Importing Mutual Funds Not in the Database

Last revised 11/07/18

FastTrack may use data that you provide which is not a standard part of the FastTrack database. FastTrack for the Web will read data that you maintain in an ASCII text file. When FNU files are properly formatted and placed in the C:\FT\ folder, FastTrack will recognize them as if they were in the regular database.

Why use nonstandard data?

1. You want data that is not in the FT Databases.
2. You may save averages computed within FastTrack. See Averaging.
3. You may save the lines that portray the results of market timing.
4.  Think of an FNU file name as just another ticker symbol that is used just like ticker in the FT database. You may add the FNU symbols to  families, rank, chart, and in all respects use the newly defined ticker normally within FT.

Making an FNU from an Average

In the illustration we created the average of 2046 Growth funds in the red line (looks a lot like the green S&P 500 fund).

1. Right-click the red cell to show the control menu.
2. Select Make FNU, then Adjusted for Div
3. This will display a typical Windows file save dialog.
4. Follow the file naming rules below

FNU File Naming

The file name can be any name or symbol from 1 to 5 characters PLUS ".FNU" as the extension. DO NOT use a symbol that is already in the FastTrack database.

Do not use a ticker symbol containing: percent sign, period, comma, colon, Semicolon, quotes, slashes, or spaces as these are not valid for filenames, bad practice, or have special uses inside FT.

Good nonalpha choices are

! @ # $ ^ & ( ) _ - + < > ? { } [ ] | = ~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

FNU files MUST be saved in your FastTrack root directory, usually C:\FT\

File Format:

Ignore this section if you make your FNUs with FT4Web's FNU building features above.

If you make the FNU file yourself with a text editor like NotePad, the file must be in ASCII text format, i.e., variable length lines of text with carriage returns at the end of each line.

Line 1 should be the ticker symbol (usually the file name without extension). Five characters maximum.
Line 2 should be the name of the mutual fund, stock, etc. Forty characters maximum.
Lines 3 through the end of the file must have the date, price and distribution, if any, on that date. For example, if on Mar 4, 1991 the price was 35.51 and the equity went x-dividend with a dividend of $0.30. The corresponding line in the ASCII file would be:

03/04/91, 35.51,0.30

• The date may or may not be surrounded by quotes. Both ways work.
• You do not have to include all the dates. FT4Web will just draw a straight line between points skipping over missing days.
• The dates (and their data) do not have to be in order by date. When reading the .FNU file, FT will read the dates and reassemble the lines in date order.

Warning:

• By default Windows hides file extensions for known file types. Therefore, you might see a file named TICKR.FNU, but actually you have created the filed named TICKR.FNU.TXT.
• It is common for text editors to add .TXT to the name your specify, and these won't recognized as FastTrack FNUs.
• Best bet is to uncheck the "Hide Extensions for known file types" in the Windows Folder Options View in the c:\FT folder. Click for more information on this fix.
• DO Not use Microsoft Word, WordPad, or other editors that embed special control characters. Use NOTEPAD.
• Click for more information on using EXCEL to create an FNU.

Miscellaneous FNU Format Requirements

• Spaces are insignificant except there can be no spaces in the ticker symbol.
• Commas are required.
• Decimal points are required.
• If you have no distribution data, insert 0 for the distribution on each line.
• FastTrack will give line number error messages when invalid formats are encountered. These messages usually are not fatal.
• FastTrack resynchronizes itself to the next valid line of data when a format problem has been detected. This means that your chart may appear to be perfect except that data discarded due to format problems will appear as a short (perhaps undetectable) horizontal line on the chart.

When FT4WEb Reads an FNU

1. The data is placed in date order regardless of ordering in the file.
2. The FNU is reread each time that it is accessed. This means the file may be edited outside of FT4WEB  and then immediately displayed by FT4WEB as changed. Data is not buffered. Just cause the ticker to be reloaded.
3. Errors in the format of the file are logged in C:\FT\FT4WIN\LOG\FNU.LOG, and not displayed on the screen. If your data seems incorrect, load FNU.LOG with a text editor (like NotePad) and review it.

Updating the Data in an FNU

You must keep this data in the FNU file current yourself. The FastTrack update process will not change the ASCII text files. If you are missing data from these files, then FastTrack will display a flat line on the chart for the periods missing.

Example, Data in Excel

If the data that you want FastTrack to read is in an Excel file. Then, these instructions will work. You may, of course do it differently in which case these instructions are inappropriate.

1. Load the Excel file.
2. Copy the column containing dates to a blank worksheet into the first column/third row cell  (MUST be A3)
3. Paste the data column to the new worksheet's second column/third row (MUST be B3)
4. Fill the third column starting at C3 with zeros.
5. In cell A1, insert the ticker symbol that you make up (like XXXX$). No more than 5 characters. Not duplicating an existing ticker symbol in FT.
6. In cell A2, insert a 72 column (max) description. Do not use a comma in the description.
7. Save the new worksheet as file type CSV in the C:\FT\ folder
8. Using My Computer, view the contents of C:\FT. Rename XXXX$.CSV to XXXX$.FNU.

Note: Windows has a nasty default setting that hides the last part of a file name (the "extension"). Thus, when you go to rename, you could see several files of the same apparent name. They actually don't have the same name because the hidden extension is different. To learn how to fix this problem click here.

Limitations

The one thing you can't do is display data outside the data range in the main FastTrack database. Dates before the beginning of the database or after the date of the last online update will be ignored.