Correct accounting for TIPS in Quicken - Partial Solution! - But help needed!!

bobade

For years I have bought TIPS at Vanguard brokerage, and found that Quicken shows the "Market Value" of a bond holding as the "Quote/Price" times the number of bonds, not taking into account the "Bond Factor Rate" (Vanguard's name for the factor which represents growth in bond value due to the CPI-U). Consequently, Quicken's "Market Value" is substantially lower than Vanguard's "Current Balance."

I assumed this was yet another Quicken omission until I bought some TIPS at Fidelity Brokerage. In Quicken, the Fidelity TIPS had a "Market Value" which was equivalent to Fidelity's "Current Value." Looking into the Quicken Security List at an individual bond's Price History, I could see that those Fidelity TIPS consistently had a price that was the "Last Price" inflated by what Fidelity calls the TIPS' "Inflation Factor." THIS IS PERFECT!

But, no, not perfect. It would be perfect if none of my Vanguard TIPS had the same CUSIP as my Fidelity TIPS. However, I am holding some identical TIPS in both places. And in that situation, regardless of whether the bonds are in a Vanguard or a Fidelity account, Quicken's "Quote/Price" does not include the "Inflation Factor."

Can anybody explain why this is happening? Do not all price quotes in a security's Price History come from the same database; or are they brokerage specific? Doesn't it seem as if there should be some way to induce Quicken to handle Vanguard TIPS data the way it is handling Fidelity TIPS data?

q_lurker

I suggest it might be a factor of the Fidelity vs Vanguard download sequence. You might try one day doing Vanguard first, Fidelity second and the next day the opposite. See if one gives you the desired result.