How to read Security Reports

Question

The subject is: Security Reports.

Specifically, I'm trying to understand (in the simplest terms possible) three colums as follows: Cash, Amount Invested and Cash+Invest.  Allow me to please elaborate on why I'm asking this question.

I have a mutual fund that shows a negative (loss) when I go to Security View.  I've owned this particular fund since April 2010.  Every month I automatically purchased shares (Dollar-Cost Average.)  Every month the fund has distributed dividends which have been reinvested and purchased more shares.  In the month of December of several years the fund has distributed Short and/or Long Term Capital Gains which have been reinvested.

In plain English, this fund shows a clear loss (for tax purposes) but I believe when I take into account the distributions I'm seeing a different picture.

So, can someone explain (in very simple terms) what I'm actually seeing in the Security Report?

Thank you for trying to explain maybe a very dumb question.

q_lurker · Accepted Answer

Not a dumb question.

At it's simplest, the Security Report (via the security list or other paths) is showing you a list of the transactions associated with that security for a selected time span.

The "Cash" column is cash you used to buy the security, cash it produced to you through dividends and similar transactions, and cash you took from the sale of shares of the security.

The "Amount Invested" column are values that you invested in the security through purchases (direct or via reinvestments).  When you sold shares of the security, some of the proceeds from that sale would be accounted for as coming from amounts previously invested.  The rest of the sale proceeds would be associated with capital gains or losses.

The "Cash + Invest" is the sum of the prior two columns.

So when you buy shares, the Cash column should be negative and the Amount Invested should be positive in the same magnitude; the sum is $0.

When you sell those same shares, the signs reverse and there will be a second line for the transaction reflecting the gain/loss values in the Cash column.

Reinvestment transactions similarly use two lines - one like the buy shares circumstance since you really are buying shares and the second reflecting the cash value of the dividend as a positive.  Looking at those two lines from the cash column side, the values balance out (or negate each other); there is no change to cash.  The Amount Invested column will show as a positive for the two lines.

"I believe when I take into account the distributions I'm seeing a different picture."  What different picture are you seeing or are you expecting Quicken to show you?  Generally speaking, I recommend the Investment Performance Report for a measure of how well your investment is performing for you.  Even though you may be negative from the tax/capital gain perspective, the suggested report will look at the overall growth (or shrinkage, heaven forbid) of the investment.

HTH

Jim_Harman · Accepted Answer

note also that confusingly "amount invested" in reports is different from "amount invested" in the investing portfolio views.

q_lurker · Accepted Answer

My HTH (Hope That Helps) appears to have helped.