Income by Security report - show basis of each security and compute % by that [Edited]

wtsmith71
wtsmith71 Quicken Windows Subscription Member
edited March 23 in Reports

It would be more meaningful if the report would show the basis of each security (the amount invested in it) instead of (or in addition to) its current market value. Then compute the % income using the basis instead of the current market value. This would make it a much more meaningful tool for the purpose of evaluating the actual income-generating performance of the income-focused components of a buy-and-hold-oriented portfolio.

To elaborate: when you have allocated a certain percentage of your portfolio to long term income generation (and safety) then what you are interested in, for purposes of periodically reviewing and making adjustments, is how those securities have performed in terms of generating income as a percentage of what you allocated to them (and what you are not so interested in, is how they have performed from a market value/price perspective).

And to that end it would also be useful if, for the time period selected for the report, it could show not only the income but also the applicable basis for any securities that were fully or partially sold some time during that reporting period. For example, suppose I run the report for a period of one year and during that year I had sold one half of my holdings in a particular security. The result (in the current design of the report) is to show the total income the security generated during the period, and the market value of my holdings of the security at the end of the reporting period, thus (incorrectly) inflating by more-or-less 2x, the reported income percentage. If the percentage was computed on the basis of the investment instead of on the market value, it would be accurate. (The same issue arises in reverse when holdings of a particular security are increased, rather than decreased as just described.)

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  • Brent H
    Brent H Quicken Windows 2017 Member ✭✭

    yes the report is confusing in its current form. It details nicely the transactions but it doesn't hit the highlight of what was invested, and what it returned with time value of money. Would be nice to see a refresh of this one using some of the thought process in the Lifetime overview report. Showing a summary of annual returns, or 1, 3, 5 y and lifetime returns as options would be helpful.

  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Brent H Have you looked at the Avg Annual Return columns in the Investing Portfolio views and the Investment Performance Report? They do an IRR calculation and may be what you are looking for.

    QWin Premier subscription
  • Brent H
    Brent H Quicken Windows 2017 Member ✭✭
    edited May 21

    No I had not. I am looking at that now and that is a good report, after making some adjustments to the filtering. Thank you for the suggestion. I assume you were directing me to the Investment Performance report. After removing a few of the outliers ( incorrect book value, missing transactions) I see a report that does make sense. I can relate quite clearly to the stars and dogs in that report, and its giving me insight into adjustments to consider for long term holds.

  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Investment Performance Report is nice because you can click on Show Detail to see what went into the IRR calculation.

    The same IRR data is available in the Avg Annual Return columns in the Portfolio views, but only for fixed time periods.

    Note that the IRR calculation is annualized, so it is not very meaningful for periods of less than one year.

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