Account balances report has error, points to problem with options trading

dwink

For some reason, the account balances report and net worth report on investment accounts includes previously closed options transactions in the balance. The portfolio balance report, and the holdings within the investment account, correctly exclude these securities. While I can certainly exclude individual securities, this is a time consuming manual task that needs to be updated frequently. Why would the account balance and net worth report include options that have been closed by a sale or covered transaction?

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @dwink

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community although, I apologize that you haven't received a response. 

We will need a bit more information to be able to assist. Please take a moment to review the information here and post back with the year and version of Quicken you are currently running. 
 

It may also be helpful to provide a screenshot of the discrepancy you are seeing using the Windows Snipping Tool. To learn more about posting screenshots to the Community, please take a moment to review the information available here. 

The more information you can provide regarding this issue will help the Community to better understand and assist. 

Thank you, 

-Quicken Tyka

NotACPA

In Q, how did your record the closing of those options?  You should have used a SELL, even if it's for $0

dwink

The transactions have both a sales proceed and cost (did not hold until expiration), so they have been entered and closed properly. And the problem was not occurring when I ran the report at December 31, 2020, so it just started occurring in a recent update. I am a CPA and 30 year user of Quicken, specifically for investment transactions.

dwink

I am using version R33.24, Build 27.1.33.24
The report was properly excluding closed options transactions when I prepared a report at December 31, 2020, so this is an issue that has occurred with an update post-December 31.

dwink

I would post a pdf image, but don't seem to have a posting tool for adding images. However, for further information, the amount included on the Account Balances report is the sale proceeds from the security (not correct, and not reduced for cost basis). The Capital Gains report properly reflects the sale proceeds and cost basis. However, since I am selling options, my proceeds are received and recorded as a short sale transaction, and the cost is recorded at a later date as a covered short transaction, a few days before the option expires. Since these transactions are the reverse of a standard buy-sell transaction (I'm basically doing sell-buy), I'm wondering if something changed in a recent update that has the report looking for a standard buy-sell date sequence for the transactions. In my transaction, the buy (cost basis) comes after the sale (proceeds), so perhaps the report is still carrying the transaction as an open sale. Since the Capital Gains report properly reflects the transaction, this is an issue in the programming of the Account Balances report only. The Capital Gains report clearly reflects a closed transaction, and therefore one that should not be reflected in the Account Balances report. And since the Account Balances report was handling these transaction correctly at December 31 for my 2020 transactions, then it must be a change that occurred with 2021 updates.

Tom Young

@dwink

It sounds like you're entering the trades correctly so the behavior you describe does seem anomalous. 

What version (update) are you using?

Is every single short sell/cover short trade you've ever done being included in the Investment Account's balance, or only trades after 12/31/2020?

Have you done a Validate and Repair with Rebuild investing lots selected?

dwink

I am on version R33.24 Build: 27.1.33.24

The error occurs with short option trades dating prior to 2021. However, I have discovered that trades after 5/20/21 are being handled correctly. Additionally, it appears long option trades are being handled correctly. So it appears that only short trades are being impacted, and only those with a sell date prior to 5/20/21. I ran the Validate and Repair with Rebuild Investing lots, but this produced no change.

Tom Young

I assume by "long" you're referring to a combination of Bought/Sold actions and "short" refers to a combination of ShtSell/CvrShrt actions?

There were three updates to Quicken in May and perhaps there's something in those updates that's the source of the problem, but so far no one else has noticed it. 

I suppose one thing to try here would be to revert to the last April update and see if the problem goes away.  The last April update was 32.12 and the mondo patch for that is available here:

http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/quicken-subscription-patches.html

Are you generating the two reports by clicking through Reports > Net Worth & Balances >  or generating the reports off one or another of Quicken's "dashboards?"  For whatever reason balance sheet reports generated off a dashboard sometimes have been found to be incorrect compared to the standard reports generated in the usual fashion.

dwink

I downloaded the mondo patch 32.12, opened Quicken to determine I was on the 32.12 version, and the problem still exists. I then backtracked to each patch through 29.22, and the problem never went away.

Further, I opened a Portfolio Value report, selected several investment accounts, subtotaled by account, and the incorrect balances occurred in the individual accounts, but not in the grand total. I then selected only the investment account that includes my option trades, printed the Portfolio Value report, and the correct balance was reported. However, with this same report, I selected subtotal by account (despite only one account selected) and the subtotal included the incorrect balance, but the grand total was the correct balance. And to add to the unusual happenings, the report did not list any difference in individual securities to result in the incorrect balance. In other words, the list of securities (all securities selected) on both reports (no subtotal, and subtotal by account) were the exact same, yet the subtotal was an amount that included sales proceeds on options that were closed positions.

No reports were created through the dashboard. All reports (Account Balance and Portfolio Value) were created through the reports menu.

By long positions, I am speaking of options trades wherein the option is purchased on Day 1 (entered as a Bought transaction), and the sale of the option occurs on Day 2 (entered as a Sale transaction) or later. A short option position is where the option is sold on Day 1 (entered as a Short Sell transaction), and the purchase (entered as a Cover Short transaction) occurs on Day 2 or later. It appears the issue in only with the Short Sell and Cover Short transactions.

I saw where the Simple Investing came out of beta with a December 2020 update. Perhaps this is where the error occurred, and despite using Mondo patches from November 2020, my transactions may have become locked up. I do not have any issues within the account itself. It reconciles with my actual investment account with TD Ameritrade. The issue is only with printing an Account Balance, Net Worth and Portfolio Value report. Let me know if you have any questions or further ideas.