Why a spreadsheet is not a risk report

Almost every family office keeps its holdings in a spreadsheet, or in a download from a broker. It is a faithful record of what you own. It says very little about what could happen to it.

A list is not a distribution

A spreadsheet gives you quantities, prices and values. A risk report needs something else: how each position has moved over years of market history, and how those movements relate to one another. Two holdings that look unrelated can fall together on a bad day, and a sheet will never show you that.

Weights first, then everything else

The first step in any analysis is to turn your holdings into weights: each position's value divided by the total. It is simple arithmetic, which is why it should be visible. When you drop a sheet into AVALON, the Portfolio page shows its working for every holding, for example 120 × 165 = 19,800, divided by the total, equals 27.75%.

Keep it once, use it every time

Retyping the same holdings for every question is how mistakes creep in. AVALON can keep the portfolio you imported in memory on your own device, so each question starts from it. Switch memory off, or forget the portfolio, whenever you like.

Bring it from any broker

Download your holdings from your broker as an Excel or CSV file, or export a Google Sheet as one, and drop it on the Portfolio page. AVALON looks for a name, plus a value, a quantity and price, or a weight.

This article is for education and is not investment advice.