QWin 2017 H&B: Not Updating Option Prices

Unknown

I have Quicken 2017 Home & Business for Windows operating on a Windows 7 PC. As of 6/13/17 when I updated transactions and quotes for my investments, the prices for any exchange traded options were no longer updated. The prices were either out of date or zero. This feature had been working correctly as of 6/9/17 and no changes were made to any of the option symbols which use the OCC format. Has this feature been removed or has some change been made in the format of the security symbol to be used to retrieve the prices? 
Investments are all with ETrade and I've not had any problem with this issue until this week. Since I have a number of options in my portfolio, I like to keep them up to date so I know where I'm at during the start of the day. Any help would be fantastic!

Unknown

Same exact issue. Had option prices thru 6/8. Was on quicken support chat for two hours to resolve. The support agent didn't know what an option was and appeared to be multitasking so much that he was just wasting my time. He insisted that it was not a quicken issue. The agent insisted that it was a file issue. I created a brand new file. Synced it to E*Trade. All the stock data updated but not the options. Quicken 2015 Premier. I gave up. 

Tom Young

Exchange traded option don't have "ticker" symbols and Quicken quotes only supports securities with ticker symbols.  I seem to recall that prices for exchange traded options are supplied by the broker.  Both of your use eTrade?  Then I'd guess it is an issue with the file they are construction on their end.

Unknown

I don't think the issue is on ETrade side, but I'm willing to explore further. The following link provides information about how Quicken is supposed to update option prices.

https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/how-to-download-stock-option-quotes-quicken-2015

That article expressly indicated the use of the OCC option symbol to get updates PROVIDED that the option is currently in the investment portfolio.

I'm sort of in the same position as Bill above. I'll try talking to Quicken support to get an answer but not sure if they'll know what I'm talking about.

Unknown

Same issue. I have been trading options and downloading the quotes in quicken for over 10 years and no problems until two weeks ago. Last week I also had a couple of mutual funds that did the same thing both in an ETrade account and a Fidelity account. This week only the options had this problem and I only use the ETrade account for options. 

Unknown

slewk0w1cz said:

I don't think the issue is on ETrade side, but I'm willing to explore further. The following link provides information about how Quicken is supposed to update option prices.

https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/how-to-download-stock-option-quotes-quicken-2015

That article expressly indicated the use of the OCC option symbol to get updates PROVIDED that the option is currently in the investment portfolio.

I'm sort of in the same position as Bill above. I'll try talking to Quicken support to get an answer but not sure if they'll know what I'm talking about.

I went to your link and verified that my options were entered correctly. they are. what gets to me is that it was working until 6.8 and now is no longer working. And then when I created a brand new file, the agent (who appeared to be multitasking) still insisted that it was a file issue on my end and not with quicken.

Unknown

Brought up quicken 16 on a second computer. Loaded a file from before problem started (one month ago). All my options prices were there. Turned off the option to download quotes in One step update so it should only get the price updates from the accounts. After one step update, none of my options had a price, which means the market value shows as zero. Also noticed I had several mutual funds and even a few stock prices that also show no price and market value of zero. After turning the download quotes in One Step Update, everything has a price except for the options. This problem was in both my ETrade and Fidelity accounts. So it's not the computer, the data file, or the company downloading from. The options symbols have not changed and they worked fine until two weeks ago. 

Unknown

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

Unknown

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

My thought exactly!

Unknown

At first sight, it looked to me like stock option quotes were still getting updated in the Mac version of Quicken 2017, but not in the Windows version anymore. Not true! The Mac version just pulls up the last quote it could get hold of ...

Problem seems to me related to the investing.quicken.com site, where they apparently pull the quotes from. It doesn't deliver stock option prices anymore.  

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

Same exact issue. Had option prices thru 6/8. Was on quicken support chat for two hours to resolve. The support agent didn't know what an option was and appeared to be multitasking so much that he was just wasting my time. He insisted that it was not a quicken issue. The agent insisted that it was a file issue. I created a brand new file. Synced it to E*Trade. All the stock data updated but not the options. Quicken 2015 Premier. I gave up. 

same issue here 

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

opened a ticket with E*Trade today - we'll see

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

Same exact issue. Had option prices thru 6/8. Was on quicken support chat for two hours to resolve. The support agent didn't know what an option was and appeared to be multitasking so much that he was just wasting my time. He insisted that it was not a quicken issue. The agent insisted that it was a file issue. I created a brand new file. Synced it to E*Trade. All the stock data updated but not the options. Quicken 2015 Premier. I gave up. 

I should clarify Im on Quicken 2016 Deluxe R12

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

suggestion below did not work!

"5430613 Message:tried this and same issue. Stock prices update just fine but my options will not. Last good update was 6/8

Dear Mr. Myers ,

Thank you for your message regarding quicken .

I attempted to reach out and see if I could better assist with troubleshooting over the phone. The method I was referencing can only be accessed through the E*TRADE web site. when you log into your E*TRADE account if you mouse over Accounts at the top of the page an then click on the Transaction History link it will bring you to your transaction history page. On this page on the right hand side of the transaction history box that appears in the idle of the screen there is a blue link that says download nest to that like is a green arrow that is pointing down. 

This should bring you to a page that allows you to input information like date ranges to download. This is where it will allow the web site to push the data into quicken. "

Unknown

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

I didn't think this would work. I believe the problem is originating at Quicken/Intuit and needs to be resolved there!

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

Im using direct connect which means E*Trade responsible for the connection therefore the price updates - I went thru everything with Quicken and doesn't seem to be their issue.  Im guessing I may run into finger pointing soon however

NotACPA

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

Have you checked the OFX Log file to see if E*Trade is sending those option quotes?

HELP, Log Files, OFX Log.  Save it to your desktop and then open it with NotePad or WordPad (NOT MS Word).  Do a search for the ticker or cusip of the Option ... and then look for any prices.

Using Direct Connect, Q simply sends a message to the broker that says, in effect, "send me what you've got" ... and the broker is responsible for the content of the download.

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

interesting...it is there but not updating so does seem a quicken issue - back on the line...
<SECNAME>YNDX AUG 18'17 $26 CALL
<TICKER>YNDX  170818C00026000
<UNITPRICE>2.050000

Unknown

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

Thanks for the research. Thought this might be the case and glad we have the logs to show what the problem is.

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

sure - on second thought - dont have time to mess with quicken support - suppose it will get fixed in an update at some point

Unknown

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

I even did a comparison of the logs for one option before and after 6/8. Data sent in the log indicates there was no change in any of the formats. If I get a chance I may tap into Quicken support to alert them to this issue. Otherwise, it may not be corrected.

Randy Myers

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

I lost patience with them - good luck and thank you in advance!

q_lurker

Bill Hooghuis said:

so how do we get Quicken's attention to fix this issue?

@Randy Myers

interesting...it is there but not updating so does seem a quicken issue - back on the line...
<SECNAME>YNDX AUG 18'17 $26 CALL
<TICKER>YNDX  170818C00026000
<UNITPRICE>2.050000

In my OFX files from Vanguard, I find two sections with prices.  One is among the section as
<INVPOSLIST>
  <POSMF>
    <INVPOS>
      <SECID><UNIQUEID>921910501<UNIQUEIDTYPE>CUSIP</SECID>
      <HELDINACCT>OTHER
      <POSTYPE>LONG
      <UNITS>xxxxxxx.xxx
      <UNITPRICE>59.97
      <MKTVAL>xxxxxxx.xx
      <DTPRICEASOF>20160224160000.000[-5:EST]
      <MEMO>Price as of date based on closing price
    </INVPOS>

The second appearance is among the section as:
<SECLISTMSGSRSV1>
<SECLIST>
<MFINFO>
<SECINFO>
<SECID><UNIQUEID>921910501<UNIQUEIDTYPE>CUSIP</SECID>
<SECNAME>Vanguard International Growth Fund Admiral Shares
<TICKER>VWILX
<FIID>0581
<UNITPRICE>59.97
<MEMO>Price as of date based on closing price
</SECINFO>

I suspect Quicken takes the pricing from the first section as it also includes the units held for the compare to holdings check and a date. You might review your OFX data to see if your option pricing properly appears both places.  

Unknown

Agree with SBorst. Quicken is not recognizing options OCC symbols as valid symbols and cannot find the quotes for them in their database. They might have changed the source feed providing quotes because few other symbols have changed (e.g. BAC preferred shares). 

Unknown

I may have found a work around. The other day I edited a couple of options symbols to delete the price history. I noticed that some of my symbols contained two spaces between the stock and number in the symbol and some contained three spaces. I edited a couple of symbols and created one with no space and one with one space. I did the one step update and nothing changed. Since it did not change anything I left them that way. Today when I updated my data, I manually was updating the options prices when I noticed that the one symbol I had edited to one space in the symbol had downloaded the correct price. I moved to a second computer that I have quicken installed on and edited six more symbols to only one space. After one step update, the six options that I edited had the correct price and all the other options had no price.  Tried to update a few more and did another update but seems like once the price has been updated for the day it will not change again. I will try again in a day or two and see if this works. Or if someone else wants to try to edit a couple of symbols before they update and see if this works. The symbols were originally downloaded from ETrade when the options were traded. For example, I changed symbol for Walmart option from WMT   190118c00055000 to WMT 190118c00055000.

Unknown

Jim Burdick said:

I may have found a work around. The other day I edited a couple of options symbols to delete the price history. I noticed that some of my symbols contained two spaces between the stock and number in the symbol and some contained three spaces. I edited a couple of symbols and created one with no space and one with one space. I did the one step update and nothing changed. Since it did not change anything I left them that way. Today when I updated my data, I manually was updating the options prices when I noticed that the one symbol I had edited to one space in the symbol had downloaded the correct price. I moved to a second computer that I have quicken installed on and edited six more symbols to only one space. After one step update, the six options that I edited had the correct price and all the other options had no price.  Tried to update a few more and did another update but seems like once the price has been updated for the day it will not change again. I will try again in a day or two and see if this works. Or if someone else wants to try to edit a couple of symbols before they update and see if this works. The symbols were originally downloaded from ETrade when the options were traded. For example, I changed symbol for Walmart option from WMT   190118c00055000 to WMT 190118c00055000.

You got it! Per: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_symbol
There are supposed to be a total of 6 characters. Someone made a programming mistake because they didn't understand the standard and padded it with a single space. So, a two character symbol becomes 3, a 3 character becomes 4 and a four character becomes 5. Great workaround until someone fixes it. Then we go back to the 6 it's supposed to be. THANKS!!!

Unknown

I edited a total of 23 option symbols to only one space no matter how many characters they have. After update 15 of the options had a price update and 8 did not. Tried a couple of things but could not get those 8 to update. Noticed most of the options that would not update are long term. Went to ETrade website and the 15 that have updated have had a trade today and the 8 that will not update have no trade volume. Not sure what that means but appears price only updates if there has been a trade since last update.

Unknown

Jim, I can confirm everything you found. Looks like a bad, or distracted, programmer made the assumption that the ticker prefix has a fixed length of 5. So he filled "MSFT" up by 1 space and added the space separator, added 3 spaces to "GG" + space separator asf.
Also correct: the quote only pops up, if there was a trade, You can verify this by going to "edit price history". Means, if there was a trade during the day, the quote is getting updated, otherwise the old price stays in place, which in our "fixed" case is 0, of course. 

Looks like Intuit urgently needs some talented developers and some more dedicated support guys on board ... this is just ridiculous!
Thanks Jim, my stuff is up-to-date now ... well, almost ;-) 

Unknown

Okay, just add a line for today in "Edit Price History" ... and the quote pops up in your "Holdings". Too funny!

Unknown

Called and spoke to ETrade support this morning. They are aware of problem and "working with Intuit to resolve". He said there was an update scheduled for 6/30 and they hope it is fixed then. 

Unknown

Updated my transactions from ETrade this morning. All options quotes were updated with correct prices showing as of 6/30/17. Jim was correct in that problem would be resolved by 6/30.

Thanks everyone for following along and helping get this issue resolved.