Investment Wierdnesses in QP2006

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:

  1. 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).

  1. Fund that appears in the list of quotes to download but retrieves no price history: Fidelity Ginnie Mae (FGNMA).

  2. 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

Reply to
Margaret Wilson
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I added FCNTX in Q2006 Premier and it was automatically entered into the "Watch List" and my price download successfully got a current price.

Invalid ticker. The only Fidelity Ginnie Mae fund I could find has a ticker of FGMNX.

I have gotten similar behavior in the Net Worth report when "Account Detail" was chosen. Securities sold long ago with zero share balances elsewhere in Quicken, pop up in this report with a value of $.01 to $.05.

Reply to
John Pollard
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So, I meant to add, one possibility is that the conversion mucked something up for you.

And when I checked one of my funds that was sold before converting a file to Q2006 (but did not hide), sure enough, it was missing from the download quote list too.

But, when I checked the watch list box next to the security, it then appeared in the list of securities to get price downloads, and a subsequent price download did retrieve prices for that fund. It also then appeared in the Portfolio View Watch List.

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Reply to
John Pollard

OK, I fixed the ticker symbol and tried to download prices for FGNMX. Upon download, I got no prices whatsoever. I once again added the missing ticker symbols to the watch list, closed Quicken, opened Quicken, and my missing securities were listed in the watch list and in the list of securities for download. I was able to get historical prices for the previously missing securities. When I remove them from the watch list, however, they again disappear from my list. All I really wanted was the history, as I no longer own those securities. But I agree with you, John, the conversion must have mucked something up with those securities. Validating shows nothing, however. I have not tried supervalidating. Still don't know wny I can't get prices for FGNMX, though.

Thanks and Regards,

Margaret

Reply to
Margaret Wilson

Validating apparently has little effect on investment registers and none on securities lists. You could try recalculating the investment registers and see if that clears up some of the issues. But apparently the recalculation may have unintended side effects, so Intuit recommends you first do it on a copy of your data file. Recalculating instructions here:

formatting link

Reply to
Mike B

Thanks Mike, unfortunately this is a 401(k) account, and the instructions say never to perform a recalculate on this type of file. Of course the next sentence says to make a backup before running a recalculate on this type of file. I spent several hours on the computer today, so I think I'll leave it for tomorrow. I want to see what, if anything, a recalculate does ... to my backup, that is. ;-)

REgards,

Margaret

Reply to
Margaret Wilson

Similarly obvious security-pricing and/or data conversion bugs prompted me to return the program.

Reply to
dude the obscure

What are you using instead?

Reply to
Mike B

I've felt that QP2006 is one of the less buggy releases, and I've upgraded every year for many years. Fortunately I've not experienced the "disappearing Quicken" bug that others are talking about. My hope is that the "missing securities" bug will be remedied in a future release, so I'm not returning the program.

Today I copied my file and then supervalidated by file and recalculated my affected investment account. Didn't seem to make any difference, and supervalidate did not show any errors. So I went back to my original file. Now that I've got my price history (save for one security), I'm not going to worry about it ... for now, anyway.

Regards,

Margaret

Reply to
Margaret Wilson

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