How to read your investment statement

An investment statement is used to help you keep track of your all of your different investments, whether they are stocks, mutual funds or any other type of investment. These statements will typically come at the end of every quarter and will also usually arrive at the end of the month if you had any activity in your investments, such as trades or purchasing new stocks. No matter what brokerage firm you use they are required to send you an investment statement, so if you are using two brokerage firms you will receive two statements, etc. Everybody formats their investments statements differently but all investment statements include the same basic type of information.

Many investment statements are broken up into two sections: portfolio summary section and analysis of your accounts. The portfolio summary section shows you a consolidated look at all of your accounts, while the analysis of your accounts section shows you an individual breakdown of all your accounts with detailed information.

Here is a breakdown of what a typical investment statement includes:
 Portfolio value - this section will give you a total value of each account covered by the statement. It will show the value of each account at the previous and current periods. Each account is broken down into cash balance, market value, each account value and the percentage amount that each account makes up for the statement. It will also give you a grand total underneath each section.
 Portfolio summary - this section gives you all of your accounts and account numbers that are included in the investment statement.
 Portfolio's overall asset allocation - shows how all accounts combined, excluding securities sold short or debit cash balances, is allocated among the principal asset classes. A pie chart is sometimes included that will give an instant view of how your assets are mixed together.
 Cash flow - is divided into two columns and both columns show how the activity in your account has affected your cash balance during the time period reported. It will also include the difference between cash outflows (purchases, withdrawals) and inflows (sales, deposits, dividends) which are shown on the line marked "Change to cash balance during the period". The final line in this section gives you your closing balance.
 Interest and dividends - this section will cover any interest or dividends that you received during the current period. It also covers any interest that is credited or debited from your account, as a result of maintaining a positive or negative balance in your account.
 Additional information about registered accounts - this section would cover registered accounts such as RSP, RIF, LIF, ESP or LIRA. This section will give you details about those accounts and typically include your contributions to certain accounts or withdrawals from certain accounts. This is provided to help you make sure you stay within legal limits.
 Activity - this is divided into separate sections for each account and shows all the activity for each account during the period covered by the investment statement.
o Transactions to settle after date - this lists transactions with settlement dates after the end of the period covered, which means they were not reported in the cash flow or asset details section of the statement.
o Settlement date - This is the date that the proceeds or cost of transaction will be credited or debited from your account.
o Type of transaction - this will tell you what the transaction was for, such as buying, selling, interest, dividend, etc.
o Number of units bought or sold - this section is pretty easy it tells you how many shares of stock you bought or sold on the transaction date.
o Unit price of the security bought or sold - this section will tell you how much you paid per share for that transaction.
o Amount - this is the total amount that was debited from or credited to your account for the specific transaction. It is figured by multiplying the number of units bought by the price per unit and then if there are any commissions they also must be added in.

 Asset details - this will give a detailed list of all of your securities in a particular account. The investments are organized by asset class, with the securities in each class listed by increasing maturity date for fixed income securities, while equities are listed alphabetically. Mutual funds are grouped separately from securities held directly. This section includes name of the security, percent of the portfolio, quantity, market value, current price, and status.