Price Histories

If the Canadian version works like the US version, security prices are in the QPH file.

The QPH file is the only file whose contents are known precisely (there's even a piece of free software that can read it and list its contents).

The QDF file is the main Quicken data file; it is required for Quicken to be able to open a fileset ... and it's the only one that is required. I'm reasonably certain it does contain your transactions, but more than that.

The QEL file is mainly concerned with online stuff; probably the info for Activated accounts, online payees, and I believe, it stores the OFX Financial Institution Transaction ID which is what guarantees that the same transaction will not (appear to) be downloaded twice (as long as the financial institution does not improperly assign a new FITID to and old transaction).

The IDX file is some sort of index, and I believe its only purpose is to allow Quicken to do some things faster; I don't think any data is "stored" there. I think it's rebuilt every time Quicken starts.

There is no HCX file for the US version.

I don't know why that would be. But you don't need an entire price history to have the current value correct, just the current prices.

In the US version, the Account Bar can contain one of two balances: current or ending. The current balance should be as-of today, using transactions dated today or earlier and today's price (or the most recent price before today); while the ending balance includes all transactions and prices, even those dated in the future.

I don't understand how you got a price history file missing many prices, but perhaps if there was some corruption, it started earlier than the QPH file you're using now, or perhaps it spilled over into other areas of your data.

You could double check your price history to see if you have any future prices. If so, either delete them, or have the Account Bar display current balances.

You can try (temporarily) renaming the QPH file, starting Quicken (which will create an empty QPH file), setting your Account Bar to use curent balances, then entering some current prices to see if the Account Bar current balance is then correct.

You can try recalculating your investment transactions (in the Transactions List, put your cursor on a transaction - or the row where you would enter a new transaction - hold down CTRL and press "Z"). Backup first.

And you could try Validating a Quicken Copy of your data, then see if the problem exists in the Validated Copy.