Incorrect Portfolio Gain/Loss Values

dschmidt2010

For my TSP (401K) funds, I manually update the fund prices for the last day of the quarter (e.g., 3/31/20, 6/30/20) from my quarterly fund statement . When I viewed Portfolio/Recent Performance as of 6/30/20, I was surprised to see several of the funds had negative gain/loss for the quarter (when all prices had actually increased from the 3/31 values). When I change the “As of” date to 7/1/20, the gain/loss values are now correct. When I go back to “As of” 6/30/20, the results are incorrect again.

With the following exception, the Edit Price History shows no other price data for these funds other than the end-of-quarter values I have manually input. Last month, I did actually add prices for each fund for 6/16/20 (again, values much higher than those on 3/31/20). Whether I delete or leave those 6/16/20 values, the Portfolio Gain/Loss values as of 6/30/20 are incorrect (then correct as of 7/1/20).

Any ideas as to what might be going on? (Windows 10, Quicken Premier Subscription, Ver R27.28)

q_lurker

@dschmidt2010:  I believe the column you are using is identified as 3-month gain/loss.  So for an As of date of 7/1/20, the 3-month ago reference date would be 4/1.  For the 6/30 date, the prior date would be 3/30; not 3/31.  That is the behavior I see.  It is not specifically a quarterly figure, but rather a 'true' 3-month period. 

Check you numbers and see if that makes sense.. 

  

dschmidt2010

Thank-you, q_lurker. My underlying numbers verify what you say regarding a 'true' 3-month period for the 3-Month Gain/Loss column. For security prices that are only updated on the last day of the calendar quarter, the 3-month period 'as of' 06/30/YY is the only problematic period. For my purposes, I can simply run my reports 'as of' the first day of the quarter to avoid future confusion. Again, thanks very much.

Tom Young

What you've left out here is information about whether the "Market Value" shown at 6/30/20 when looking at Portfolio/Recent Performance is correct or not.  If the actual security prices at 6/30/20 in the Price History are correct, I'd think the Market Value would be correct unless there's some sort of timing difference as to number of shares, e.g., a 6/30 Buy or ReinvDiv transactions that's slipped across to 7/1.  And of course the Market Value is a combination of shares x per share price and cost basis, so the problem could be on the cost side. 

Absent some sort of data corruption issue if seems like a close look at month end/beginning of next month transactions should tease out the problem.

dschmidt2010

Thanks for the quick response, Tom. All "Market Value" numbers are correct. As you suggested, I took a closer look at things. I haven’t resolved my issue, but I can define it better as follows: the “Gain/Loss 3-Month” calculation displays incorrectly for June 30th of any year.

I created a fake security and manually input quotes via the “Edit Price History” for the last day of each quarter (03/31/YY, 06/30/YY, 09/30/YY and 12/31/YY) for a two-year period. This is how I update the security prices in my TSP 401K account based on my quarterly statements.

Then I ran the Investing/Portfolio/Recent Performance screen for the last day of one quarter and then again for first day of the next quarter, e.g., 03/31/20 and 04/01/20. Based on the price histories entered, I would expect the Gain/Loss 3-Month values would be the same for those two dates. Remember, there are no transactions for the securities, only the price updates I input. The values for the two dates each quarter do match, with the exception of the values for 06/30/YY and 07/01/YY (I verified this for 2019 and 2020). I those cases, the Gain/Loss 3-Month value for 06/30/YY is wrong, and the 07/01/YY is correct.

I can consistently reproduce this apparent error. I can provide more details, but I think I’ve explained it clearly. Is there something I am missing or are you able to reproduce my issue? Thanks very much!

q_lurker

@dschmidt2010:  I believe the column you are using is identified as 3-month gain/loss.  So for an As of date of 7/1/20, the 3-month ago reference date would be 4/1.  For the 6/30 date, the prior date would be 3/30; not 3/31.  That is the behavior I see.  It is not specifically a quarterly figure, but rather a 'true' 3-month period. 

Check you numbers and see if that makes sense.. 

  

dschmidt2010

Thank-you, q_lurker. My underlying numbers verify what you say regarding a 'true' 3-month period for the 3-Month Gain/Loss column. For security prices that are only updated on the last day of the calendar quarter, the 3-month period 'as of' 06/30/YY is the only problematic period. For my purposes, I can simply run my reports 'as of' the first day of the quarter to avoid future confusion. Again, thanks very much.