How do I remove shares from a brokerage account?

Curtis Wuellner

I am using Quicken for Mac 2017.  When I enter a transaction in the brokerage account to remove shares it does not remove them when I look at the portfolio and does not change the account value.  What am I doing wrong?

John_in_NC

I would look at the beginning of the account register to see if you have any transactions that are in light gray. These are placeholder transactions that will get added to auto-adjust the share or cash balance to what it is supposed to be (typically as reported by the brokerage house)

I think you will find that when you enter your Remove shares transaction, a placeholder is adjusting to compensate for that so it appears that nothing has changed.

I don't know the particulars of your account (manually entering everything, first time download, etc.) The answers to those questions will determine as to whether you need to delete the placeholder or replace it with a regular transaction that doesn't auto-adjust, etc.

Unknown

Why are you removing shares? Did the stock have a reverse split or corporate reorganization? How were the shares added in the first placer? If bought the shares, why to just sell them? If the stock no longer exists, you can sell the shares for a zero gain.

Curtis Wuellner

BruceG said:

Why are you removing shares? Did the stock have a reverse split or corporate reorganization? How were the shares added in the first placer? If bought the shares, why to just sell them? If the stock no longer exists, you can sell the shares for a zero gain.

I had a cyber attack on my brokerage account and my broker moved my holdings to a new account number.  Quicken's auto download added all my holdings into the new account number buy did not remove them from the old account number.  So now I have my holdings showing up in both the new and old account numbers.  When I try to manually remove the individual holdings from the old account number, the transaction in Quicken is accepted but the shares are not removed. 

Curtis Wuellner

John in NC said:

I would look at the beginning of the account register to see if you have any transactions that are in light gray. These are placeholder transactions that will get added to auto-adjust the share or cash balance to what it is supposed to be (typically as reported by the brokerage house)

I think you will find that when you enter your Remove shares transaction, a placeholder is adjusting to compensate for that so it appears that nothing has changed.

I don't know the particulars of your account (manually entering everything, first time download, etc.) The answers to those questions will determine as to whether you need to delete the placeholder or replace it with a regular transaction that doesn't auto-adjust, etc.

You are correct.  When I input a transaction to remove shares, a transaction is added at the beginning of the register in gray to add the same number of shares.  When I remove this transaction the share balance is correctly adjusted.

Thanks for your help.

Curtis Wuellner

My issue has been successfully resolved.