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Changes at Morningstar

Old_Skeet
edited October 2016 in Off-Topic
I recently tried to access Mroningstar's Basic Instant Xray tool ... Seems it is no more. Instead my portfolio displayed with an offer for me to upgrade to premium. I tried several work arounds all to no avail. Looks like they are trying to force the basic users to upgrade. I guess, portfolio manager will be the next to disapear for the basic user.

I am going to have to think on this for a bit as a cold cut off (like they did) does not sit well with me. I'm thinking the better customer service firms would have provided notice that certain features would be changing or done away with for the basic user. For me, this speaks volumes about their character as a firm.

I'm am now thinking, I can live without them just about as well as they can live without me (and possibly some others that may feel likewise).

I am no longer a Morningstar fan.

Old_Skeet

Comments

  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    edited October 2016
    If you have a TRP account, you should get Morningstar premium membership for free.

    PS - You should NEVER be a M* fan. That's like being a fan of Monsanto, just because you like Cornbread.
  • CrashCrash
    Old Skeet's words line-up with my own thoughts on the matter. Having met the TRP threshold, I have premium Morningstar. So, I did not notice the change. This is just one more reason to rely less and less on Morningstar, and basically tell them where they can go--- and in a hurry.
  • Sven
    Same here.

    @VintageFreak and Crash, what is the requirement at TRP to get premium M*? Asset level?
  • mcmarasco
    Sven, it's $100K
  • JoJo26
    So close, but yet so far away.
  • larryB
    It worked fine for me this morning. 36% stocks, 11% bonds, 4% other and the rest is secret.
  • CrashCrash
    Yes, $100,000.00. :)
  • msf
    I just registered for a free account and had no problem accessing Instant X-Ray.

    I did not accept the 14 day premium free trial - at the top of the Instant X-Ray page is a banner w/link saying "Activate Premium Access FREE for 14 Days".
  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    mcmarasco said:

    Sven, it's $100K

    I actually didn't know TRP had a threshold for M* premium membership. I can confirm my in-laws assets exceed $100K, so that might explain it.
  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    msf said:

    I just registered for a free account and had no problem accessing Instant X-Ray.

    I did not accept the 14 day premium free trial - at the top of the Instant X-Ray page is a banner w/link saying "Activate Premium Access FREE for 14 Days".

    Question for those who don't see X-Ray at M*. Did you perhaps "accept" M* offer to preview their new website? Perhaps that's a reason why X-Ray stopped working.

    As an aside, M* new website preview sucks most intensely. I opted in, but 2 minutes later opted out. It will not ask again, thankfully.
  • davidrmorandavidrmoran
    Here ya go. This will probably disappear now that it's posted, but anyway:

    https://www.tdameritrade.com/education/tools-and-calculators/morningstar-instant-xray.page
  • fundly
    Your local library may have access to Morningstar Premium. Here in NC the local libraries are all hooked up to a state site, NC Live which allows access to this site, anywhere with your library card number. No need to plunk down 100K at TRP. Its free to all library members. A nice benefit
  • msf
    VintageFreak said:

    msf said:

    I just registered for a free account and had no problem accessing Instant X-Ray.

    I did not accept the 14 day premium free trial - at the top of the Instant X-Ray page is a banner w/link saying "Activate Premium Access FREE for 14 Days".

    Question for those who don't see X-Ray at M*. Did you perhaps "accept" M* offer to preview their new website? Perhaps that's a reason why X-Ray stopped working.

    As an aside, M* new website preview sucks most intensely. I opted in, but 2 minutes later opted out. It will not ask again, thankfully.
    Good guess, but that's not it. I got to instant x-ray with the newly registered account and the beta site. I was not asked to opt in to the "beta forever" version, I got it by default.

  • CrashCrash
    Ya, one day a little while ago, I went to M* portf. manager and it came up with the new, really suck-y page. I opted to use the old "classic" version, I guess they call it. And a box came up telling me I wouldn't be bothered all the time, asking me which I preferred--- UNTIL THE NEW VERSION IS THE ONLY AVAILABLE version, sometime in the not too distant future. It's REALLY bad and clunky and unwieldy.
  • Old_Skeet
    edited October 2016
    Hello,

    After reading the comments made by others I revisited the site through my old established link which currently takes me to the new version and to portfolio manager where I keep getting an offer for me to upgrade to premium while being only able to access portfolio manager and not xray through this link. Now, in the old version everything seems to work as it has in the past with me being able to access both portfolio manager and instant xray. I chalk this up to another M* glitch. I have now established "new" links to the old version that takes me directly to portfolio and another link that takes me to xray. Let's see how long they will keep working.

    Years back, there was an old saying that seems to still apply even into todays time. "If it ain't broke don't try to fix it." For me the old venue works fine while the new venue is in a state of "FUBAR."

    And, to think ... they actually pay people to engineer these "SNAFU" events.

    I am still indeed a miffed end user and wish they would leave something that works just fine without trying to re-engineer it attempting to make the new and improved better when indeed perhaps it is not.

    Don't they run test before releasing this stuff?
  • MikeMMikeM
    I had no trouble getting into instant xray. I am not a premium member.
  • Old_Skeet
    Hi @MikeM and others,

    Yesterday, I could not acces Xray ... but, today I can.

    I'm thinking this is another M* glitch that has now been corrected.
  • LLJB
    I am a premium member but I haven't been able to use instant xray for a while now. I can get an xray of my portfolios, not always but most of the time and today I can, but the instant xray hasn't worked for a while. I've even tried other browsers and that didn't change anything.

    Anyone know how to go back to the old version of portfolio manager or check which one I'm using? This is the first I realized they were changing things... Thanks!
  • Low_TechLow_Tech
    Have a lot of spare time? Read this thread about M* complaints.
  • Old_Skeet
    edited October 2016
    @LLJB,

    In the top right hand corner of the new link page to M* there should be a link that will take you to the old version. I clicked on the old version link and everything works ok for me in the old format. You might wish to overwrite or again save the old version link in your favorites.

    Hope this helps.

    Skeet
  • CharlesCharles
    edited October 2016
    Beginning this month I believe they will be eliminating max load when computing their 3, 5, and 10-year star ratings, which I find disturbing. We continue to include max load in MFO ratings.
  • msf
    edited October 2016
    Here is Morningstar's "Methodology Enhancements" (worldwide) effective Oct. 31, 2016. It answers an obvious question - if loads will no longer be included in the star ratings, why have XXXXX.lw pages? The answer is that these pages are going away.

    Another key change is that ETFs will be compared directly with open end funds, instead of being rated separately. (In addition, ETNs will no longer be rated.)

    http://advisor.morningstar.com/Enterprise/VTC/FAQ_Methodology_Enhancements_31_October_2016.pdf

    Edit: Almost missed this change (it's at the bottom of the paper) that should be of interest here - M*'s definition of "cash" is changing. Several people have reported high levels of cash according to M* (while the fund manager showed much less cash). This is because M* considered anything that matured in under a year to be cash. M* will change this to 92 days - industry standard - so you should see cash levels "drop".
  • LLJB
    Just a quick update on the Instant X-ray tool FWIW. I was still having difficulty but I read a post on M*'s discussion board suggesting that the tool is "broken" and M* isn't communicating about when it will be fixed- just that there are other more important priorities for a few months now. I also read about a workaround that involved putting the positions and dollars or percentages that you want to x-ray, choose Show Instant X-Ray, which gives you or at least gives me a screen with no values, choose Edit Holdings to go back your original entry screen and finally choose Show Instant X-Ray again.

    I'm not sure why that works but it did for me today so hopefully it will work for others who experience the same difficulty.
  • MikeMMikeM
    Yes, I've noticed that problem and work-around too LLJB. I thought it was something I was doing wrong. Thanks.
  • CrashCrash
    They just don't care, anymore, eh?
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