Investing > Performance, Growth of $10,000 Issue:

Unknown

I am using Quicken 2018 Premier (R11.18).

I recently noticed that the graph "Growth of $10,000:", under the Investing > Performance tab, no longer displays any of the "Compare with:" indexes (S&P 500, DOW, etc), rather the data points lie along the horizontal axis of the graph, valued at zero; similarly for the data in "My Accounts", except that in about the middle of June of this year, they suddenly were graphed correctly.

However, if you mouse over the data point dots along the horizontal axis of the graph, dialog boxes open showing "Selected Accounts, Date, Actual Value", etc. and appear to contain valid data for both My Accounts and any selected Indexes.

The two other graphs under this tab, "Portfolio Value vs. Cost Basis:" and "Average Annual Return", appear to be correct. Therefore, there does not appear to be a data corruption problem, rather a problem with the software rendering of the graph itself withing this module.

The most recent backup I can find showing the correct graphing is dated May 22, and I note that there were 2 updates in May and 3 in June. I am wondering if one of these could be the cause. Any suggestions?

Jim_Harman

I suspect you have picked up some zero values in the price history for the indices and/or the quotes for the indices have stopped updating.

First, back up your data file in case something goes wrong.

Then go to Tools > Security List and look at each affected index. Make sure Download Quotes is checked, then click on the name of each index to view its Security Detail page. Check the Price History graph for any anomalies and click on Update > Edit price History to see the data Quicken has stored for the index. Delete any entries of zero or wildly incorrect values.

If the data has not been updated, you can click on Update > Download historical prices from the security detail page to get updated data. Note that Quicken only downloads daily data for the past month, weekly for the past year, and monthly before that.

The other charts on the Performance tab are OK because Portfolio value vs Cost Basis is only looking at your securities, not the indices, and the Average Annual Return is only looking at specific dates: today, 1, 3, and 5 years ago.

Also make sure "Download Quotes"  is checked in your One Step Update settings.

Unknown

Thank you for posting your suggestions.  I checked all of the indexes on the security list; all are updating, the price history is current and appears to be accurate...so, unfortunately, no luck.  One other thing; I stated earlier that dialog boxes showing "Selected Accounts, Date, Actual Value", etc. appear to contain valid data.  That was only true until about mid-June of this year, when the "Selected Accounts" figure (only) took on a completely anomalous amount, jumping by over 300 times the amount in the prior data point.  That bizarre amount is reflected in the graph at that point, while the "Actual Value" of my portfolio reflected in the dialog box remains accurate.  The reference amounts for the various indexes also appear to be accurate as well, but still are shown on the graph at zero value.

Jim_Harman

Aha. Was there Mutual fund share class conversion around that time?

If so, see the discussion here {edit} corrected link
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/qwp-2018-growth-of-10-000-chart-incorrect-after-...

Unknown

Yes, in my Vanguard account they converted two positions from investor shares to admiral shares on June 13.  Thanks, I will look into this.

Unknown

OK, thanks a bunch; that was the problem.  I could not initially see what you were talking about because the dialog box for the "Remove" entry does not contain such a number, when opened for edit.  Then I noticed that the entry lines in the register did show a field for a number in the line underneath "Removed", although you had to select the line to see the amount.  I remember wondering what such a bizarre entry was doing there when I accepted the conversion entry but I just left it there.  The only thing is, I decided to use the value in the securities transaction history under the security detail view, for the amount removed, rather than the 6/13 market value, just to be consistent, since it equals the amount of the converted security added in the history for the new security.  This amount appears to be basis.  I am not sure it makes any significant difference since there is no gain or loss on the conversion and the difference is minor since the securities are both income funds.   

Jim_Harman

William Rector said:

OK, thanks a bunch; that was the problem.  I could not initially see what you were talking about because the dialog box for the "Remove" entry does not contain such a number, when opened for edit.  Then I noticed that the entry lines in the register did show a field for a number in the line underneath "Removed", although you had to select the line to see the amount.  I remember wondering what such a bizarre entry was doing there when I accepted the conversion entry but I just left it there.  The only thing is, I decided to use the value in the securities transaction history under the security detail view, for the amount removed, rather than the 6/13 market value, just to be consistent, since it equals the amount of the converted security added in the history for the new security.  This amount appears to be basis.  I am not sure it makes any significant difference since there is no gain or loss on the conversion and the difference is minor since the securities are both income funds.   

I believe the number in the mystery box should be the market value of the removed holding on the date removed, not the cost basis as other posters have suggested.

If everything is correct, the conversion should have no impact on Quicken's performance calculations. Thus if you customize the Investing > Investment Performance report to show just the account in question and set the date range to include the conversion date, the total investments and returns on the conversion date should be the same plus or minus any small rounding error.

Any performance calculations for the converted security that spans the conversion date must include both the old and new securities.

q_lurker

William Rector said:

OK, thanks a bunch; that was the problem.  I could not initially see what you were talking about because the dialog box for the "Remove" entry does not contain such a number, when opened for edit.  Then I noticed that the entry lines in the register did show a field for a number in the line underneath "Removed", although you had to select the line to see the amount.  I remember wondering what such a bizarre entry was doing there when I accepted the conversion entry but I just left it there.  The only thing is, I decided to use the value in the securities transaction history under the security detail view, for the amount removed, rather than the 6/13 market value, just to be consistent, since it equals the amount of the converted security added in the history for the new security.  This amount appears to be basis.  I am not sure it makes any significant difference since there is no gain or loss on the conversion and the difference is minor since the securities are both income funds.   

I am among those who believe cost basis is the preferable value to enter in that field. For me, the key is that the amount removed (as set in that field) needs to match the amount added as defined in the associated Shares Added transaction(s). The Shares Added needs to use cost basis as the acquisition cost to get future cap gains on sales correct.


I suggest you try each approach, look at all measures important to you and decide which makes more sense for you.