Odd cost basis--how to fix it?

Jim, thanks for your reply.

In my case it doesn't seem to even be a running total. The new cost basis wasn't added in. Unless I've misinterpreted what I see. The cost basis after the last buy transaction is the negative of the old sell profit.

Let's say I sold the stock for $2500, then bought again for $2000 some months later. The cost basis is now shown as -$2500 instead of the $2000 (less fees) I would have expected.

"Tim Johnson" wrote

I don't recall ever seeing anything like this. What specific display/report are you looking at, and have you tried checking other displays and reports?

Assuming you have correctly entered each transaction: Occasionally a transaction gets corrupted (seems to happen more frequently in investment accounts) and it can only be "fixed" by deleting it and re-entering it. In general, I think that's one of the first things I would try if I was seeing fishy results for an investment account.

I'm using the "Investing Center" display showing "ROI YTD". Instead of showing the cost basis as what I paid for the shares plus the commission, it shows what I sold the stock for when I previously owned it as a negative number. The market value is shown correctly, and the percent gain/loss is a large, negative percentage.

I had already tried deleting and re-entering the transaction, but there was no difference. The account is an IRA so there is no tax consequence of not getting the right cost basis, but my concern is this could have been a taxable account where it would make a difference.

Thanks,

"Tim Johnson" wrote

How is the display grouped? By security? By Account? Do the numbers change if you change the way the display is grouped.

What does the Portfolio Value report show?

You might also try deleting and re-entering the other transactions for the same security. I would run an Investment Transaction report to make certain I had all the transactions.

Also, see if you have a placeholder for the security; they have an Action value of "Entry" and, in case one is hidden, you can force Quicken to display them by modifying your Preferences.

Edit > Preferences > Quicken Program > Investment transactions

Check the box to "Show hidden transactions".

By account, but it doesn't change regardless of the grouping.

It shows the same value for the cost basis. However, something interesting does show up here. The sale transaction shows a positive RlzdGain which is correct. However, the transactions also has a RlzdGain (the only such purchase transaction) which is negative and without an obvious relation to any of the other numbers. When I look at this purchase transaction and compare it to one of the others, I can't see any difference.

Deleting the prior sell transaction did change the cost basis, and pasting it back restore the incorrect value. Running an Investment Transaction report from the earliest date to the present shows the two original purchases, the prior sale, and the most recent purchase. All look normal, except for the unexpected RlzdGain appearing with this last purchase.

Followed those instructions, and no hidden placeholder was found. Sure is a mystery. I do appreciate your suggestions.

Try deleting that transaction and re-entering it manually ... no paste.

Just tried that. Same incorrect cost basis.

I too have had that happen in investment accounts, to no avail. I have tried everythng, and have multiple accounts with thousands of transactions. I did go through the transactions of one security and re-assign the "specific lots" which seemed to fix it. It is a bug as far as i am concerned. The data gets corrupted somewhere. GL.

How did you re-assign the specific lots?