AU vs US Security

peter088

Hello,

I trade mutual funds in both Australian and US dollars and in one case, invest in basically the same fund in both currencies. The US one is iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and the Australian one is iShares S&P 500 ETF AUD. I only seem to have access to US securities with Quicken 2017 Premier and it is a US Quicken version. Is this correct? Is there any way around it and, if not, can someone suggest what I should enter in the security field when I purchase Australian shares? I'm currently using the generic ETF.

Thanks,

Peter

Chris_QPW

Are you talking about getting quotes for these or just creating/using the security?

peter088

Just entering it in the register. I'm no longer connected to Quicken online. This is clearly cosmetic, but I was curious.

Jim_Harman

If it is not already, you must have Multicurrency support enabled in Quicken. Go to Edit  > Preferences > Calendar and Currency and make sure Multicurrency support is checked. 

Each investment account in Quicken only supports one currency. So the US and Australian versions of the ETFs must be held in different Quicken accounts.

You should create a separate security in Quicken for each version and give them different names and ticker symbols.

peter088

Thanks Jim. That did it. Great answer.

peter088

Hi Jim,

I spoke to soon. Here's the situation: I purchased the Australian shares first. When I entered "Bought," I typed in the first few letters (iShare) and it completed the security name with the US one - iShares Core S&P 500 ETF. So I went back to the first purchase, clicked on the drop down list and selected "Add Security" and then manually went through the process to enter "iShares Core S&P 500 AUD." When I went to the second transaction, I had to add it again. It was not added to the list of drop down options. I did this for each transaction in the AUD account. Then I went to the US account, assuming the security I wanted would be on the drop down list, but it wasn't. The list was empty and there was no "Add Security" button.

I'm sure I've missed something obvious, but I can't see it. Can you see what I've done wrong?

Thanks,

Peter

YingDave

Hi @Peter,
My file is in AU$ & I have investments are also spread across currencies. It is not exactly clear what you are looking at when you are talking about a list of drop down options. Can you post a screen shot (use Win Start Menu, then "Snip"). Also can you hit Ctrl+Y to get a list of your securities and get a screen shot of those also? 

peter088

Hi YingDave,

Here you go. So in the Australian account, you see a drop down list arrow in the right side of the Securities field. In this picture, I've clicked on it and it shows two securities. One came with it - IVV. I type in IVV and it looked it up somewhere and came back with the US dollar name of the fund, even though this was an Australian dollar account. The other entry I created manually yesterday using the instructions from Jim.

The other screen shot is from the US dollar account. It shows no drop down list button in the Securities field and therefore gives me no "Add Security" button like the Australian one.

Does that help?

Thanks,

Peter

YingDave

That point in the register the drop down only shows you securities that are the same currency as the account. So it looks like when you created the securities (Ctrl+Y, Add Security) you have created them both with AU dollar. So there is nil appearing on the same drop down for the US (left screen shot) account if I read your picture descriptions correspond to currency off your accounts. So you may have to delete the incorrect one there. There are non appearing in the US Available securities because they are none in USD. Unfortunately you cannot edit the currency of a security once created you have to create a new one with the right attributes. 

You have not said which version of the product you are using? When Creating a security you can avoid the automatic look up by hitting "Click here" which I do for any non-US/CA security. To avoid confusion I follow Yahoo Finance convention and I create AU securities as the ASX Tick with ".AX" as suffix. Cochlear (COH.AX) does not get picked up as Coherent Inc COHR. This drop down is not the only place to add a security. Go to the security list Ctrl+Y and hit Add Security first before entering in the register.

PS. When entering the transaction I find the dialog box up on top "Enter Transactions" better because it gives a long description of the transaction and some times one dialog will enter 2 or 3 corresponding transactions in the background. Inside that dialog is another 'Add Security ' button.

peter088

Hi YingDave,

That was an awesome response. I'm starting to get the picture, but it's still not working as I'd expect. A few things:

I'm using Quicken 2017 Premier. I tried to delete the ETF one (American in AUD), but it won't let me because the security is "in use," meaning I have transactions that reference it. So I started to go back and change the transactions. I took the first one, brought up the drop down list and added the AUD version - I will switch to your naming convention when I get everything sorted - but when I went to change the second transaction I expected to see the one I'd just created on the drop down list and it wasn't. I could create it again, but it doesn't seem like I should have to and it doesn't feel like it's working correctly. I've attached a screen shot of the security list.

Any ideas?

Peter

q_lurker

@Peter Another mistake in the making:


Securities that you trade cannot have the Type = Market Index.  Use Stock, Mutual Fund, or nost any other selection.  Market Index securities will NOT appear in pull-down lists for trades.  Such a type is only intended for use such as the DJI listed first.
(I'm not sure what your use of the ETF security is.) 

peter088

Thanks q_lurker. I've changed them all to mutual funds. It still did not show up on the securities list, but I didn't really dig into to it. I'll have a more in-depth look and report back.

Peter

YingDave

Sometimes is it better in the long run to delete the transactions, delete the securities entries and start again. Especially going off a trade statement from your ETF Fund.

Delete, then recreate the securities manually ("Click Here") so they do not lookup on US list for non-US ones.  "Securiy" = long name, "Symbol" = exchange lookup symbol 3 to 5 letters eg. IVV, "Type" = Mutual Fund or Stock to keep it simple. Currency self explanatory, asset class take you pick. Then use the dialog to reenter the transactions from your ETF Statement for buy or Reinvest. The drop down in the "Enter Transactions" dialog will have the long name, but when the transaction is cut in the register it will show the symbol.

You will find the fund has a different symbol on the ASX and NYSE. A quick visit to Yahoo Finance tells me the Australian fund is IVV so I would create it as IVV.AX. While the US one is in fact IVW

peter088

Hi YingDave,

Sound advice. This will take me a bit to do, as I've got transactions dating back, but will get back to you. Thanks for the excellent info,

Peter

peter088

Hi YingDave,

Hoping you're still out there. I can't get this to work. I'm prepared to re-enter all my transactions, but the behavior I'm seeing is not what I would have expected.

As an example, I've gone back to my oldest transaction which was an Australian dollars account. The purchase was for IVV (The American One). I've clicked on Add Security and manually entered the details for IVV (AUD). However, the next transaction is a sell.

Now a really smart program would have automatically changed the security realizing that I was selling the one I just bought, but let's assume that was unreasonable. It clearly does not seem to care or reconcile how many shares of whatever I have. At a minimum, I would have expected to see IVV (AUD) now on the drop down list for which security for the sell, but it's not there. I entered it manually again and then one more time, but the behavior remains the same. It never shows up on the drop down list.

Additionally, the quantity of shares must now be really messed up because of the changes.

You are correct in that there a relatively minor number of transactions, but if I can't just edit them and have to recreate ALL of them including commissions, prices purchased, etc., that is a significant amount of work.

Is this the way you see it?

Thanks,

Peter

Jim_Harman

It sounds like Quicken thinks it is a USD account. 

peter088

It certainly does in at least one sense: This was a US version of Quicken and I originally entered the security from the list it gave me, which was a US security. That all makes sense. The question is how to get rid of it without deleting all the transactions, assuming that can be done.

Chris_QPW

Peter said:

It certainly does in at least one sense: This was a US version of Quicken and I originally entered the security from the list it gave me, which was a US security. That all makes sense. The question is how to get rid of it without deleting all the transactions, assuming that can be done.

I don't think that can be done.  The currency of the account is decided when you create it.  That in turn decides what the currency of the securities has to be.

About all I can think of is exporting the transactions to QIF, deleting/recreating the account and security in AUD and then importing the transactions using QIF.

peter088

Hi Chris,

I'm getting the sinking feeling that you're right.

That can be done on an account by account basis, right? I don't need to delete everything else?

Peter

Chris_QPW

Peter said:

Hi Chris,

I'm getting the sinking feeling that you're right.

That can be done on an account by account basis, right? I don't need to delete everything else?

Peter

Yes, but for the QIF imports you might have problems with transfers.  Quicken isn't good with the transfers.