a wonderful indicator, over time, of the bearishness or bullishness of the group.