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Portfolio Snapshots & History

Snapshots capture a point-in-time view of your portfolio, including total value, cash balance, and details for each tracked asset. They enable performance tracking, historical analysis, and power the Dashboard charts. Each snapshot is stored as a row in the "Snapshots" sheet.

What Is Included in a Snapshot?​

  • Portfolio Totals: Total portfolio value and cash balance.
  • Asset Details: For each asset with "Take Snapshot" checked in the Asset Configuration:
    • Current price.
    • Number of shares or holdings.
    • Position value (e.g., for stocks, includes shares plus any associated options).
  • Open Option Contracts PRO: For any tracked asset that has open option contracts, two extra columns are recorded right after the asset's price column:
    • <ticker>_op_contracts: The total number of open contracts on that underlying (sum of the absolute contract volumes).
    • <ticker>_op_value: The total absolute value of those open contracts (sum of |volume × option price × 100|). This is unsigned, so a short put and a long call both add to it — giving you a clear history of your options exposure per ticker. (The main <ticker>_value column still folds in the signed option value, so the two figures are intentionally different.)
  • Custom Data: Any additional key-value pairs defined in the Configuration sheet (e.g., exchange rates).
  • Timestamps: Date and time of the snapshot.

Note: Untick "Take Snapshot" for assets you don't want included to reduce data volume.

Note 2: If you have created snapshot data for an asset and you decide to untick the "Take Snapshot", the values from the last snapshot will be copied over into the new snapshots.

Tip: Make sure to make backups of your Google Sheet™ to avoid losing historical snapshot data of your portfolio.

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Charts assume one snapshot per day for accurate performance calculations. If you take multiple snapshots daily, adjust the chart parameters in the Dashboard tab of the ⚙️ Settings dialog accordingly.

Creating a Manual Snapshot​

To take a snapshot manually:

  1. Click on the menu: Snapshots > Create assets snapshot.
  2. A new row will be added to the "Snapshots" sheet with the current data.

Note: Snapshots are just normal Google Sheets™ rows. If you don't need a snapshot, simply delete the row. The same applies to columns—you can delete an asset's columns (its value, shares, and price, plus op_value and op_contracts if the asset has options) to completely remove that asset's snapshots without affecting other assets' snapshots.
The only thing that needs to stay consistent is that the first column is the timestamp and the second column is the portfolio total value.

Setting Up Daily Automated Snapshots​

Automate snapshots for consistent daily tracking:

  1. Open the ⚙️ Settings dialog from the tradeGIST menu.
  2. Enable Automated snapshots.
  3. Set the Daily snapshot hour to a 24-hour format value (e.g., 14 for 2 PM). This is in GMT—adjust for your timezone (e.g., 16:00 in New York is 20:00 or 21:00 GMT, depending on daylight saving).
  4. Save your changes. That's it — the add-on schedules the daily snapshot for you; there's no separate trigger to set up.

Example: For 9 AM EST (which is 14:00 GMT), set the hour to 14.

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The snapshot hour is in GMT. Double-check your timezone conversion to avoid missed snapshots.

Checking snapshot status​

Once enabled, a status badge next to the Automated snapshots toggle tells you how your daily snapshots are doing:

  • Enabled — first snapshot pending — turned on and waiting for the first daily run.
  • Active — last ran on <date> — running normally, showing the date of the most recent snapshot.
  • Last run failed — retrying next cycle — a run failed, but snapshots are still scheduled and will retry on the next cycle.
  • Disabled because of an error — repeated failures stopped automated snapshots; a Show error button opens the full diagnostics so you can see what went wrong.

Turning Off Automated Snapshots​

To stop automated snapshots, open the ⚙️ Settings dialog, turn off Automated snapshots, and save your changes. The daily schedule is removed automatically.

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If you uninstall the add-on, disable Automated snapshots first to prevent continued executions.

Adding Custom Values to Snapshots​

Include extra data like exchange rates or market indices:

  1. Go to the Configuration sheet, under "Snapshot Custom Data."
  2. Add key-value pairs:
    • Key: A unique ID (e.g., "usdeur").
    • Value: A formula or static value (e.g., =GOOGLEFINANCE("USDEUR")).

Example: To track USD/EUR rate, set Key to "usdeur" and Value to =GOOGLEFINANCE("USDEUR"). This adds a column in the Snapshots sheet.

Handling Multi-Currency Snapshots​

For portfolios with multiple currencies, snapshots automatically fetch the current exchange rate. This is done using your configured FX rate API key (if none is provided, a free endpoint is used). This key is documented in the Configuration guide.

Tip: This ensures snapshots reflect true base-currency values.

Troubleshooting Snapshots​

  • Snapshots not triggering: Check the status badge next to Automated snapshots in the ⚙️ Settings dialog. If it shows Disabled because of an error, use Show error to view the diagnostics. Otherwise, verify the toggle is enabled (and saved) and that the hour is set in GMT.
  • Missing data: Ensure assets have "Take Snapshot" checked and prices are updated.