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Why does the Day Gain/Loss seemingly include the value of purchased stocks on that given day?

Cowxie

Noticed a large, unexpected day gain when doing an online share price update. I've just updated to R40.28 (Build 27.1.40.28 for Canada), and do not recall this happening in any previous Quicken version that I have used.
Here's the details:
-bought $15K of a particular share today, which I have not ever previously owned. I confirmed that my cash balance is $15K less than what it was yesterday.
-the market value of this account has risen by $3K since yesterday, but Quicken shows a day gain/loss of $18K
-deducting the $15K purchase price from the $18K 'gain' does indeed show a $3K gain for the rest of the holdings in this account
-note that this holding does not have a ticker symbol, thus it did not update with end of day (aka closing) price

Bottom line question is why does Quicken incorrectly show an $18K gain, when it should in fact be a $3K gain after factoring in the cash holdings reduction?

Looking forward to getting a better understanding of this. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Cheers,
cowxie

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Accepted answers

Jim_Harman

[Edited - correction] Normally when you add a new security, Quicken downloads some historical prices.

Since you had never owned this security before and it does not have a ticker, the previous price was zero. Quicken calculates the gain or loss as (today's price - previous price) * today's shares.

I think if you enter the previous day's closing price into the price history, you will get a more reasonable gain/loss value.

All comments

Sherlock

I suspect the market value of the account was at $0 yesterday. If the market value is at $18K today, then the day's gain is $18k. If you are able to include the $15k cost in yesterday's market value, the day's gain would be $3K.

Jim_Harman

Cowxie

Thanks Jim for this idea. In the 25+ years of using Quicken, I had not seen this issue arise when purchasing investments and updating end of day pricing. Will keep an eye on ensuring day-before pricing is included in future though, as it does cause the day gain/loss calc on the day of purchase to be more accurate and realistic.
Enjoy your day!
Cheers
/cowxie

q_lurker

@Cowxie
Normally, when you buy, create, or add a security in Quicken, it gets a ticker symbol associated with it and Quicken then brings in the 5-year price history that would include the prior day’s value. If the security happens to not have a ticker (like a muni bond) then that history would not be brought in. That might shed light on your current observation.

Jim_Harman

@q_lurker,
Did you read the earlier comments before posting? I think this question has already been answered and acknowledged by the OP.

q_lurker

Jim_Harman said:

@q_lurker,
Did you read the earlier comments before posting? I think this question has already been answered and acknowledged by the OP.

Apologies. I had missed the OP’s statement that the security lacked a ticker. That was the aspect I was trying to add to the conversation.