Unidentified Security Issue -- Fidelity

tim222tim

The last few times I have purchased new funds with my Fidelity 401k contributions, they downloaded as "Unidentified Security". After they download, I change them to the correct fund. When I do "Reconcile Shares" the "Unidentified Security" share total I get match the share totals in "Shares in Quicken". All the other funds I have in Fidelity are fine -- it's just the newer ones.

How do I get rid of this? I've read through some article here, but they all seems to involve doing a manual download from the broker which Fidelity does not support.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Tom Young

Some other users have been having problems with Fidelity also.  There is a rumor that Fidelity will shortly be transitioning from Direct Connect for downloading to EWC+. 

One other user was having a problem with a price quote for a bond, even though the quote downloaded via Direct Connect that he could see in the OFX Log was correct.  Further investigation revealed that the erroneous quote could be found in the Cloud Sync Log, a log file associated with EWC+, though it was not clear where that quote was coming from.

Maybe Fidelity is doing some 'parallel" testing of DC and EWC+ on some user's accounts?  That's a pure guess with nothing to back it up.

You might try looking at your OFX Log and the Cloud Sync Log and see if something there shines any light on the issue.

It's been years since I've encountered an unidentified security notice, but my recollection is that if Quicken comes up with an unidentified security it first asks you if the unidentified security is actually one of the existing securities in your file, but it sounds like the transaction with the unidentified security is being entered directly into your Transaction List with "Unidentified Security" at the security's name? 

tim222tim

Yes, that's what is happening. I see "Unidentified Security" as the name. I feel like there must be some way to unlink the actual security from that name and attach it to the correct one.

Bobbo

FWIW, very frequently I get the "Unidentified Security" message due to my stock & bond purchase activity. As mentioned above, Quicken opens a box that asks me if I want to choose an existing security, or establish a new one. Maybe you are not using the box correctly?

Boatnmaniac

401k plans often include mutual funds that are not publicly traded mutual funds.  They are unique to the 401k plan.  In one of my 401k plans even the names of the unique funds were the same as the publicly traded funds but they were different funds having different share prices associated with them and different or no CUSIP IDs.  So, Quicken could not recognize them and I would need to make manual adjustments for them in transactions and pricing information that was downloaded.

If the new funds are not publicly traded mutual funds that might be the cause for "unidentified".  You should be able to find out from the 401k plan documentation provided by the employer which funds are publicly traded and which ones are not.

tim222tim

I'm familiar with the box that asks me if I want to choose an existing security and don't think I used it improperly to create this situation. Even if I did, how do I resolve this issue?

In my case these are all regular publicly traded funds.

Tom Young

So you ARE seeing that box, you ARE properly identifying the unknown security to the correct security, but the problem keeps recurring?

The "classic" way of getting things set to right when securities aren't lining up properly is to open the Edit Securities Detail window and uncheck the box next to Matched with online security.  Then when that security is downloaded you rematch it to the correct security.  You can try that but I'm not sure if it will work or not.

tim222tim

I pretty sure that when the security first came in, it went to a fund called "Unidentified Security" without any interaction on my part. Regardless, every two weeks I buy more of this fund and it definitely goes straight to a fund called "Unidentified Security". When it does the, I change the transaction to the correct security so that I no longer have any shares of "Unidentified Security".

Perhaps next time this happens I can go into "Unidentified Security" and uncheck the "Matched with online security" box. I can see that the correct fund does not have "Matched with online security" checked.

Is there any way to get edit security details of a security for which you do not have any holdings?

Boatnmaniac

Take a look at the CUSIP ID.  What does it show?

tim222tim

For what security?

Boatnmaniac

tim222tim said:

For what security?

For the one(s) you are getting the "unidentified security" message.

tim222tim

The correct security does not have a CUSIP ID. I do not know how to see the CUSIP ID for the "Unidentified Security" because I do not have any current holding of it.

Jim_Harman

If you go to Tools > Security List, is Unidentified Security one of the securities listed?

If so, click on that to display the Security Detail view, then click on Edit Details and un-check the Matched with online security box. That should clear the CUSIP for that security and display the dialog to match it to the correct security the next time you download transactions. 

Boatnmaniac

OK.  That makes sense regarding the unidentified security.  For the correct security:  Are you able to check the box on Edit Security Detail to match it with the online security?

tim222tim

Thanks! I was unaware of "Tools / Security List". I will try unchecking "Matched with online security" on the unidentified security. I'll be downloading new transaction in a couple days and will be able to see if that worked. (I'm not able to checked the "matched" box on the correct security as it is greyed.)