When adding a municipal bond, it's Cusp No. no longer appears in the Ticker Symbol Column.

Jerry_

I am using Windows 2020 Quicken Premier R27.42.
I just added a tax-free Municipal Bond as an investment.  I come to find that, unlike my pre-existing bonds, the Cusp No. no longer appears in the Symbol Box in the "Edit Security Detail Window". It is Blank. The Symbol Box of my pre-existing Bonds shows the Cusp No. in the Symbol Box, although the No. is "grayed-out".
Also the Cusp No. of my pre-existing Bonds appears in the "Ticker Symbol Column" of my Portfolio Views. Not so with the newly added bond.

Has anybody else found this to be true? I have enclose a screenshot of a Portfolio View. showing my Municipal Bonds. Notice the last entry of South Bend IN. No Cusp (Ticker Symbol) No. This Bond was entered as a new investment a few days back.

Jim_Harman

The CUSIP ID in the Additional Security information window and the Symbol (Ticker) in the Security Details are separate identifiers for a security.

For securities other than bonds, you can edit the Symbol and Quicken uses it to identify the security when downloading quotes.

The CUSIP ID is provided by your FI and Quicken uses it to match downloaded transactions to the correct security in your account. When setting up a new security, the FI can optionally set the Symbol, but this is not a requirement.

It sounds like Hilliard Lyons was copying the CUSIP to the Symbol but Baird does not do that.

q_lurker

Generally, i would say I do not find Bonds with tickers.  What follows is my understanding of overall behavior partly historical.  

Within Quicken, if you create a new security as a Bond for the Security Type field , Quicken does not expect the bond to have a ticker and thus "greys out" that ticker field.  In the broad historical sense, that is a correct assumption on Quicken's part -- bonds don't have tickers. 

That does not need to be an absolute, however.  If you create a security as something other than a Bond, give that security a ticker (of any form you choose), then change the Security Type to Bond, Quicken maintains the prior ticker assignment.  The program does not object to having a ticker for a bond, it just does not expect it (my words).

Fast forward to today's more download centered interfaces.  What should or does the program do when an FI download sends information about a newly acquired security, the security is a Bond, and the FI provides a ticker assignment that happens to be the CUSIP (or anything else)?  Should the program ignore the ticker field consistent with the program's historical understanding, or should the program accept the ticker assignment as if the FI knows best.  I suspect they chose the latter option. 

But there is no requirement that the FI send the CUSIP as the ticker.  I suspect some do, and some don't.  Some may have changed policy along the way. 

I do not believe there was ever a time where Quicken automatically moved or duplicated the CUSIP into the ticker field.

Bottom line:  If you know the CUSIP for a bond and want that listed in the Ticker field, change the Securtiy Type to something other than Bond, fill in the Ticker field as you desire, and change the security type back to Bond.                

Jerry_

q_lurker, your quote:
"I do not believe there was ever a time where Quicken automatically moved or duplicated the CUSIP into the ticker field."

I am afraid that I will have to disagree. (grin) Using Quicken for the past 20 some years, I have never had to pay any attention to CUSIP. When entering a New Bond these last several years, the CUSIP ID was automatically placed in the Ticker Column and  shown being "grayed-out" in the Symbol Box of the "Edit Security Detail Window".

HOWEVER, this is the first new bond entered since my portfolio was transferred from the Hilliard Lyons Firm to the Baird Firm. In downloading securities, maybe Baird  does not transmit the CUSIP ID. But then how does Quicken find the CUSIP ID to show on the "Additional Security Information" Window of the Security??

I will try your suggestion of denoting the Bond as a different security type; enter the CUSIP No  into the Symbol Box; and then denote the Security Type again as a Bond. BUT we should never have to do this!!  I have not done so for the past 20 some years.

Jerry_

An Update in working with CUSIP ID.
q_lurker, your "work-a-round" solution works. But I do not know if I want to do this on every new Bond entered in the future - in keeping with the conformity of data in the portfolio views - (Symbol Ticker). Again, thanks for the work-a-round.

Jim_Harman

The CUSIP ID in the Additional Security information window and the Symbol (Ticker) in the Security Details are separate identifiers for a security.

For securities other than bonds, you can edit the Symbol and Quicken uses it to identify the security when downloading quotes.

The CUSIP ID is provided by your FI and Quicken uses it to match downloaded transactions to the correct security in your account. When setting up a new security, the FI can optionally set the Symbol, but this is not a requirement.

It sounds like Hilliard Lyons was copying the CUSIP to the Symbol but Baird does not do that.

Jerry_

Jim_ thanks for your explanations. Luckily, I do not buy many municipal bonds. Hilliard Lyons merged with Baird. Darn it!! (LOL)