Portfolio Analysis: Performance Reporting Problems

Unknown

Not sure why Portfolio Analysis:  Performance hasn't been accurately reporting portfolio performance lately.  Any ideas or timeframe for fixing this issue?  Once the algorithm is in place, it should work consistently, right?

Jim_Harman

Some details would help:
What version of Quicken are you running?
Where are you seeing the problem: Investment Performance report, on the Investing tab, or someplace else?
Does the problem affect all accounts and securities or just some of them?

Unknown

I have been having the same problem for the past 12 months.  Seems like a large investment where I bought and later sold got lost in the IRR computation.  I believe the the stock had Quicken shows the buy/sale activity - but for IRR reporting, my investment balances lose the history of these transactions.  So Stocks I held in 2014 - I lose when I sell in 2015 or 2016, only to regain the market value when I buy something else.  So my return for 2014 is negative (20%) when the actual was about 5%, but my IRR for 2015/16 is 40% when the returns were much lower.  Investment inception to date, I have a 9% return which is appears correct, but nothing is reliable on the quicken IRR reports.  I am using Quicken 15 versioni 12.  Seems to impact just one investment account.  Thanks!

Jim_Harman

There are several things that can make your investment performance look strange. Do any of these apply to your situation?

-- added or removed shares (vs. buy or sell)
-- Bought or sold but transferred the funds to/from another account (BuyX or SellX transaction in the register)
-- incorrect or missing prices for securities at the start/end of the period
-- placeholder transactions for the securities in question in the account

Look carefully at the transaction details in the Investment Performance report and see if anything is amiss. Try setting the start/end date of the reporting period to just before/after buying or selling and see if you get a sudden change in the performance.  

Unknown

Stocks sold are disappearing in the IRR calculation.  It is happening in all of my accounts.  I can see the difference easily by looking at my historical investments vs the networth report for the same date.  For example, if I look at the investment report as of 12/31/15 I will see a correctt list of all of the stock I held on that date - say $100,000 but if I run a networth report as of 12/31/15 - will only report $50,000 (it does not include stocks I have sold after 12/31/15).  Makes 
Quicken's IRR calculations meaningless period to period..  The overall account historical IRR however is correct.

Jim_Harman

I am a little confused about the problem you are seeing. When you say "investment report" ar you clicking on Reports/Investing and selecting the Investment Performance report? That is the one that does the IRR calculation, but it does not show your end-of-period holdings.

And on the Net Worth report, are you sure you have the ending date set correctly, so the heading says "As of 12/31/2015" for example?

Unknown

I am having the same problem with Quicken Windows 2016. If I do an investment performance report for the last 5 years it shows 2012 15.28%; 2013 29.83%; 2014 2,098.05%; 2015 N/A; and 2016 9.11%. 2017 so far is 20.54%. With numbers like that I have no confidence in the report. I wish that I had made over 2,000% in 2014!

In fact I just ran the report for just the year 2014 and subtotaled by security. No individual security has an IRR greater than about 35%, but the overall for the year is still over 2,000%. Obviously a major flaw in the calculation.

Unknown

My problem is related to Removed shares transactions. Every time I have a removed share transaction--in my case they are related to Vanguard change of class--there is an impossible amount reported in the returns column of the report. It reports millions of dollars in returns for the removed shares which obviously totally messes up the IRR calculation.

One transaction, for example, is showing more than $2,700,000. in investment returns when it should be less than $20,000.

Jim_Harman

 Every time I have a removed share transaction--in my case they are related to Vanguard change of class--there is an impossible amount reported in the returns column of the report. It reports millions of dollars in returns for the removed shares which obviously totally messes up the IRR calculation.

If it is a conversion from one share class to another in the same account, as in a Vanguard Admiral conversion, you may be able to fix the Remove transaction. Select it in the register. In the Action column underneath Removed, you will see a dollar amount. This should be the value of the security on the date removed, i.e. share price on that date x number of shares removed. If not, type in the correct value and hopefully your performance will look more reasonable. In some cases I have seen values here that would be more like what Warren Buffet or Bill Gates see in their accounts!

 
I have also had problems with Remove transactions when transferring shares from one account to another, as in the Vanguard "upgrade" to a brokerage account. The cleanest way to handle this is to do it as a Shares transferred between accounts transaction rather than separate Removes and Adds:
1) back up your Quicken file just in case
2) If you have already accepted Vanguard's transactions for the move, delete the Remove transactions in the old account.
3) Likewise, delete the Add transactions in the new account
4) Go to the old account and enter a Shares Transferred between accounts
5) choose the new account as the transfer account
5) If this is a conversion of the entire account, as in a Vanguard upgrade, select All securities, otherwise choose the shares and lots to be transferred.
6) Click on Enter/Done. Be patient while the transfer completes. This may take a while if there are many lots to transfer.

Unknown

You are right. That fixed it. The historical prices of the fund were correct, so Quicken 2014 must have calculated the total value wrong. I had edited the transaction numerous times trying to fix it, but the total value only shows in the register, not the edit transaction dialogue box. I will go through and fix the others.

Thanks,
Doug