Investment Performance for Money Market Funds [edited]

Tony Fong

Hi. I have a Fidelity money market fund that pays out dividends every month. I am trying to understand how the rate of return for this security is shown in Quicken. The security is a valid security which I downloaded when adding it. The security price is always $1. The monthly dividends always get added as ReinvDiv. When I open the Account Overview, the Gain/Loss for all of the categories for that security are zero. Is there a way to show the true 5% return that I am actually getting?

Also, is this return being reflected in Total IRR % in the Investments view? That view looks wacky. The account was opened in September and is definitely just around a 5% return yet the Returns By Account for year to date is 24.7% and 9.75% for the last 12 months.

Thanks for any insight.

NotACPA

Have you tried looking at the Investments Performance report? Or any other Investments report?

And there is no "gain or loss" for a MMF with a constant $1 value. What you're looking for is the return on your MMF.

I've change the title of this thread accordingly.

q_lurker

Building on the prior response from @NotACPA, Gain/Loss is a very specific investment term determined principally by how much the per share price has changed since you bought shares of the security (MMF). Thus it is not applicable to what you are seeking.

I agree that the Investment Performance Report is likely the best tool. Portfolio views (Ctrl-U) are comparable to the Account Overview Holdings views you cited but much more flexible. They can present Average Annual Returns for a variety of periods using the same calculations as the Investment Performance Report. Be cautious in interpreting other 'return' measures in those views.

This Quicken site may be of some help.

https://help.quicken.com/display/WIN/Tell+me+about+the+Portfolio+column+headings

Jim_Harman

The Gain/Loss % only looks at the share price so that will always be 0 for a money market fund.

The Avg Annual Return % is an annualized return. For a period of less than one year, it assumes the gain or loss will continue at the same rate for a full year. With a money market fund, you can select YTD for the date range.