How to hide closed or expired options positions from Holdings tab in investments

epkellner

I checked the hide closed positions tab and it hides closed equity positions, but it doesn't seem to do anything for options positions. I am an active options trader and the list gets extremely long - it would help me a lot to be able to hide the closed and expired positions.
Any ideas?

q_lurker

@epkellner -- I suggest you search deeper into this community for posts about Options trading.  Look particularly for posts by Kevin Osborne @K.O. (Win-Premier)   who has long term experience with options and Quicken.  These posts among others may be helpful - https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/19594060#Comment_19594060
- https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/19682168#Comment_19682168

You can search this community using the built in Search box, or using the string 'site:community.quicken.com ' as part of a Google search.     

q_lurker

I do notice one odd thing, it still shows quotes even so some expired years ago. No idea who, what generates those nonsensical and actually non-existing quote values or how to delete them if that should be the cause.

In this context, quotes come from two possible sources - your financial institution / brokerage or Quicken's quote suppliers.

Your FI is (to my knowledge) only going to report on holdings you actually own, so I can't see them providing "nonsensical and actually non-existing quote values".

Quicken's data suppliers work solely off of ticker symbols and the program's requests are identified as limited to securities you own and securities identified as being on your watch list.

IS THAT IT?  Are these securities being shown in your portfolio view because you have them checked as on your Watch List.  Look at your Security List (Ctrl-Y) to see.  You could also exclude the Watch List 'account' from the portfolio view.  <Back to regular commentary.>

So if these options have some form of a ticker symbol that might be misconstrued and Quicken thinks you own shares, you could conceivably get bad quotes, but I'm doubtful.  

As to deleting the the bad prices, Edit the Security Details, More button, Edit Price History.  Select the prices you want to delete, Click Delete.  (But these are NOT being listed in your portfolio view because they have prices - good or bad).   

Sherlock

I suggest you uncheck the Show closed lots preference on the Holdings view.

If you aren't already, you should be closing the expired option holding with an appropriate transaction.  For example, if you bought an option, you should sell the option. 

epkellner

Thanks, Sherlock, but I am doing all that you recommend already. The options show zero balance, but stay in the line-up. Closed out equities do hide, but not the options.

UKR

Can you please capture one or more images of the parts of your Quicken window showing the issue, sensitive information blacked out as necessary to protect your privacy but annotated to describe the situation, and attach the image(s) here?
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7867159/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-windows

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7663259/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-a-mac

Please save images to files of file type PNG, JPG, or GIF only. They're easier to work with than PDF files.

Do these options really show zero (0.000000) shares and $0.00 amount or is there a small left-over amount stuck in your records? (Make sure that Edit / Preferences / Reports only / "Decimal places for prices and shares" is set to "6")

Sherlock

epkellner said:

Thanks, Sherlock, but I am doing all that you recommend already. The options show zero balance, but stay in the line-up. Closed out equities do hide, but not the options.

I suggest you review: https://www.quicken.com/support/advanced-data-file-troubleshooting-correct-problems-quicken-windows

epkellner

The problem isn't new, I've meant to ask this for years. Upon downloads of new transactions from my brokerage account Quicken windows pop up asking if a given item is the same as xyz when it is the same company but a different strike price or a different exp date. So I have to answer numerous such pop-up windows one by one, which is kind of annoying, but ....
I wonder if other option traders see the same or is there a specific trick.
Options are not traded only in whole numbers, so decimals do not come into play,
Perhaps I should ask Quicken programmers or make suggestions to improve their product?

Sherlock

epkellner said:

The problem isn't new, I've meant to ask this for years. Upon downloads of new transactions from my brokerage account Quicken windows pop up asking if a given item is the same as xyz when it is the same company but a different strike price or a different exp date. So I have to answer numerous such pop-up windows one by one, which is kind of annoying, but ....
I wonder if other option traders see the same or is there a specific trick.
Options are not traded only in whole numbers, so decimals do not come into play,
Perhaps I should ask Quicken programmers or make suggestions to improve their product?

When we import information regarding a security provided by a financial institution identified by a CUSIP ID not been previously seen, Quicken will prompt us to provide the matching Quicken security.  As we usually enter transactions prior to import, so the unmatched Quicken security usually already exists and is easily identifiable.  Otherwise, it is necessary to create the correct new security in Quicken at import.  

epkellner

I do not enter transactions prior to import and downloads use symbols, not Cusip #. The options downloads don't match, except for the underlying stock symbol, but not strike or expiration date, yet it asks "is it the same as (same stock but different strike or expiration) - one should think the algorism should figure it out that it is not a match. This is in addition to the fact that my holding list is way too long because of all the zeroed out option positions still showing.

Sherlock

epkellner said:

I do not enter transactions prior to import and downloads use symbols, not Cusip #. The options downloads don't match, except for the underlying stock symbol, but not strike or expiration date, yet it asks "is it the same as (same stock but different strike or expiration) - one should think the algorism should figure it out that it is not a match. This is in addition to the fact that my holding list is way too long because of all the zeroed out option positions still showing.

Quicken uses the CUSIP ID value provided by the financial institution to match the online security to a Quicken security.  If you have mismatched the security, I suggest you uncheck the Matched with online security on the Edit Security Details window.  Unmatched Quicken securities are available to be matched to an online security when Quicken next encounters an unmatched online security.

Note:  It is the third-party quote service that uses the ticker symbol.

q_lurker

@epkellner -- I suggest you search deeper into this community for posts about Options trading.  Look particularly for posts by Kevin Osborne @K.O. (Win-Premier)   who has long term experience with options and Quicken.  These posts among others may be helpful - https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/19594060#Comment_19594060
- https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/19682168#Comment_19682168

You can search this community using the built in Search box, or using the string 'site:community.quicken.com ' as part of a Google search.     

epkellner

@q_lurker -- thanks for the tip and it appears this problem is long-term and the conclusion seems to be to live with it (as far as the matching goes). I still don't see an answer as to hiding or deleting positions showing 0 balance (in options only - as the stock positions hide ok).

q_lurker

epkellner said:

@q_lurker -- thanks for the tip and it appears this problem is long-term and the conclusion seems to be to live with it (as far as the matching goes). I still don't see an answer as to hiding or deleting positions showing 0 balance (in options only - as the stock positions hide ok).

My only comment on the hiding aspect is NOT from personal experience.  But you do need to be sure you are closing the positions correctly.  It has been shown that you can have a short position in a stock and a long position in the same stock in the same account.  If those two quantities equate, then Quicken will show the holding as 0 shares, even though it is a long lot of +X and a short lot of -X.  I can't say how that might apply within the option trading world. 

I would expect if that did apply and the portfolio view was grouped by account, then clicking the '+' next to the security would allow you to see both positions.   

epkellner

@q_lurker -- no, the positions are closed correctly, yet they stay in the holdings list. I do notice one odd thing, it still shows quotes even so some expired years ago. No idea who, what generates those nonsensical and actually non-existing quote values or how to delete them if that should be the cause.

q_lurker

I do notice one odd thing, it still shows quotes even so some expired years ago. No idea who, what generates those nonsensical and actually non-existing quote values or how to delete them if that should be the cause.

In this context, quotes come from two possible sources - your financial institution / brokerage or Quicken's quote suppliers.

Your FI is (to my knowledge) only going to report on holdings you actually own, so I can't see them providing "nonsensical and actually non-existing quote values".

Quicken's data suppliers work solely off of ticker symbols and the program's requests are identified as limited to securities you own and securities identified as being on your watch list.

IS THAT IT?  Are these securities being shown in your portfolio view because you have them checked as on your Watch List.  Look at your Security List (Ctrl-Y) to see.  You could also exclude the Watch List 'account' from the portfolio view.  <Back to regular commentary.>

So if these options have some form of a ticker symbol that might be misconstrued and Quicken thinks you own shares, you could conceivably get bad quotes, but I'm doubtful.  

As to deleting the the bad prices, Edit the Security Details, More button, Edit Price History.  Select the prices you want to delete, Click Delete.  (But these are NOT being listed in your portfolio view because they have prices - good or bad).   

epkellner

@q_lurker -- on a closer look and clicking on + I find the answer. So even so the position shows zero balance the next line says -300 shares at some value and a transaction date (some go back as far as 2006, (shows how long I've put up with this nuisance) Going back on the transaction page to said date gave me removed shares by Schwab. Ha! Turned out that in this case it was Apple, which split in 8/31/2020 They "removed" shares to a short option position to increase the share count. Then ultimately cover short zeroed it out correctly. But for some odd reason they list a -300 share count and a dollar amount, which in turn equates the listed quote for this long past and forgotten issue.
Deleting the remove share entry resulted in a positive position balance - so no good.
Unless there is another way to clear those items off the Holdings page, I guess I am stuck with having to scroll an ever longer list of no longer holdings.

q_lurker

I can't knowledgeably comment.  Perhaps helpful for talking options and splits? 
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/18438763#Comment_18438763
or 
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7774535/managing-options-in-quicken

kornylak

Same problem. All Expired options show with zero shares, random quotes/price. And no way to get rid of them. It is rendering my investment page useless in quicken. Should be easy for the programmers to fix this, to make it comply with the "show closed lots" checkbox behavior. How about it????

kornylak

AND if anyone decides to fix the glaring error of not being able to hide expired options, they might also consider fixing the problem that "return" also shows zero, but should show the profit/loss on the option.

Randyrama

I deal with this, as well, and think I *might* know why it does this. The transactions for selling the option and buying it back to close the position show to be different lots. Do you all think this may be why it isn't recognizing this as a closed position?

Frazzled User

Randomly about half of my options that expired and posted a CVRSHRT transaction do NOT zero out the expired option "share" balance! This has been happening frequently since October or so. One trade may zero out and the next one doesn't. The handling of Schwab options entries is still TOTALLY HOSED!!! Thanks Quicken, the Schwab investing accounts are the ONLY reason I use Quicken, and now that it doesn't work, I may as well dump Quicken entirely??

epkellner

Thanks, frazzled user, my sentiment as well. Might just weigh whether its worth paying for software that doesn't work properly. Are you listening Quicken Tech Team????

whtmtn

Having recently traded options I am also discovering this issue. The closed call option disappeared but the closed put option did not. Also, the return calculation is wrong. This should be an easy fix, the position says 0 shares so why is it still in the holdings list!

ronperk

I am not seeing any straight forward way to hide options from my account holdings view even though the positions are closed and show zero shares and I have checked the hide box in the security list. This is really a nasty problem because the screen becomes cluttered with PUTS and CALLS. This should be fixable without a bunch of kludge work arounds.