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Family Tab Updated 05/05/2020

What are FastTrack families

A family is a collection of ticker symbols that have a commonality. For example, the HI-TECH family contains the ticker for technology funds

What is the Sieve?

The sieve provides a way to merge and edit families. For example, All-ETFs and HITECH can be combined to show only HITECH funds that are also ETFs

What is an Issue List?

This is a list of tickers and issue names that can be sorted alphabetically. The Sieve used the Issue list as a scratchpad by adding tickers or removing tickers.

What do the buttons do at the top?

Move the mouse over the button and it will pop up the description

What is the empty line next to the buttons?

Type a ticker symbol and hit the to look up all the families that contain that symbol. Be sure to rebuild the family tree using before continuing

What is the big box to the right that has + and - signs

This is the Family Tree, and the Tree has branches that further expand families. Click on the little + sign to expand and on the - sign to shrink.

 

treeview1.gif (3713 bytes)

The Family Tree

Family Tree on the Family Tab lists FastTrack's families by category.
family_icon.gif (988 bytes) Click to rebuilds the family tree from disk-based families.
BigE.gif (161 bytes) Click to expands all categories so that you can see all the families in each category
BigC.gif (185 bytes) Click to collapse the expanded view.
spyglass.gif (160 bytes)  Type a ticker symbol into the entry box then click to show only the families that contain that ticker. Click family_icon.gif (988 bytes) to restore the original, complete list of families

Right Click the Family Tree to See its Menu

  • Delete: A single highlighted Personal family will be deleted. Or, left click on the family then hit the delete key on your keyboard.
  • Copy: The issues in the currently highlighted family are copied to the clipboard in comma-delimited text format.
  • Print visible families:
    Only the families that have been expanded into view are printed (Click the BigE.gif (161 bytes)). Printing tips: Change the font to a monospace font like Courier New or Lucinda Console. Make the font smaller, size 8 or below. Make the margins narrow (0.5 in or less). Print to PDF or XPS format and Print from Internet Explorer. Y

Categories in the Family Tree

Double-clicking on a category expands the list to show the category's  members. There may be several category levels. The categories have the little [+]  to the left of their names. When a category is fully expanded, the [+] l changes to [-].

The Personal Category is expanded showing the families created by the user. All other categories of families are maintained by FastTrack.

Why Load a Particular Family

Most of the time you will be interested in only a few issues. Families provide a way to limit the scope your current analysis to  . . .

  1. The ones you own,
  2. The mutual funds you can buy through Fidelity.
  3. Technology stocks.. . . etc

FastTrack has many predefined families that you can select, or you can make your own.

Load a Family in an Issue List

Double-click on a family to replace the contents of the Family Tab Issue List with the members of the family. Double-clicking on a category doesn't work.

You may drag a family to a ANY Tab. The contents of the Issue List on that Tab will be replaced with the family members. Dragging the family name is only possible when the

If you Know the Family Name

Select a family by typing it's name, like Fidelity,  in the entry box and hit  <Enter>. The family members will be listed in the Family Tab Issue List

OR

Move the mouse pointer over an Issue List (on any tab) and press the <Control> + <M> keys on your keyboard. Typing the family name in the appearing dialog box and pressing the <Enter> key will load the family into that Issue List.

I don't know the Family Name

The real easy way to get the family names is, if you know a single ticker symbol of interest:

  1. On the Chart Tab, hit the R key for red, enter the ticker.
  2.  Move your mouse down to the red cell.
  3. The family name is the first word of the fund name.
  4. Or

Type the ticker in the Entry Box at the top. Click the spyglass.gif (160 bytes)button at the top. This will show all the families that the ticker is a member of

I don't know any ticker in the family

See the illustration above. The yellow label "Family Tree" is just to the right of the "Buying Families Category". Click the +sign at the front of the categories to display the lower level categories, then scroll through the Alphabetical list of families.

Copy a Family

Click to select a family to be copied from the tree. Right-click and choose Copy. Ticker Symbols, the members of the family,  will be placed on the clipboard separated by commas for use by any program. You could paste these symbols onto a text editor, a spreadsheet, or a FT4WEB Issue List. When pasting to an Issue List, the Issue List is NOT cleared before the paste. Issues added are checked to be sure that they are not already in the list.

Delete a Family

Users can only delete families in the Personal Category. Click to select the family to be deleted then hit Del or right-click to delete the highlighted family.

Make Custom Families

See the Sieve discussion about the tools provided to combine existing families to make new families. Or, see the discussion on the Charts Tab, regarding manual entry where you type in issue names or symbols to create a family.

Load a Family Average into a Line of the Chart

If you click-hold-drag a family name to a ColorBar cell, FastTrack will compute the family's average. You can also load a family average into the ColorBar.

  • Create your own family using the Family Sieve using automated techniques that operate on existing families.

Why Create My Own Families? 

  • To screen issues by specific criteria. Family Screening Exercise .
  • To limit your analysis to the issues that you own. Key Your Own Family Exercise .
  • To create a subset of a FastTrack-defined family. For example, you like most of the Fidelity issues, but not all. In this case, create your own family, load Fidelity issues into your family, and remove those you don't want.
  • You own issues that are not in the FastTrack database, and you are willing to maintain these as FNU files. These issues may be included in families you create using the issue symbols you assign in the FNU files. FastTrack will chart and rank FNU issues just as if they were a standard part of the FT database.

Saving Families

Right-click on the Issue List to see the Save and Load Options.

Duplicate or Misplaced Family Errors

When using FastTrack you may get error messages about families being duplicated on in the wrong folders. This is not a fatal massage, but suggests that you have likely done something you didn't mean to do. Click for more details.