Investment Tracking
Steve
via web
I'm switching from Mac Quicken 2007. I've done a QIF import and have been trying to work with it. So far, I'm seeing three problems -- all with investment tracking. Can anybody help with these issues?
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When I update security prices (using the Quotes and Exchange Rates extension), Fidelity Cash Reserves (FDRXX), a money market fund, picks up a price of 0.01642306 per share -- it should be a dollar. This happens every time I update. Thus I can never show the correct balance for that account without manually updating the price. This may be an issue with Yahoo, but it's still a problem.
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When MD shows investment performance it's either ridiculously too high or ridiculously too low. In the 1 year Investment Performance report, each security shows a "gain" of zero but an annual ROI or 60 or 70%. But in the Portfolio report I'm seeing 1-year change of 3 to 5 percent for the same investments. They can't both be true. As far as I can tell, the history of each security is coming in correctly.
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Finally, it's not clear what the 1, 3 and 5 yr % columns in the Portfolio report actually are.
Thanks very much,
Steve
2 Posted by -Kevin N. on 08 Oct, 2011 07:30 PM
Hi Steve,
1) The way I handle the Fidelity Cash Reserves issue is to un-check it in the Quotes & Exchange Rates updater. That way it won't pull that eroneous information. What I believe is happening is that it's pulling the 7 day yield instead of the $1.00 NAV.
2 & 3) I am equally perplexed by some of the numbers in the Investment Performance report. I generally just stick to what my brokerage reports.
Reading through these forums, there is evidently some ongoing effort on the part of the developers to resolve these wonky numbers.
HTH -Kevin N.
3 Posted by Steve on 08 Oct, 2011 09:29 PM
That would be great. Right now, I like MD but am hesitant to switch, primarily because of the limitations of investment tracking. I need clear performance numbers. The values in the Portfolio report are not explained in the manual so it's not at all clear how they are derived. And the fact that they differ so dramatically from the Performance report is not reassuring.
What I want is an IRR -- Internal Rate of Return. That's what is quoted by Yahoo or Google. Apparently MD can't do it. But heck, it's just math! And it should do it for any combination of investments -- a single account, a single security, or all investments together. I have money at different places, and putting it all together is one thing I need a finance application to do.
Thanks for your help --
Steve
4 Posted by James on 09 Oct, 2011 10:52 PM
I found that MD just doesn't have the flexibility for generating investment reports that is necessary for me to track investments. Apart from the issues you raise, for example, I can't get find a way to get a summary of a security held in more than one account. And many investment measures that Quicken readily displayed are still awkward to get to in MD.
MD needs to develop a report that can be customized to include standard investment parameters such as average cost, IRR, ROI, etc. Then it needs a sort function to sort by the various parameters. This should be a very simple type of report to create if MD chose to implement these functions. I think many of us will be stuck with Quicken for the foreseeable future.
5 Posted by Steve on 10 Oct, 2011 02:53 PM
Yes -- well said. I've been working with the program for many hours now and I can't get around the very limited investment options. No IRR, no customization.
How can we encourage the MD developers to add this stuff? I would happily switch today if investment tracking worked better. The rest of the program does what I need. But I can't ignore my investments.
Steve
6 Posted by zeke on 13 Oct, 2011 12:18 PM
Steve
RE 2 and 3 in your original post:
I believe the Portfolio report is trying to calculate the annualized total return on investment (ROI) for the 1,3,5, year and "All" periods, the latter of which I believe, is the entire time period you've held the security. The "gain" is just the gain in share price - i.e. does not include income. I believe the "All" column should be the same as the ROI in the Investment Performance report if you include the matching time period in the Investment Performance report. In my experience the 1,3,5 year periods in the Portfolio Report appear to be close to accurate for my mutual funds. The investment Performance report appears to be close to accurate but there are quirks (for example if you include "All dates" it includes a year in the future and years back to 1969, and does not calculate correctly. I haven't compared all time periods, so 1 year might be incorrect as well). The All column in the Portfolio Report appears to be just wrong. These issues have been reported to Moneydance.