Bug: Quicken does not report the correct account value if the account contains an option.
If I purchase 1 option of XYZ for say $2.00, Quicken chooses to enter that as if I had purchased 100 shares of XYZ for a total of $200 (+commision). Now there is nothing wrong with that since it represents the actual outlay from the account.
However, from that point on, I think Quicken computes the contribution XYZ makes to the total value of the account by multiplying the current share price of the stock by 100. That certainly seems wrong. The correct way is to multiply the current price of the option times 100.
If I'm right about this then as long as you hold one or more options in an account, Quicken no longer reports the correct total worth of the account which makes tracking investments very sloppy and inaccurate.
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I do options in Quicken. I think you're using the XYZ symbol for the option. This would yield the incorrect balances. I create a new security (example: XYZ Call 10/17/2023 5.00).
I do a manual price adjustment on the option. This way, my monthly balances are correct.
If needed, you can do option price adjustments as often as needed.
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@fciani Thanks for your help. If you bought one contract of your XYZ Call 10/17/2023 5.00 example for $2.00 would you enter the quantity of 1 and a price of $200?
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No. I enter the option price as $2 with a quantity representing the equivalent # of shares the option contracts are equal to.
When I sell an option, I use the Short Sell category to record the premium. When I close out the position, I use the Cover Short Sell. If the option is expiring worthless, the price is 0.00 so I keep all the premium. If not, then whatever the sale price is.
When I buy an option, I use the Buy shares to open and the Sell shares to close.
Since each option contract = 100 shares, it appears that I have more shares than I really do, but the option symbol is not the underlying stock so this does not interfere with the true portfolio totals. At the end of the month I manually adjust the option prices to match those on my statement such that the Quicken totals match my monthly statement.
I haven't really tried to download my stock transactions directly. If you do, and you can download option contracts, then I would suggest that you name the option contract in the same format as the broker. That my eliminate the manual adjustment I do at the end of the month assuming Quicken will recognize the option name/symbol.
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When I sell an option, I use the Short Sell category and use the price of option and the # of shares each contract represents. For example XYZ Call option at 2.00 for 100 shares. When I close the position, I use the Cover Short category. If the option is expiring worthless, the price is 0.00.
When I buy an option, I use the buy and sell share categories as if I was buying the stock.
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