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Portfolio Gain/Loss 1-Month, Again

isonclubikin

Does anyone really know where Quicken is getting the Gain/Loss 1-Month value in Portfolio view? I've looked around the forum and see various answers, none of which are consistent or match what I'm seeing.

In my portfolio view, I'm showing the current "Market Value" and "Gain/Loss 1-Month" of my investment accounts and their securities. Looking at the end of February (02/28/2025) and comparing the Market Value to what it was at the end of January (01/31/2025), the Gain/Loss 1-Month is shown as $4,748. But, doing some simple subtraction of the actual two Market Values gives me (what I'd consider to be the Gain/Loss 1-Month) $13,341.87. Quicken's value is darn near $10,000 off. If I assume the dates it uses to come up with that number are the same date of the previous month (i.e., 02/28/2025 to 01/28/2025), I get $8,722.59. Still $4,000 off. I saw one post that claimed Quicken used a 30 day difference to get that value. So, using that (02/28/2025 to 01/29/2025), I get $11,105.19 ($6,000-ish off). Where is Quicken getting its Gain/Loss 1-Month value?

All I want to do is get a report of all my investment accounts with their individual securities showing the market value at the end of the month and the change in market value for all of that from the end of last month. Is there any way to do that?

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isonclubikin

I'd tested the 01/28/2025 to 02/28/2025 hypothesis earlier and those numbers were still $4,000 off. So, I had Quicken generate an Account Balances report of just investment accounts with a custom date of 01/29/2025 to 02/28/2025 (which gives a 28th to 28th date report), the interval set to Month, otherwise it didn't show both dates, and Account Detail checked under Customize. I also had to uncheck all hidden securities (thought that report still shows completely sold securities (shares and value = 0) under an account if they're present in another account). I played around with that report in a spreadsheet and have figured out what's happening.

As you said, the portfolio view's Gain/Loss 1-Month value is calculated based on the same date of the month instead of the last day of the month (all other reports seem to use the last day of the month). But, 1) it doesn't do the calculation for the cash balance in the account, and 2) I don't have full pricing data for the money market sweep accounts used. I guess it's not a real security, so the only pricing data (of a constant $1) I have is for the particular dates a sweep (one way or the other) happened. If I remove those values, I get "Gain/Loss 1-Month" values that are pretty close to what they should be (usually within a penny or two - but one account is $1 off).

So, to get the report I want, I'm going to have to use that Account Balances report, massage it a bit in a spreadsheet and do the Gain/Loss 1-Month subtraction there.

Thanks for the heads-up on the dates.

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NotACPA

I don't normally use that column, and my initial figures were off quite a bit also.

BUT, when I excluded the "No Security, includes Cash", the numbers fell into line. And since both my taxable account and my wife's use the "Show Cash in a checking account" feature, which is our primary checking accounts, that exclusion made sense to me.

isonclubikin

I just tried unchecking "No Security, includes Cash." But, unfortunately, it made no difference.

Jim_Harman

I just did a test and the "Gain/loss 1 Month" is measured since the same day of the previous month. The price for the starting date is the closing price on that day. If the ending date is the 29th, 30th, or 31st and the previous month has fewer days, the starting day is the last day of the previous month.

If there were no transactions during the month and the As of date is 2/28, it is (Market Value 2/28) - (Market value 1/28) which might not be what you expect.

If shares were bought or sold during the month, the Gain/Loss is perhaps even less intuitive. It appears to be (Starting Shares) * ((Ending share price) - (Starting share price)). Splits, spin-offs, or other corporate actions might further complicate the calculation.

isonclubikin

So, to get the report I want, I'm going to have to use that Account Balances report, massage it a bit in a spreadsheet and do the Gain/Loss 1-Month subtraction there.

Thanks for the heads-up on the dates.

Jim_Harman

It sounds line you are looking for the change in market value, which is not the same as Gain/Loss as Quicken defines it. The Account Balances report will include cash that was deposited or withdrawn. On a security level, it will also include the impact of purchases and sales.

If pricing data is missing, Quicken uses the most recent earlier price it has, The should never be a gain or loss on a money market fund, because the share price is always $1.00. Sometimes with a newly purchased security Quicken does not have any closing price prior to the purchase, which can cause problems.

isonclubikin

Yes. I'm just trying to give my mother a piece of paper saying her accounts (and the stocks in them) were worth $X at the end of the month and they increased/decrease in value by $Y (and possibly by Z%) since the end of the previous month. But, I can't find a way for Quicken to give me that. I didn't realize how bad "Gain/Loss 1-Month" was as a way to do that until just now.

Jim_Harman

I like to focus more on long term performance and find the Avg Annual Return (%) columns in the Portfolio views and the Investment Performance Report to be most useful. These do an annualized IRR calculation, which takes the timing and amounts of purchases and sales into account. It is meaningful mostly for periods of one year or more.

You may also find the ROI(%) columns in the Portfolio views helpful for shorter periods.