Merging 2 securities with >100 entries each

Mike129

I have 2 securities in Quicken that are actually the same. They have the same symbol but different names in Quicken. (They originally came from 3 different brokerages and were later consolidated.)

The recommended solution I have read is to individually update each of the entries for one of the securities to the other. I'd be happy to do that, but I have >100 entries of each in Quicken, and I fear I will die of old age before completing that manually.

Any suggestions for doing this in a more automated fashion? (This is Quicken Classic for Windows.)

Thanks!

q_lurker

Whatever you do, have a backup at hand, just in case.

If you are just looking for a going-forward correction, you could use the Corporate Acquisition action to have one name acquire the other at a 1-to-1 ratio. That would insert a Remove Shares for the 'acquired' version and then a series of Add Shares using the preferred (acquiring) company - one Add Shares for each lot of the acquired company.

I suggest not giving up on the one by one edit. (Assuming your Quicken is set to use Windows settings - Edit / Preferences / Setup)

• For an applicable account, click the "Security" header to group together all the transactions you need to edit
• Copy the preferred name from one of those transactions (Ctrl-C)
• Now move to the grouping of the other security name
• Click on the transaction
• Click on the security name
• Paste over with the preferred name (Ctrl-V)
• Click Enter to move to the next transaction.
• Repeat - a bunch of clicks and Ctrl-V's — They can go pretty quickly

Mike129

Thanks! I noticed this recommendation (the Corporate Acquisition) from you on another post, but I wasn't sure of the implications of the approach. I assume that the cost basis and long-term aspect of each transaction would be retained, but I wasn't sure.

Regardless, I will certainly make a backup before attempting either approach.

Mike129

Ugh.

I tried the Corporate Acquistion path, and I thought it worked, but it now thinks the security (DODGX) has a price of $1/share. Downloading historical quotes for the security doesn't change this. The price history looks right up to today when it drops to $1/share

@q_lurker, so sorry to bother you, but any idea what I did wrong? I sort of "fixed" this by deleting the $1/share price from the price history, but I am concerned it will be confused in the future.

FYI: I looked at doing the entry-by-entry change, but I would have had to do >250 entries (as opposed to the >100 I was guessing at).

Mike129

Update: I tried downloading historical quotes again, but the $1/share price did not return. Perhaps this is fine.

I then tried to execute a sale of all shares (only in Quicken). The resulting cap gains report is a bit confusing because it lists a transaction for both versions of the "Corporate Acquisition" converted shares, but all of the "old" security names show a $0 realized gain. So, I think that is all okay.

I am a bit concerned this will bite me in the future, but it seems mostly okay. Thanks again!

q_lurker

What price per share did you enter in the Corp Acquisition form?

I don't think there is any risk in deleting the $1/share price.

You should be able to look at the cost basis for the 2(?) funds was before your actions and compare that to the cost basis of the 1 fund after. Should be the same within each individual account. If that is the case, I'd think you should be fine.

Mike129

Oops! I must have entered $1 in the form. I thought I was entering the 1:1 ratio in the 2 fields, but I guess one of the fields was the price. My bad!!!

I think the old/new cost bases are consistent, but I'll load the backup file to verify.

Thanks, again.

q_lurker

No need to load the backup. Just look at the info for the day before and the day of your action. Portfolio views, As of Dates

Mike129

Oddly the cost basis of the separate securities is $0.09 more that the resulting combined securities (over ~$164K). Not enough to make any difference, but interesting.