Asset Groups

Assets in the Estimator and Optimizer can be assigned to groups, such as stocks and bonds.

Display Groups

To display or hide fields pertaining to groups, select Asset Groupings in the Display Menu.

Assign and Add Groups

Assign groups on the Asset Returns Worksheet.  Add a new group by typing the name in one of the cells of the Asset Group row.  Once a group has been added to the list, you can select the appropriate group for each asset from the drop down menu.  For instance, in the default sample case, the assets are assigned as either a stock or a bond.  Those two options appear in the drop down menu when a cell in the Asset Groups row of the Asset Returns Worksheet is selected.  You can select either of those, or you could type in a third group name instead, which would make that group appear in the drop down menu.

Using Groups

After assigning each asset to a group, you can sort by groups in the Asset Selector.  Asset group assignment carries over to the Optimizer, where groups can be useful for applying constraints or selecting portfolios according to total weight ratios.  For example, you can find portfolios with specific stock/bond ratios if two of the groups are stocks and bonds. Group assignments will carry over to the Optimizer if the saved .nfei file is loaded in the Optimizer to transfer the inputs, if NFA Copy/Paste is used (and the Estimator and Optimizer are within the same instance of Excel), or if Launch is used. There are many ways in which groups are useful in the Optimizer. See the Optimizer documentation for further details.