keywords: cost basis, portfolio value
As reported in other discussions (see "Quicken 2010 Cost Basis problem"), Quicken often resets the cost basis for buy transactions to zero. I haven't figured out why or when, but I've learned to pay attention and go back to edit the transaction and resave it. Very very annoying, but fixable on a case-by-case basis.
Now, I also noticed that portfolio value reports are overstating the value in reports and on the overview pages, but not on the portfolio page (thank goodness). With a bit of investigation, I've learned that the Quicken reports calculate the balance of an investment not by multiplying number of shares times market value. Instead the reports start with the cost basis and add/subtract a gain/loss figure. So, if your cost basis is incorrect (as described above) then the value calculation will also be incorrect. This seems like a particularly dumb way to calculate current value for report purposes since somewhere the code must be calculating it correctly to get a gain/loss figure.
So, if your portfolio value appears incorrect in reports, go back and check that all your buy transactions are showing up with the real cost and not zero.
Sigh. This is a serious bug and Quicken should be fixing it!! In scouring the Quicken support site I found a reference to recalculating investment transactions. It describes opening the transactions page for an investment account and then clicking ctrl-Z. This pops up a dialog box asking you to confirm the recalculation. I suggest you do a backup first!