Quicken Premier Stock total purchase price is wrong

Hen

I have bought a sold stock XYZ for years.  Yesterday, having no stock, I bought 300 shares at, rounding off,  $136 a share.  The investing screen shows I own 300 shares at a cost of $153.  If I click on the + the purchase appears as 200 shares at $136 cost  It's as if there is a secret 100 shares of stock that displaces the first 100 shares, at a higher cost, that is not a fixed multiple.

It is not an entry error on the commission. I looked at my previous trades and they all match, in other words I did not accidentally delete a sale.  If I change the number of shares purchased, anything 101 and greater will appear in the drop down menu as x-100   Less than 101 and nothing happens when I click the +

The excess amount above my purchase price varies if I vary the purchase price of the 300 shares.  If the program thinks I purchased 200 shares at 136 the other 100 must have cost $278 dollars.  If I change the cost basis to .00001, the other 100 cost only $187

Jim_Harman

A hidden Placeholder transaction in the account might cause the behavior you are seeing. 

Go to Edit/Preferences/Investment transactions and make sure Show hidden transactions is checked. Placeholders will have a gray background and an Action of "Entry"

Hen

Tried that, couldn't find any hidden transactions

mshiggins

Did you own XYZ before?

Hen

Yes, typo in my question, should read bought and sold.  I looked through all the years and accounts I've traded in the stock. I did not see this problem the last time I owned the stock,which was just a couple weeks ago.

Hen

More Data,  I found where things went astray but I don't know why or how to correct it.

I am calling buying a position in this stock and selling it a round trip.  Two previous round trip trades ago I bought 100 then 200, total = 300 share balance

I sold 100, and under edit- specify lots, only two 100  (200 total shares) share lots are available to sell, when there should have been 300. 

Selling that 100 brought the share balance to 200 (correct) . I sold the 200 and the share balance on the investing tab went to 0

q_lurker

Hen said:

More Data,  I found where things went astray but I don't know why or how to correct it.

I am calling buying a position in this stock and selling it a round trip.  Two previous round trip trades ago I bought 100 then 200, total = 300 share balance

I sold 100, and under edit- specify lots, only two 100  (200 total shares) share lots are available to sell, when there should have been 300. 

Selling that 100 brought the share balance to 200 (correct) . I sold the 200 and the share balance on the investing tab went to 0

I am not sure you have gotten back to the source just yet.  You seem to be saying that on the date of a particular sale, the specify lots option only gave you the option for two 100-share lots rather than the option of one 100-share lot and one 200-share lot. 

If my read is right you need to work further back to find the time when you do have the right options for that specify lots button.  Probably the next transaction (Buy, Sell, Add, Remove, etc.  Not Dividends), needs to be deleted and re-entered.  Then continue forward from there making sure the right lot options appear and are selected. 

Now it might also be that when you sold the 100 shares, and Quicken showed you had two 100-share lots to possibly specify for the sale, that the third lot of 100-shares was already used for a later-in-time sale.  Sort of like:

Date 1 - Buy 100 shares
Date 2 - Buy 200 shares 
Date 3 - Sell 100 shares -- the transaction you are editing
Date 4 - Sell 200 shares as 100 from Date 2 and 100 from 'a messed up lot' 

If that had been the case, then you might well have managed to get the underlying problem fixed.  

HTH

Hen

Hen said:

More Data,  I found where things went astray but I don't know why or how to correct it.

I am calling buying a position in this stock and selling it a round trip.  Two previous round trip trades ago I bought 100 then 200, total = 300 share balance

I sold 100, and under edit- specify lots, only two 100  (200 total shares) share lots are available to sell, when there should have been 300. 

Selling that 100 brought the share balance to 200 (correct) . I sold the 200 and the share balance on the investing tab went to 0

All the prior purchases were in a different account.  The scenario you describe is almost what happened.
Date 1 Buy 200 shares
Date 2 Buy 100 shares
Date 3 Sell 100 shares   (Only Date 2 and 100 shares from Date 1 are visible
Date 4 Sell 100 shares  (the unassigned lot visible on the last sale is the only one visible
Date 5 sell 100 shares (specified lots is grayed out)

If I delete all these reconciled transactions and reenter them, will it mess up my cash balances?

q_lurker

Hen said:

More Data,  I found where things went astray but I don't know why or how to correct it.

I am calling buying a position in this stock and selling it a round trip.  Two previous round trip trades ago I bought 100 then 200, total = 300 share balance

I sold 100, and under edit- specify lots, only two 100  (200 total shares) share lots are available to sell, when there should have been 300. 

Selling that 100 brought the share balance to 200 (correct) . I sold the 200 and the share balance on the investing tab went to 0

If I delete all these reconciled transactions and reenter them, will it mess up my cash balances?

First, I would be sure to have a good backup.

I would likely go at deleting and re-entering the sales as a first approach.  There should not be any reason to delete the buys.  After deleting the sales, when you re-enter the first Date 3 sale, you should be able to specify either lot of shares.  If you can't then the issues go back farther. 

Indeed, if you begin a sell shares process after Date 1 (Date 1 + 1 day), can you sell the full 200 shares at that point?

All told, I am still suspicious that you have a hidden placeholder in the way.      

Provided you 'replace the deleted transactions with equivalent cash transactions (sell for the same amount) your Cash Balance should not be messed up.  But that is also what the backup protects you from.  It creates a nothing-to-lose point.  You can easily get back to that point at any time.