My price history file (*.QPH) seemed awfully large, so I moved it out of my Quicken data folder and ran Quicken (so it would create a new, empty QPH file). Then I downloaded historical prices for the last year. When I looked at the security detail view, I was missing price histories for several mutual funds. Upon closer examination of which funds Quicken was downloading prices for, I see that three of my funds do not show up in the list of ticker symbols to download. One fund, though it shows up in the list, retrieves no price history.
Now the funds in question are hidden, because I no longer own them. But for the purposes of this test, I "unhid" the funds. No change. So I added these funds to my watch list. Guess what? They don't show up in the watch list, either. (I even went into the "customize portfolio view" screen to select the funds. No change, they still don't show up.)
Switch over to the Reports module. There's now an "asset allocation" report in addition to a graph. So I ran the report. Several funds which I do not own show up in this report. Their share balances are all 0.000, yet they all have a cost basis of a few cents, show a loss or gain of a few cents, and show either a negative or positive cash balance, still of only a few cents. Updating the share balance for each of these funds to 0.000000... enters no share add or remove transaction. Further, a "portfolio value" report shows only the funds that I own, with correct share balances. The cash balance for the investment account (all funds are in the same account) shows a correct balance of $0.00.
Strange, eh?
Here are the funds in question:
- Funds that don't show in the list of quotes to download, even though they are unhidden, and "show hidden securities" is checked: Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX), Fidelity Select Technology (FSPTX), and Fidelity Select Telecommunications (FSTCX).
- Fund that appears in the list of quotes to download but retrieves no price history: Fidelity Ginnie Mae (FGNMA).
- Funds that show up in the asset allocation report even though I no longer own them: Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX), Low-Priced Stock (FLPSX), New Millenium (FMILX), Overseas (FOSFX), Select Computers (FDCPX), Regional Banks (FSRBX), World Wide Fund (FWWFX).
Now I think I know what's going on in the asset allocation report. Even though when I sold all shares, I updated the share balances to 0 (with as many 0s after the decimal point as Quicken allowed), I'm assuming there was still a fraction of a share left, accounting for the cash balance of a few cents. Updating the share balances to 0 (with as many 0s after the decimal point as Quicken allows, which is now more 0s than allowed in years past), makes no difference. I'm still left with these tiny cash balances for securities I no longer own. It bugs the anal retentive me, but since it doesn't seem to affect record keeping of the funds I actually own, I'll have to ignore it.
But it does concern me that not all funds show up in the download quotes list, no matter whether they are hidden or not or added to my watch list or not. I have validated my file, and it shows no errors.
Back in the days of Quicken DOS versions, there was a command to trim the price history, keeping only entries for days on which shares were purchased or sold. I really wish that option were available in the Windows versions of Quicken. But the best we can do is delete the price history file and recreate it by downloading a history. Unfortunately the only way to minimize the size of this file is to (1) download prices for only the funds currently owned, and/or (2) download prices for a limited time period, say 1 yr. Really what I want is a price history file trimmed according to the old DOS-version days. :-(
Insights?
Regards,
Margaret