Four ways to get your numbers.

Interactive Brokers has all your data, spread across many views. If you wanted the full picture, so far you had to pull it together in Excel or on paper. The table shows how the four ways compare day to day.

Criterion	in the browser and on your phone	Interactive BrokersPortfolio view	Excelyour own spreadsheet	Paper and calculator
Overview and allocation	At a glanceEvery stock and your cash as an allocation ring.	Many viewsYou piece the weighting together yourself.	Built yourselfAs current as your last entry.	In your headYou work out each stock's share of the portfolio yourself.
Premiums with the stock	YesEvery premium sits with the stock you sold the option on.	NoEach premium sits with its option. You add up yourself what a stock has earned in premiums.	By handIf you enter every premium.	By handUntil a note goes missing.
Effort	Set up onceAfter that, everything comes in on its own.	NoneThe data originates there.	Enter every transaction	Write down every transaction
Exact or approximate	ExactFrom the Interactive Brokers transactions.	Exact, but scattered	ApproximateUntil the next forgotten entry.	Approximate

yespartly or with manual workno

“I wrote down a great deal on paper on the side: which stocks I bought at what price, when I want to watch which calls. At some point I always lost track. My biggest benefit is that Rendity takes this work off my hands, always keeps it up to date and shows it nicely in charts.”

Uta L.

Before and after

Before Rendity, our users gathered their numbers by hand: in Excel, with a calculator, in Portfolio Performance and on scraps of paper. On the left you see a sketch of how that looked. On the right, Rendity answers the same question, and you don't have to enter anything.

The Excel spreadsheet

It is correct up to the last entry. After that everything is only roughly right, and you only see how your money is split after your next evening at the laptop.

	A	B	C	D
1	Stock	Shares	Price	Value
2	MSFT	100	341.20	34,120
3	KO	400	63.10	25,240
4	AMZN	100	219.80	21,980
5	Total			81,340

Prices entered Sep 3, MCD still missing, cash?

Sample numbers

Allocation

One slice per stock, plus your cash. Every position, every price and the cash balance come from your Interactive Brokers account, fresh every day.

The calculator

The total has grown. But was that the option premium or the gain on the stock? And did you subtract the withholding tax?

        Recheck the stock
        100 × 30 = 3,000
        100 × 26 = 2,600 avg 28
        200 × 35 = 7,000
        7,000 − 5,600 = 1,400
        Premiums 80 + 180 = 260
        Div. 80 − 12 = 68
        Total 1,660 1,728 ?
        Fees? And all of it again next month.
      

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Stock

No longer held · Position closed

What the calls brought in is listed under Option premium, and the gain on the stock alone under Realized gain. Together: $1,400.00 + $260.00 + $80.00 − $12.00 = $1,728.00.

Portfolio Performance, kept up by hand

You start every import yourself and set up every option as a separate security. What you received for a call then sits apart from the stock.

        Sunday: update PP
        download statement from IBKR
        import into PP, check
        set up call 35 as its own security
        premium belongs to the stock but is listed separately
      

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Portfolio Performance is a good tool. It needs to be installed on a computer and fed imports by hand, though, and it treats options as separate securities. Rendity books every premium with the stock you sold the option on.

The scrap of paper

Which stock has a call on it right now, at what strike, and until when? On paper you lose track at some point.

        Keep an eye on calls
        KO 70 · Dec 12 18 · 2 contr.?
        AMZN 250 · Nov ?
        MSFT still free?
        too much PEP! don't buy more
      

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Options planner

“2C” means two calls are open. A dash means nothing is running on these shares. Expand a row to see the strike, the expiration and how many shares are reserved.

If you also sell puts: the mental math before buying more

The account balance looks good. But how much of it is already tied up in puts, and how much is still free?

        Open puts
        PFE 24 · Nov → 4,800
        KO 55 · Dec → 5,500
        total 9,800 10,300
        17,800 − 10,300 = 7,500 free?
      

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One chip per expiration date shows how much is tied up on that day. $7,500 stays available.

Start for free How setup works