CD value updates

Question

My CDs from Fidelity downloads prices despite unchecking the ''download quotes'' box on my security list.

I have manually deleted all prices other than the original price of the CD. It appears that it updates start again after there is an interest payment.

Upon purchasing the CD Quicken default lists the security as a bond changing the security to a CD doesn't eliminate the situation.

Disassociating from it's symbol does not help. If I do that, as soon as there is an interest payment Quicken wants to associate it with a security ether existing, or creates a new security.

q_lurker · Answer

The box for "download quotes" box is really for downloading quotes for securities that are not held. Securities for which there are no holdings will not, by default, download quotes so that box needs to be checked if you want quotes to be downloaded for them.

I don't see it that way. In this context, there are two sources of downloaded prices - Quicken and the brokerage.

The Download Quotes checkbox applies only to the Quicken sourced data. Quicken further filters that process by limiting the downloaded data to only securities held in an account or associated with the watchlist.  That data can be real-time or delayed 15-20 minutes. It includes hi/lo/closing and volume data for the most recent 5 days. (Through a separate data supplier and request historical prices are available intermittently for up to 5 years.)  These downloads require a valid ticker assigned to the security.

The prices downloaded from the brokerage are part of the brokerage reporting the value of the securities and the account. Some may report real time or the prices might be the last closing prices. These are always (to my knowledge) only single values, no hi/lo/volume data nor any older data. Some brokerages have in the past opted to only provide that pricing data if they also were sending transactional data.

For me, the Download quotes process is greatly important to my financial tracking within Quicken.

Boatnmaniac · Answer

The CDs sold by Fidelity are brokered CDs.  They are different from CDs you would buy from a bank or credit union.  Brokered CDs are traded on the open market, just like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs and crypto, so market values change.  Bank CDs are not traded on the open market so the value remains constant.

Brokered CD market values change between the dates of purchase and maturity based upon what investors in the secondary market will pay for them….and they usually will pay less than face value for them.  Bank CD values do not change but if you redeem them early you will incur some sort of penalty.  So, with both types of CDs, if you do not hold them to maturity you will take a financial hit of some sort.

I am curious why you want to stop Fidelity from downloading quotes for your brokered CDs.  If you don't permit quotes downloads then Quicken cannot provide you with accurate investments value, net worth and performance data.

In answer to your inquiry (at least, this is my understanding):  A matched security will default to downloading quotes when you have holdings of it, even with the "download quotes" box unchecked.  You can stop it from downloading for a while by unmatching it from the online security but once there is some sort of investing activity downloaded (i.e., interest) you will be prompted to match that activity to the CD and it will start downloading, again.

The box for "download quotes" box is really for downloading quotes for securities that are not held.  Securities for which there are no holdings will not, by default, download quotes so that box needs to be checked if you want quotes to be downloaded for them.

There are a couple of ways I can think of to prevent CD quotes from downloading if that is what you really want to do:

* After downloading the CD purchase into Quicken, unmatch it with the online security.  Then when Fidelity downloads the interest payments transactions, do not accept them, delete them and then manually enter them.  This way the CD will not get rematched with the online security, again.
* Purchase CDs that only pay interest at maturity.  Then you could unmatch the CD after downloading the buy from Fidelity and you should not get any new quotes downloaded until the maturity date.

BTW, Quicken does not default brokered CDs to "Bonds".  That is how Fidelity downloads them…as do most brokerages that deal with brokered CDs.  That's because brokered CDs are really a special type of Bond where you are lending money to a bank (instead of a a government entity, utility or business) for a specific rate of return and for a specific period of time.

What I do with my brokered CDs:

* Leave the security as the downloaded "Bond"
* Leave the bond type as "Other Bond Type"
* Created a custom Asset Class of "CDs" and assigned this to the Asset Class.