Conventions in the Optimizer

Background color indicates the purpose of individual cells within the Optimizer.  White cells can be changed. Cells shaded a light yellow contain calculated information or information that cannot be changed.  For example, the Return and Standard Deviations Columns on the Inputs Worksheet are white, but the Information Ratio Column, calculated by the Optimizer, is light yellow.  A light blue background indicates that the cell conforms to the default value for a constraint.  For example, if you set a default asset bound constraint of 2%, all of the rows that follow the defaults appear in blue.  If you then set a particular asset to have a lower bound of 5%, the 5% appears with a white background.  If you set an individual asset to 2%, thereby matching the default, the cell would appear with a white background because changing the default would not change that constraint.  To revert to the default, enter a letter.  Similarly, blue backing to customized constraint weights indicates that the Optimizer recognizes the source of the weights and will update the constraint if the source material changes.

Numbers appear in blue, black, and red.  Protected, light yellow cells, contain black numbers.  Editable cells (light blue or white) contain blue numbers.  When there are dark blue and light blue fonts, such as with customized constraints, dark blue indicates that the content is enabled while light blue indicates that the content is disabled.  Red indicates negative values.