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Known Bugs


PLEASE READ THIS FIRST!

This page is intended as a place to describe specific details about abnormal or unexpected operation of various software products for NAIC-style stock analysis.  Please follow the style of the existing explainations.  Be sure to include the specific version of the software product and the date the issue was noticed.

This is NOT the place to get or request product support or to make official bug reports.  See the appropriate company web site for information about doing that sort of thing.  Descriptions of issues that are not easily reproduceable may be removed at the discretion of the site administrators.

The following information is NOT provided by the software product vendors.  The idea is for it to be provided by people who have actually used the software products.  The fact that a particular product is not mentioned below does not mean that people are unaware of any bugs in that product.  There is no such thing as bug-free software.


Stock Analyst version 3

  • Balance Sheet Report.  In the Annual Growth section, the column titles (3 Yr, 5 Yr, 10 Yr) are incorrect.  The annual growth rates shown in the table are actually for 2, 4 and 9 year times periods.  Last verified January 2006 in NSAv3.2.
  • PEG Ratio is calculated using Current PE rather than leading 12-month PE.  This is a problem on PERT Report in column V, and on SSG section 3 with Part 3 Extras enabled (Options | Preferences | SSG Analysis).  Last verified January 2006 in NSAv3.2.

Toolkit version 5

  • Display problems on high resolution (other than 96 dpi) screens.  Click here to read more about this. Last verified June 2008 in TKv5.1.6.
  • SSG Section 4B.  Click in the green box to get the "Judgment - Potental Low Stock Price Selection" window.  On a freshly opened SSG, the top radio botton (Forecast Low Price) will always be selected even if that's not really the source of the "Selected Estimate Low Price".  Even though that radio button appears to be selected, clicking OK will not select "Forecast Low Price" for use on the SSG.  The "Forecast Low Price" radio button must be explicitly clicked (resulting in a red box around that price) before clicking OK, even though it appears to be already selected.  Last verified April 2005 in TKv5.0.1.
  • In the Challenger, the starting investment and future values for both stocks are shown on an after-tax basis with one exception.  The starting investment for the held stock is shown on a before-tax basis.  This can create a "dog-leg" sort of shape in the line for the held stock on the associated chart and can make the value of the held stock appear to go down over the first year.  Last verified April 2005 in TKv5.0.1 - Fixed in TKv5.1.3.
  • In the Challenger, the future after-tax values (for both stocks) are computed without subtracting the future sales commission before computing the amount of capital gain tax.  Last verified April 2005 in TKv5.0.1 - Fixed in TKv5.1.3.
  • In the Challenger, the number of shares of the challenger stock that could be purchased is calculated incorrectly.  It's based on the Net On Sale value (i.e., without subtracting a purchase commission or capital gain taxes).  Last verified April 2005 in TKv5.0.1 - Fixed in TKv5.1.3.
  • The Challenger is completely broken in TK V5.1.1.  The starting value of the challenger stock is not even close to correct (the After Tax Starting Value of the two stocks should differ by the amount of the purchase commission for the challenge stock).  Last verified August 2005 in TKv5.1.1 - Fixed in TKv5.1.3.

Prospector version 2.6

  • The following report items are mislabeled:  Com Equity R2 10Yr, Dividend R2 10yr, EPS R2 (3yr, 5yr, 10yr), Hist EPS Gr (3Yr, 5Yr, 10Yr), Hist Rev Gr (3Yr, 5Yr, 10Yr), Hist Price Gr (3Yr, 5Yr), Rev R2 (3yr, 5yr, 10yr).  Rather than being for 3, 5 and 10 year time periods these are actually for 2, 4 and 9 year time periods.  (OPS provides ten annual data points, covering a nine year time period.)  Last verified August 2005 in Prospector 2.60.0017.

INCONSISTENT BEHAVIOR

  • Give Toolkit and Stock Analyst the same SSG information and the same judgment and then look at the stocks in PERT Report.  You won't necessarily see the same information in both products.  More details coming ...
  • Toolkit and Stock Analyst do not compute the dividend yield portion of compound total return in the same way (SSG section 5C).  Stock Analyst uses the same estimated future yield (from SSG section 5B) for both simple and compound total return.  Toolkit uses a different estimated future yield for compound total return.
  • Stock Analyst shows a "Proj Avg Ret %" in it's Portfolio Analysis (right next to "Proj Total Ret %").  The Portfolio Analysis help information describes this as "Project [sic] Average Return from the SSG".  That's an unfortunate choice of terminology since Toolkit has popularized the term "Projected Average Return" ("PAR") for something very different.  In Stock Analyst, "Proj Avg Ret %" is potential compounded return from price appreciation alone (i.e., with dividends ignored, but based on selling at the SSG section 4 high PE).  In Toolkit, Projected Average Return is the potential compounded total return (from both price appreciation and dividends) based on selling at an average future PE level (the average of the SSG section 4(a) and 4(b) high and low PEs).



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Last Modified 2008-06-01

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