returns - Quicken vs Yahoo

I just ran two tests on two of my funds. Vanguard Index 500 on Yahoo 1 year return shows 14.05%. When I did a performance report from Q using the same one year time period ending 11/30/2006 including ALL accounts with ONLY the specific VFINX fund included, Q tells me the Average Annual Return is

14.09%. Using another fund, T Rowe Price's International Stock (PRITX) on a 3 year period, Yahoo says it is 17.70%, Q tells me in the report 17.69%. Both fund's transactions (and there are some besides just reinvestments) are downloaded directly from the FI. Bottom line for me is that it seems Q tracks Yahoo VERY CLOSELY for these two cases.

So, both my Q reports are accurate to Yahoo. Are you sure that you are using a time period greater than at least one year, you're excluding all your other funds from the Investment Report, and that you are actually using Q to reinvest dividends and cap gains correctly?

tnx for the info - I'm going to try and find out why mine don't seem to matach. For my numbers, I just looked at the Quicken 2004 left side list of accounts, and then clicked on each account to show the account in the middle, with a click on the "Recent Performance" menu vs the Value or Historical Performance. I'll see if the Quicken 2004 reports show anything different.

This has been an interesting treasure hunt in "numbers". Here is one fund I've been using for this search - Fidelity Div Intl - FDIVX -

Using the Quicken 2004 account summary screen, when I select the "recent performance" and the 1-month, 3-month, 12-month columns are displayed, it shows 12.59% for the 12-month value for the FDIVX fund.

If I then go to the Reports, and create the Performance Report, and basically select the mutual funds, and sub-tot by security, I can see every fund.... In this case - my FDIVX security/account shows - begin mkt value (1/3/06) = $31,912 end mkt value (1/2/07) = $39,097

the div activity is $353.xx + $2,441.xx + $19.xx = $2,814

SO - from $31k to $39k is 22.51% and that is what Fidelity shows... 22.52% but Yahoo had it at 19% - weird - In my mind, you have 2 components creating the "return". #1 - the actual payback of divs, gains, etc ie - $31k with $2,814 divs = 8.81% #2 - the increase of NAV price - beyond that of gains - ie - $32.53 (2006) to $36.95 (2007) = 13.58% Therefore 8.81% + 13.58% = 22.39% which is in the ballpark of the official 22.52% annual return.

It almost seems like the Account Summary screen (recent performance) which is showing 12.59% is only looking at the "price increase".

Anyway - I'll now keep tabs on both the account summary screen, along with the actual Performance Report.

Exactly. (Actually it's looking at the "value" increase/decrease.) Note the column headings on the Summary tab use the term "Gain/Loss": that refers to the increase/decrease in the "value" of the security ... not the "return".

The Investment Performance report shows "Average Annual Return", also known as "Internal Rate of Return" ... not the same as "Gain/Loss".

If you elect to "Show" the "Historical Performance" on the Account Summary tab, you will see columns for "Average Annual Return"; those should produce results matching the Average Annual Return column in the Performance report when comparable periods are used in the report.

Ah-HAH !!