Stock Option Account thru Etrade Not Showing Position

Loopback

One of my Etrade accounts is a stock option account where my employer places all of my stocks in the company. All stocks in the account are vested and the correct information concerning number of shares, cost etc is all present in Etrade. When I add that account to Quicken all I get is zero balance account that does not show the stocks at all. Obviously this is not what I want to see, but not sure how Quicken handles stop option accounts like these. Does anyone know how it is supposed to work, and hopefully how I can make it work that way?

Boatnmaniac

If you have not already done so, you might want to read the following Quicken Support Article: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-add-employee-stock-option-grant-esog.

When I had ESOGs I found it best to set up the account manually and not link it to the Financial Institution.  It can be especially troublesome when the brokerage company downloads exercise transactions as they often do not play well with Quicken.  Maybe someone else will offer a better solution but for me I just found it far easier and better to set up and manage the ESOGs account manually.

Chris_QPW

Looking through the OFX standard I see nothing for Employee Stock Options.  So I read that is it is impossible for the financial institution to send "the correct transactions" to Quicken.

When I had my Employee Stock Options downloading the account wasn't even available at the time even though it was in ETrade too.  So I also entered them manually using Quicken Stock Option wizard.

Tom Young

I think @Chris_QPW is right about this.  If you're tracking your option grants in Quicken you actually get the stock when the option "vests" (e.g., an RSU) or when you "exercise" (e.g., an ISO) and if there's no analog to these Quicken "actions" in the OFX scheme, Etrade simply can't send you that information.

What you should be doing, in my opinion, is setting up Quicken Accounts for the various sorts of options your employer grants you and do your accounting (manually) in these Accounts.  When you actually receive the stock you account for the transaction in the appropriate Quicken "options" Account, establishing the date acquired and the cost basis, and then transfer the stock inside Quicken to the Quicken Etrade Account where your employer actually deposits the stock.

If you don't want to do the "front end" work this way then you need to use "Add" actions to establish the stock in the Etrade Account.  Activity in the account after that - dividends, sales, etc. - should then be downloaded to the Quicken Etrade Account.

Boatnmaniac

If you have not already done so, you might want to read the following Quicken Support Article: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-add-employee-stock-option-grant-esog.

When I had ESOGs I found it best to set up the account manually and not link it to the Financial Institution.  It can be especially troublesome when the brokerage company downloads exercise transactions as they often do not play well with Quicken.  Maybe someone else will offer a better solution but for me I just found it far easier and better to set up and manage the ESOGs account manually.

Chris_QPW

Looking through the OFX standard I see nothing for Employee Stock Options.  So I read that is it is impossible for the financial institution to send "the correct transactions" to Quicken.

When I had my Employee Stock Options downloading the account wasn't even available at the time even though it was in ETrade too.  So I also entered them manually using Quicken Stock Option wizard.

Tom Young

I think @Chris_QPW is right about this.  If you're tracking your option grants in Quicken you actually get the stock when the option "vests" (e.g., an RSU) or when you "exercise" (e.g., an ISO) and if there's no analog to these Quicken "actions" in the OFX scheme, Etrade simply can't send you that information.

What you should be doing, in my opinion, is setting up Quicken Accounts for the various sorts of options your employer grants you and do your accounting (manually) in these Accounts.  When you actually receive the stock you account for the transaction in the appropriate Quicken "options" Account, establishing the date acquired and the cost basis, and then transfer the stock inside Quicken to the Quicken Etrade Account where your employer actually deposits the stock.

If you don't want to do the "front end" work this way then you need to use "Add" actions to establish the stock in the Etrade Account.  Activity in the account after that - dividends, sales, etc. - should then be downloaded to the Quicken Etrade Account.

Loopback

Thank all of you for the excellent answer, I will follow the advice on using the wizard and update manually.