Investment Activity Report Driving Me NUTS! Help!

mtn_living

I have been tearing my hair out trying to get Investment Activity Report "Change in Market Value"+"Dividends" to match up with Portfolio Total Return YTD, and with my brokerage reports.

First I stripped things down to just one brokerage account. Here's results overall for 1/1-7/31:
Investment activity report mkt chg+divs = $166,198
Portfolio total return: $190,683
Brokerage statement cap gains+divs=$188,805
Note that between investment activity report and brokerage statement dividends paid for the period match almost exactly.

Then I stripped things down to one account, one month, one stock (1/1-1/31):
Using Apple:
Investment activity report mkt chg+divs($0)=$4,522
Portfolio total return: $3,097
Brokerage statement cap gains+divs($0)=$3,097

Using BRK/A:
Invest activity account mkt chg: $3,284
Portfolio return: $1,859
Brokerage statement cap gains: $1,859

I also tried the Account Balance Report with detail for the above: results matched the portfolio return and brokerage statement

QUESTION: Why doesn't the investment activity report come out with the same results as portfolio which also matches my brokerage statement?

Then out of curiosity (and desperation) I ran the Investment Activity Report setting it for one account but unmarked all securities and all types so the results of mkt change should be $0. Instead it shows market change 1/31-7/31 as negative $152,859.

Note: if I do this just for month of January it shows +$1,425 change in market value

In both cases if I then click through the total change in value number all I get is a pie chart and report of my ending cash balance. If I click through Net Deposits/Withdrawals I see data from 3 or 4 other accounts than the single account I have selected in the Investment Activity Report.

QUESTION: How can this be? If I have one account selected, no securities selected and no types selected the change in market value should be zero.

I have also started Investment Activity Report from scratch to make sure it wasn't a glitch in my saved report, same results. Checked through for funky prices in price histories but all is well there.

I can't seem to get the Investment Activity Report to work correctly. While I can, apparently, fairly well rely on Portofolio Total Return I can't seem to rely at all on the Investment Activity Report.

Either something is wrong with investment activity reporting or there is some gap in my understanding. Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated.

q_lurker

QUESTION: Why doesn't the investment activity report come out with the same results as portfolio which also matches my brokerage statement?

I am not quite sure what "Portfolio Total Return" you are referring to.  In a Portfolio view, with "Return" selected as a column, that value is subject to the starting date set under Options / Portfolio Preferences / Show Return Calculations From ____.  The default starting date is earliest, such that the return is in essence for all time (up to the As of Date for the portfolio view). To get that value in line with the Investing Activity Report for 1/1/ to 1/31 or from 1/1/ to 8/3, etc., that options preference should be set to 1/1.  When I make that adjustment, the Portfolio view is in line with the Investing Activity Report.  That is, Investing Activity Report values for Dividends (Investing Income) plus Change in Market Value equals the Return value shown in a portfolio view (with same account and security selections).  

That is, I am suggesting the Investing Activity Report is 'correct' under default conditions and the portfolio view data is out-of-line.  As to matching your brokerage statement, depends on what data they are providing and summarizing.  

QUESTION: How can this be? If I have one account selected, no securities selected and no types selected the change in market value should be zero.

In my case (QW2017), when I go the no security, no type path, I get a blank Investing Activity report - no data, no headers, no text at all.  So I have nothing to really offer with respect to your second question.