Preventing CD and Bond Price Updates

Unknown

I am using Quicken 2017.  I do not want the price of my CD's and bonds to be changed from par value of $100.  I hold them to maturity, so current market price is irrelevant.  I have unchecked Download Quotes in the Security list for every CD and bond, but still the prices get updated.  I have unmatched them in Security Details and edited the price history back to $100, but the next time One Step Update runs, they are matched again and the prices updated once again.  My next idea would be to change the names so that they can no longer be matched, but that seems to be a lot of work to cure what unchecking Download Quotes should do in the first place.  Anyone have a better idea?

volvogirl

If you don't want the value to change (except for posted interest) you could set them up as a regular savings account or there might be a CD type.  Or to not download quotes then delete the ticker symbol on it.  

splasher

You can elect to not download quotes at the security level on the Security List (Ctrl-Y or Tools menu).

q_lurker

I think the issue is that you are getting the price update through your download of transactions from your brokerage/bank.  When you match your Quicken security to the online (brokerage) security such that any interest payments or credits are matched, that match is going to carry on to the pricing.  I think Quicken is going to 'require' some level of matching (match to an existing security or match ti a new security).  Without such a match, Quicken could not process transactions for that security and your data would be mismatched between the brokerage reports and the Quicken reports.  

Volvogirl's suggestion to use a banking/saving cash account for the CDs is viable but may not be any smoother in the interface to the brokerage. 

I suggest you resign yourself to either letting Quicken use the current prices downloaded from the Brokerage/bank, or regularly deleting the prices that do get downloaded.  

Beyond your lack of interest in the current prices, do you see some harm in having them in the data file?  The amount if data being stored for that information is minuscule in the bigger picture and not (IMO) a reason to throw it out.  

Unknown

splasher said:

You can elect to not download quotes at the security level on the Security List (Ctrl-Y or Tools menu).

As I stated in my post, I have unchecked that box for all bonds and CD's, but the prices still update

Unknown

q.lurker said:

I think the issue is that you are getting the price update through your download of transactions from your brokerage/bank.  When you match your Quicken security to the online (brokerage) security such that any interest payments or credits are matched, that match is going to carry on to the pricing.  I think Quicken is going to 'require' some level of matching (match to an existing security or match ti a new security).  Without such a match, Quicken could not process transactions for that security and your data would be mismatched between the brokerage reports and the Quicken reports.  

Volvogirl's suggestion to use a banking/saving cash account for the CDs is viable but may not be any smoother in the interface to the brokerage. 

I suggest you resign yourself to either letting Quicken use the current prices downloaded from the Brokerage/bank, or regularly deleting the prices that do get downloaded.  

Beyond your lack of interest in the current prices, do you see some harm in having them in the data file?  The amount if data being stored for that information is minuscule in the bigger picture and not (IMO) a reason to throw it out.  

The issue for me is, since I do not redeem CD's and bonds before maturity, their actual value in my account is at par, not today's market price.  The logical way around this is to not update the prices after purchase, but that, like many things in Quicken, does not seem to work.

Jim_Harman

If you want to keep the price fixed at $100, note that you don't have to don't have to edit the intermediate prices, just select the first price after $100, shift-click the last price to select them all,  and hit Delete. Quicken will use the most recent price in the price history for market value, net worth, performance, etc.

q_lurker

q.lurker said:

I think the issue is that you are getting the price update through your download of transactions from your brokerage/bank.  When you match your Quicken security to the online (brokerage) security such that any interest payments or credits are matched, that match is going to carry on to the pricing.  I think Quicken is going to 'require' some level of matching (match to an existing security or match ti a new security).  Without such a match, Quicken could not process transactions for that security and your data would be mismatched between the brokerage reports and the Quicken reports.  

Volvogirl's suggestion to use a banking/saving cash account for the CDs is viable but may not be any smoother in the interface to the brokerage. 

I suggest you resign yourself to either letting Quicken use the current prices downloaded from the Brokerage/bank, or regularly deleting the prices that do get downloaded.  

Beyond your lack of interest in the current prices, do you see some harm in having them in the data file?  The amount if data being stored for that information is minuscule in the bigger picture and not (IMO) a reason to throw it out.  

a) I take the position, contrary to the other answers you got, that the prices are coming from your broker, not from the Quicken servers.  You can show that to be right or wrong by separately Updating Quotes (from Quicken's servers; you'll see your prices do not change, I predict) and Updating Transactions (from your brokerage; you'll see the prices do update if there have been transactions and maybe if there have not.)  You have some control over downloading quotes from Quicken's servers (answers from the others).  You have no control of quotes that get updated through your broker other than deleting them. 

b) "their actual value in my account is at par, not today's market price."  I would look at that as an unusual position to take.  Their value is typically what you can get in the open marketplace.  That would be your brokerage's logical position and Quicken's logical position is to match the brokerage if possible.  

c)  I agree that there is not a way to NOT update prices when information comes from the brokerage.  I would suggest that Quicken (programmers and those establishing program criteria) consider it highly important for the data in Quicken to match the data from the brokerage.  If the brokerage reports the bond value at 98 or 102 and the user forces it to 100, most users are going to scream about the mismatch --  My broker say this and Quicken is wrong!.  

As I said, as things are now, you are going to need to delete prices you don't want to see as suits your needs.  While you could post an idea about ignoring prices for select securities from brokerage downloads, I cannot see Quicken offering that path.  Others may see things differently. 

Unknown

Jim Harman said:

If you want to keep the price fixed at $100, note that you don't have to don't have to edit the intermediate prices, just select the first price after $100, shift-click the last price to select them all,  and hit Delete. Quicken will use the most recent price in the price history for market value, net worth, performance, etc.

True.  But there's really no reason to do that since only the most recent price is used to show account value and any way, the next day the price will be updated again to something else.  The issue is how to prevent that updating.

Unknown

q.lurker said:

I think the issue is that you are getting the price update through your download of transactions from your brokerage/bank.  When you match your Quicken security to the online (brokerage) security such that any interest payments or credits are matched, that match is going to carry on to the pricing.  I think Quicken is going to 'require' some level of matching (match to an existing security or match ti a new security).  Without such a match, Quicken could not process transactions for that security and your data would be mismatched between the brokerage reports and the Quicken reports.  

Volvogirl's suggestion to use a banking/saving cash account for the CDs is viable but may not be any smoother in the interface to the brokerage. 

I suggest you resign yourself to either letting Quicken use the current prices downloaded from the Brokerage/bank, or regularly deleting the prices that do get downloaded.  

Beyond your lack of interest in the current prices, do you see some harm in having them in the data file?  The amount if data being stored for that information is minuscule in the bigger picture and not (IMO) a reason to throw it out.  

Thanks for the detailed response.  I would think that when you uncheck the 'Download Quotes', Quicken would do just that regardless of where the data is or is not downloaded from.  I guess the only recourse is to submit a request for a 'leave the damn thing alone' option! 

Jim_Harman

Jim Harman said:

If you want to keep the price fixed at $100, note that you don't have to don't have to edit the intermediate prices, just select the first price after $100, shift-click the last price to select them all,  and hit Delete. Quicken will use the most recent price in the price history for market value, net worth, performance, etc.

The only way I know to prevent it updating every day would be to not download that account every day, i.e. un-check the financial institution  in One-step update.

I have a security (TIAA Traditional) that would download its income every day if I let it. To avoid this, I leave TIAA un-checked except for the first time I download each month.

q_lurker

New Idea -- untested

Toward the bottom of this page (https://www.quicken.com/support/how-update-security-prices), Quicken lists their hierarchy for which prices take precedence.  The list suggests that manually entered prices (# 1) take precedence over prices downloaded from brokers (# 4).  If that holds true, you may be able to pre-load your $100 value for each date in advance.  Edit the price manually for the upcoming week or month to the $100 par value. 

That could be quite time consuming for a 30-year bond if you 'need' that par value daily, but it might be doable for shorter term holding especially if you really only need end-of-week or end-of-month values.  You might give it a try. 

Note that importing prices through a CSV file would likely not work (lower precedence) but the list does not address QIF file imports.  But QIF files are also more difficult to set up.