How do I create a placeholder instrument for reference portfolios?

  • Published on Jul 21, 2025
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In the Rebalance dashboard you can designate a reference portfolio instrument as a placeholder to represent a group-level model weighting. This allows you to model group-level targets, for example 10% equities, using a reference portfolio instead of instrument-level targets.

Placeholder instruments contribute to group-level values, but are hidden from the dashboard itself.

To create or update placeholder instruments in your LUSID domain:

  1. Sign in to the LUSID web app as a user with suitable permissions.

  2. From the top left menu, navigate to Data Management > Properties.

  3. Locate the property type with Scope Override and Code IsPlaceholder, and click Edit.

    Note

    There are two different placeholder property types:

    • Instrument/system/IsPlaceholder - a derived property type used by the Rebalance dashboard; you cannot modify this property type.

    • Instrument/Override/IsPlaceholder - you can edit the derivation formula of this property type to define how LUSID designates placeholder instruments.

  4. Specify a derivation formula for the instruments you wish to designate as placeholders. For example, you might specify the following formula to designate a particular LUID as a placeholder:

    if (Identifiers[LusidInstrumentId] eq 'LUID_00003DT9') then true else null

    Note

    To designate a group of instruments as placeholders, for example instruments you decorate with the property Instrument/Finbourne-Examples/AssetClass, you might use a formula such as the following:

    if(properties[Instrument/Finbourne-Examples/AssetClass] eq 'Placeholder') then true else null

    You must ensure your instrument data is appropriately populated to suit your formula.


    Alternatively, you can choose to delete the derived property, and instead create a standard boolean property that you can decorate onto designated instruments; see how.

  5. Click Save changes.

Once configured with the formula above, the instrument doesn’t appear in the Rebalance dashboard but does contribute to the model group-level values, such as Model Weight. For example, if you designate a reference portfolio constituent as a placeholder instrument named Equities with 60% weight:

  • Model columns include the placeholder value in their group-level values.

  • The Rebalance dashboard does not display a row for the instrument.