V F U N D COMMUNICATION PROGRAM FOR FIDELITY AND VANGUARD MUTUAL FUNDS Version 2.1 by: George R. Cotten 37 Lawrence Lane Lexington, MA 02173 1 VFUND COMMUNICATION PROGRAM This program is being distributed under the shareware concept. The program and this manual are the copyrighted property of the author. You are granted a limited license to try the program for one month, to copy it and distribute it, provided that: a) You do not charge a fee for the distribution or copying of the program unless you have the prior written consent of the author, b) It is distributed only in its original, unmodified, compiled form (except that it may be compressed using an archiving facility, as long as the program can be uncompressed only back to its original form), c) This documentation file accompanies the program itself, and is also distributed in its original, unmodified form (or compressed - see exception in item b above), and, d) It is not distributed as part of any commercial product or service without the prior written consent of the author. After trying the program, if you decide to use it, please return the license agreement/registration form, signed, (at the end of this manual) along with the registration fee of $30.00. Registration entitles you to use the program on one computer or local area network (LAN) at a time. LAN support is NOT provided. If used on a network, it is at your own discretion. Site licenses are also available for an additional fee as explained in the license agreement/registration form. Registered users can obtain technical support and will be notified about future revisions. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................ 3 Files on the disk ............................................ 3 CHAPTER ONE Installation ............................... 4 Installation ................................................. 4 Program Configuration .......................................... 4 Program's limitations ........................................ 5 CHAPTER TWO Using VFUND program .......................... 5 Inserting new accounts ........................................ 7 Deleting existing accounts .................................... 7 Sorting of existing accounts ................................... 8 Connecting to the Host Computer ................................ 8 Share prices, yields, and no. of shares ........................ 9 Account balance and recent activity ............................ 10 Transfer of shares between accounts ............................ 10 Transfer of funds from a bank .................................. 11 Gain/Loss from transactions ..................................... 11 Printing ..........................................................12 Transaction log ................................................... 12 LICENSE AGREEMENT .......................................... 13 LIMITED WARRANTY ............................................ 15 3 -------------------- Files on the Disk: --------------------- There are four program files on your distribution diskette: MANUAL.DOC, LICENSE.DOC, VFUND.EXE, VFUND.CFG plus the data files (*.ACT and *.STK) for each group of mutual funds, and SHARE.LOG file. VFUND.EXE is the actual program, VFUND.CFG is the configuration file, *.ACT and *.STK are the data files. MANUAL.TXT is the instruction manual LICENSE.DOC is the license agreement ------------------------- Introduction -------------------------- The program VFUND automates the access to many families of mutual funds using automated service telephones. The program permits for a speedy, automated access to these funds: obtaining individual quotations and balances on your accounts including the last purchase/sale/exchange of shares in your account. An additional feature is the automated transfer of funds from your bank to some groups of funds, or between funds in certain groups. In other groups of funds, this option is not provided because I did not have sufficient information about their procedures. If you provide me with that additional information, in form of eg. *3*[fund no]*[account no]*[security code]... ) than I will include it in the future version of this program. You may try this program for 30 days. At the end of that time, you are invited to register and then you will receive the code to personalize your copy of the program, be given access to technical assistance and be notified about future improvements. 4 CHAPTER ONE Installation ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The program is not copy protected. Please read the license agreement and warranty information found at the end of this manual for more information regarding the use of the program. ----------------------------------- Installation ------------------------------------ To install the VFUND on a hard disk, put the master disk into Drive A: and type the following: MD \FUND CD \FUND COPY A:\*.* These steps will copy the VFUND program to subdirectory \FUND on your disk. Also, the program can be installed in any other subdirectory you desire, just substitute appropriate directory name above. After you have installed the program onto your computer, you're ready to start the program. ------------------------ Program configuration ------------------------ The program can now be started by changing to the appropriate sub-directory (eg. \FUND) and issuing the command VFUND, ie. type: C: cd \FUND VFUND The initial screen will appear showing that it is unregistered shareware version. Press to continue the program. Once the program is registered, you will receive a code to personalize your copy and bypass this screen. The next screen that appears, allows the choice of desired family of funds. Select one and press . The next screen will show the currently loaded account information for these funds. We will revise these entries in subsequent steps. Note a brief summary of available commands in the last four rows of the display. 5 Press ALT F1 to change the configuration file. The present screen will disappear, and you will be presented with choice for screen colors, and questions to specify the appropriate path (eg. C:\FUND) to the data files, telephone number, and modem speed for each of the funds. At each question, the current choice is presented in square brackets (eg. [C:\FUND]). If you do not wish to change it, press the key. In registered copies you are also given a choice whether you wish to protect the access to the program and data with your personal password. Please note that the password is case sensitive, ie. "PASSWORD" is not the same as "password", or "PassworD" ! When this procedure is completed, the original screen with fund data will re-appear. ------------------------------------ Program's limitations ----------------------------------- The program requires IBM PC compatible computer with at least 512 kb memory, and a Hayes compatible telephone modem. The operating system should be MS-DOS version 3.1 or above. You will also require Touch-Tone dialing telephone line. The data files are of "sequential" type. The data files can be accessed with any editing program, but you are advised against making any corrections, or changes, using an outside editor . CHAPTER TWO Using the VFUND program -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using the VFUND is straightforward. To start the program, make sure you're on the proper drive and in the proper sub-directory. For example, if you installed the program in the directory \FUND on disk drive C:, you would type the following: C: CD \FUND VFUND If you are using a floppy disk in drive A, type the following: A: VFUND 6 Substitute your drive and directory in the above commands. You must change to the proper directory so that the program can find the data files. Once you have followed the steps above, the first screen will be displayed and you should choose the desired family of funds. The next screen will show the currently loaded information on these funds. We will revise these entries in subsequent steps. Note a brief summary of available commands in the last four rows of the display. The following keys are activated: F1 - dial the telephone number to the desired service phone F2 - obtain the price quotations for the listed mutual funds F3 - obtain the share balance information for your accounts F4 - last purchase information for the chosen account F5 - last dividend information for the chosen account F6 - last sale information for chosen account F7 - price quotations for funds not listed on the screen F8 - change share, yield and price information for listed funds F9 - proceed to another function (for Vanguard funds only) F10 - terminate the session and hang up the telephone F11 - hang up the telephone only ALT F1 - change configuration file ALT F2 - sort listed accounts ALT F3 - change to "portfolio screen" ALT F4 - change to "accounts screen" ALT F5 - exchange shares between existing accounts or set up a new account ALT F6 - transfer money from your bank to an existing account ALT F7 - print screen ALT F8 - transactions' log (available for registered users only) INS - add new account DEL - delete listed account In addition, the following keys are available for moving the cursor on the screen: DOWN ARROW (grey) - moves the cursor down one row UP ARROW (grey) - moves cursor up one row RIGHT ARROW (grey) - moves cursor to the right TAB key - moves cursor to the right HOME key - moves cursor to the left margin 7 -------------------------------- Inserting New Accounts --------------------------------- After you have chosen the desired family of funds, you will be presented with the screen summarizing all your accounts in that family. At the bottom four lines of the screen there is also a brief summary of all active keys. If you desire to add a new account to the list, press INSert key. You will be presented with a list of questions to answer: Fund number, Fund description, your account number, security code (if none required, enter 99), number of shares on the account, the share yield and price. After you answered all the questions, the screen containing the summary of all your accounts will re-appear. -------------------------------------- Deleting an existing account --------------------------------------- To delete an existing account, press DELete key. You will be asked which record number should be deleted. Enter the record number (eg. A, B, ..) corresponding to the account that you wish to delete and press . That fund will now be deleted. NOTE: You cannot delete ALL the funds on any given screen. 8 ---------------------------------------- Sorting of existing accounts ---------------------------------------- You may re-arrange your accounts to any desired order by pressing ALT F2. You will be asked which record should be moved, enter its position (eg. A, B, ..) and press . Next you are asked to which position the record should be moved. Enter the desired new position (eg. A, B,..) and press . The summary of your request is now displayed (eg. MOVE FROM C TO A), and you are requested either to confirm or cancel the request. Press either 0, or 1 and keys. The sorted screen is displayed next. --------------------------------------------------- Connecting with the Host Computer --------------------------------------------------- Press key F1 to initiate dialing to the host computer. You may raise your phone receiver at this time and listen to the dialing and the automated response by the host computer. NOTE: Certain telephone sets appear to interfere with the clarity and/or action of the modem. If you experience error massages from the Host computer, you may have to hang up your telephone set prior to each dialing sequence generated by this program. However, you will clearly hear the proceedings through the modem itself. While the connection is being made, you may select your next action. If you desire share prices and yields for individual funds - press F2. If you desire to obtain the balance of shares in your accounts, and their net worth - press F3. In either case you will asked to select the record number. Press the letter (eg. A, B, ..) corresponding to the desired fund, but do not press until the host computer requests next action. At that time press to initiate the next dialing sequence. You may continue this action repeatedly until you obtained all the desired information for all the funds in a given family. NOTE: The Vanguard family of funds allows you to repeat the actions initiated by either F2 or F3 keys, BUT if you wish to switch from eg. "Share prices" (F2) to "Account balance" (F3), you must first indicate your desire by pressing F9. This procedure is not required by the other families of funds. 9 To terminate your connection with the host computer, you may choose one of the following: F11 - hangs up the telephone line only F10 - hangs up the telephone line and terminates the current fund selection. You are asked: "Continue? - [Y]/N". If you respond N and press , the program terminates. If you press alone, you will be presented with the initial screen showing a selection of the available families of funds. ------------------------------------------------------------ Share prices and yields, number of shares ------------------------------------------------------------- After you obtained the new prices and yields for shares (by pressing F2), you may wish to update the records. In order to do that, move the cursor to the appropriate location - just to the left (or at the left-most digit) of the number that you wish to change, by use of : RIGHT ARROW UP ARROW DOWN ARROW and TAB keys If you wish to move the cursor to the left, use HOME key - which places the cursor at the left margin. You may change only one number after the use of either F2 or F3 keys. If you wish to change more numbers, press F8. Each time that you press F8, you are permitted to change one more number from the following selection: number of shares, share price, or share yield. In order to record the correct price of shares that were bought/sold, ALWAYS change the price before changing the number of shares! After you positioned the cursor and pressed an appropriate Fn key, enter the new number followed by . The updated screen is automatically displayed. Note that the prices and yields of all other funds on the screen that have the same "Fund Number" are also automatically updated. This feature is particularly useful if you have several accounts with the same Fund (eg, regular and IRA ones). You can also receive price quotations for funds not listed on the screen by pressing F7 and providing the fund number (eg 21) when asked for it. NOTE : Fidelity family of funds requires that you have at least one account active before you can access the data by phone. 10 --------------------------------------------------- Account balance and recent activity --------------------------------------------------- The account balance and the current value can be obtained by pressing F3 and following the instructions given above. Once you go through that procedure, you can also obtain for that particular account additional information by pressing the appropriate keys: F4 - gives the last purchase F5 - gives most recent dividend F6 - gives the last sale ------------------------------------------------------------ Transfer of shares between active accounts ------------------------------------------------------------- Several families of funds permit the use of this service for exchange of shares between your active accounts and/or setting up of a new account. However, you must use the individual account numbers rather than the "family" ones. For instance in Fidelity group of funds you are not allowed to use numbers starting with letter "T". Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain the detailed instructions for this procedure for all families of funds at the time of setting up this program. In order to start this procedure, press ALT F5 and answer the questions as they appear in the top three lines on the screen. You must await response from the Host computer, when it is so indicated on the screen. At the end of the procedure the Host computer gives you the final choice of either accepting or cancelling the transaction as spelled on the screen and spoken by the Host computer on the telephone. NOTE: whenever asked to provide "account (rec. no)", respond with the letter (eg. A, B,..) corresponding to that fund. If you wish to open a new account, you must provide the Fund No. as specified by the prospectus. 11 ------------------------------------------- Transfer of funds from a bank ------------------------------------------- In order to use this service, special arrangements must be made with your Fund Manager (as eg setting up of "Money Line for Fidelity funds). You must use the individual account numbers rather than the "family" ones. In order to start this procedure press ALT F6 and answer the questions as they appear in the top three lines on the screen. At the end of the procedure the Host computer gives you the final choice of either accepting or cancelling the transaction as spelled on the screen and spoken by the Host computer on the telephone. NOTE: Whenever asked to provide "account (rec. no)", respond with the letter (eg. A, B,..) corresponding to that fund. ------------------------ Portfolio screen ------------------------ As you develop a listing of all the accounts with a given Fund, and as you change the amount of shares that you own in these accounts, an additional information is being developed in the supplementary screen - called "Portfolio screen". You can access the Portfolio screen by pressing ALT F3 keys. The screen will present the Fund number, account name, the amount of money that you invested (ie. all the purchases, less all the sales), the current value and the total profit/loss. You can change the date by pressing F8 key, moving the cursor just to the left of present date, typing in the new one, and pressing at the end. You can change back to the account screen by pressing ALT F4 keys. NOTE : The date must be written in the form - mm-dd-yy Whenever you change the date, the invested value becomes equal to the current value so that profit becomes 0.0. Registered users obtain also a display of profit/loss expressed in terms of compounded interest over the period from the date indicated on the screen. This calculation is however including some approximations and thus the result is only approximate. 12 --------------- Printing --------------- You can obtain a printed copy of either one of the screens, by first placing the desired table on the screen (press ALT F3 - for portfolio screen, ALT F4 - for account screen, and ALT F8 - for transactions log), and then pressing ALT F7 keys. ------------------------- Transactions' log ------------------------- Registered users obtain an additional ability to maintain a log of all the transactions. ie. any change in the number of shares is recorded separately. To access the log of all the transactions, press ALT F8 keys. If desired, you can print that log by pressing ALT F7 keys while the log is displayed on the screen. No changes can be made to these records. However the complete log of all the transactions can be erased by pressing DEL key. 13 LICENSE AGREEMENT ----------------------------------------------------------------- The use of the VFUND program is granted under the following terms: 1) You may make copies of the program and documentation in their original, unmodified, form without restriction. You may make copies of the documentation either in its printed or machine readable form without restriction. If these copies are distributed to others outside of your organization, you have no obligation to control the use of those copies; however, any copies made which are distributed within your organization are restricted to the terms of this license agreement. 2) You may not modify the program or its documentation or charge a fee for copying or distributing the program or its documentation. 3) You may use the VFUND program on the number of computers for which you have paid the license fee. If the fee has been paid for a site license, you may use the program on as many computers as are located at that site; however, you may not use the program on any computer not located at that site without paying an additional licensing fee. I agree to abide by the terms and conditions of this license. ______________________________ _____________________ Signature Date 14 REGISTRATION INFORMATION Version 2.1 Name: ________________________________________________ Company: _____________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ City: ______________________ State: ______ ZIP: ___________ License fee for ____ computers at $30.00 per computer ________ OR, Site license, unlimited use at one site ($100.00) ________ Sub Total ________ Massachusetts Residents add five percent (.05) Sales Tax ________ Total Due ________ Make check payable to George R. Cotten and mail to: 37 Lawrence Lane, LEXINGTON, MA 02173. 15 LIMITED WARRANTY _________________________________________________________________ The author warrants to any licensee that acquires the program from him that: 1) All diskettes the author provides to licensee constitute an accurate duplication of the software and manual. The author will replace any diskette found to be defective within 30 days from the date of acquisition. The author withholds the right to not honor this warranty if the diskette has been subjected to physical abuse, or used in defective or incompatible equipment. 2) The VFUND program will perform substantially as described in the documentation accompanying the software, if used as directed in such documentation. 3) This warranty specifically limits any remedy to the replacement of the physical diskette and documentation if these were originally acquired directly from the author. It shall not cover any other damages including, but not limited to: loss of profit, commercial damage, or other special, consequential or similar claims. The VFUND program is sold without warranty as to its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. 4) The author makes no warranty that its software is error free nor that its use by the licensee will be uninterrupted. 5) It is necessary to complete and return the registration card and pay the license fee to implement this warranty and to receive customer support.