There are several ways to create a new portfolio.  You can do any of the following:

• Click on the New Portfolio button on the toolbar.
  
• Press Ctrl-F, the keyboard shortcut for new portfolio.
  
• Select File and then New Portfolio from the menu.
  
• Select the Portfolios node on the tree view, and then press Insert.
  
• Select the Portfolios node on the tree view, right-click on the node, and then select New Portfolio from the menu that pops up.

If you're using the button on the toolbar or the selection from the menu, and if there is more than one point in time defined in the current SPAN ^® document, a dialog box will display so that you can select the point in time for which the portfolio should be created.

The portfolio dialog box will now display, and you can start entering data for the portfolio. When you are done, click on the OK button (or press Enter) to save the portfolio. (If you change your mind and don't want to save the portfolio, just select the Cancel button.)

Working with the Portfolio Dialog Box
The Portfolio dialog box has four tabs:

• Portfolio — for maintaining overall information about the portfolio — for example, its account number or ledger balance,
  
• Positions — for viewing or defining the positions in the portfolio,
  
• Performance Bond Requirements — for viewing the performance bond requirements for the portfolio, once they have been calculated,
  
• Values — for viewing the overall values of futures-style products and premium-style products in the portfolio.

Like any tabbed dialog box, you can switch among the different tabs either by clicking on the tab, or by pressing Ctrl-Tab. For example, you can quickly move from the portfolio tab to the positions tab by pressing Ctrl-Tab, and you can quickly return to the portfolio tab by pressing Shift-Ctrl-Tab.

After making any changes to the portfolio — either on the portfolio tab or the positions tab — be sure to select OK if you want the portfolio data to be updated. The portfolio data will not be updated until and less you do this.

Defining Overall Portfolio Data
Here's what you can specify on the portfolio tab:

• Parent account: if you are defining a portfolio which is a sub account of an omnibus account, select the parent omnibus account here. Except for such sub accounts, this field should be left blank.
  
• Clearing firm: provide a value — any value — to identify the clearing firm.
  
• Account: provide a value — any value — to identify the specific account at that firm, or accept the default value of "*** New Portfolio ***".
  
• Account type: select from any of the available account types. Account types are either customer-level — for accounts held on the books of a clearing member firm — or clearing-level, for clearing firm accounts on the books of a clearing organization.  Customer-level account types currently defined are member, hedger, speculator, and omnibus. Clearing-level account types currently defined are normal and member.
  
• Segregation type: if you wish, you can identify the specific segregation type (also called the origin) of the account. Currently defined segregation types are CUST for customer, or HOUS for house (i.e., proprietary.) If you choose not to identify the specific segregation type of an account, leave this field at its default value of N/A (not applicable.)
  
• Portfolio currency: select the currency in which the overall performance bond requirement for this account will be denominated. 
  
• Ledger Balance, Open Trade Equity, and Securities on Deposit:  provide the values, denominated in the specified portfolio currency, for these collateral assets for the account. Generally, these fields are used as follows:
  • Ledger Balance contains the cash balance in the account not associated with open positions in futures-style products.
  • Open Trade Equity contains the cash balance associated with open positions in futures-style products.
  • Securities on Deposit contains the haircutted performance bond value associated with non-cash collateral assets such as debt or equity securities.

You'll note several improvements here over previous PC-SPAN ^® versions:

• Firm and account identifiers can be any (reasonable) length.
  
• Within a point in time, portfolios are made unique by their firm identifier, account identifier and segregation type. If you need to define two different accounts, which have the same firm and account ID's but different segtypes, you can now do this.
  
• You can change the firm and account identifiers at any time.
  
• You can specify different currencies in which the overall performance bond requirement should be denominated, for different portfolios. They don't all have to be the same.