Option (Call/Put( Sell to close - Critical Error

jcalveras

Version 5.15.1 (Build 515.32947.100)

For the last month I've been trading in Options (buying and Selling Calls/Puts). I use Schwab.com.

When I download the "sell" transaction ("Sell to Close" specifically), quicken downloads it as a "Buy to cover", posting a negative balance in my account, instead of posting a positive balance.

If I change the "buy to cover" into a "sell" to correct the balance, Quicken downloads it again as a "buy to cover".

Root cause: Quicken assigns the "sell" into a "buy to cover" because the transaction has a "+$0.65" commission in Schwab, but Quicken doesn't allow to have a positive commission in "a "sell" transaction (only a "-$0.65"). If I change it manually from a "buy to cover" to a "sell", the sign of the commission changes to a negative; to maintain the total cost/credit, quicken has to modify the price of the shares. After saving the manual changes and updating, Quicken downloads again the transaction; it thinks it is a "new" transaction because the share price is different.

Let me show an example:

Sell = number os shares x price + commission

$58.35 = 100 x 0.577 + $0.65

Even though at Schwab, this a "sell", quicken treats it as a "buy to cover" because of the "+$0.65".

Now, if I change it to a "sell" to get a positive balancing:

$58.35 = 100 x $0.59 - $0.65

To keep the balance at 58.35 and the 0.65 commission, quicken has to change the share price, making the transaction "different/new", downloading it again, and again after each update.

This has been happening since the end of January 2020. It is Critical to solve it.

Proposed Solution: allow for a sign (positive or negative) in the commission variable... the root cause is that the sell commission "must be" negative, and the buy commission "must be" positive". Please, change that. Let the user control that

jacobs

@jcalveras  SInce the program developers do not read most of the posts on this site, you should take an additional step to try to draw attention to this issue. In Quicken, use the Report a Problem item on the Help menu. They only give you a small space to write in on that screen, so you can either copy-and-paste what you wrote above into the box -- although you won't see it all, I believe it will all get captured. Or, write a short version summarizing the problem in the box, along with a link to this thread's URL (https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7871212/option-call-put-sell-to-close-critical-error) for the complete description.

jcalveras

@jacobs I reported the problem a couple of weeks ago using the "report a problem tool". I hope they solve it soon. If not, I may go back to [removed], which doesn't have the issue.