Investing tab return % data shows NA

The return % data in the investing tab columns on several data sets either shows NA or the percentage seems overstated.  This has been a problem with Quicken for as long as I've been using which is many years.  Why does it seem to work for some investment lines and many others are just showing "NA".  There are no complicated transfers in these transactions.  Mainly buy/sell transactions.  Is there a fix in the works?  Can Quicken just add data that pulls annualized return data from a website such as Morningstar as alternative?

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Answers

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2019
    What Q product are you running?  What Build/Release?  (Do HELP, About Quicken for this info).
    What particular securities are you seeing this for?

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • tkstaple
    tkstaple Member ✭✭✭
    I have latest Quicken Windows subscription.  Securities involve basic mutual fund or ETF investments.  Transactions are basic buy/sell nothing complex.  As an example the investment tab column "Return % YTD" should be displayed for all since I've at least owned all investments since the beginning of the year. The majority of the fields for this column are blank for these investments but there are entries in some others.  I don't see any particular pattern in the transactions that would explain it.  The other columns of data I like to use are Average Annual Return % - YTD, 1,3,5 year.  Many of these numbers are not accurate according to what is listed online for these investments.  Don't really understand where Quicken gets these numbers.  
  • tkstaple
    tkstaple Member ✭✭✭
    Average Annual Return in Quicken is based on the timing of your Buys and Sells so unless you did no Buys and Sells during the analysis period and reinvested all your distributions, your performance will not match published figures for the security.

    Also for periods of less than one year such as YTD, the number is annualized, so for YTD it assumes the performance so far this year will continue for the rest of the year. For short periods, the ROI (%), which is not annualized, is a better measure of your performance.
    Thank you!
  • tkstaple
    tkstaple Member ✭✭✭
    edited April 2019
    q_lurker said:
    The help file description for Return%-YTD includes the following:
    • Note that this performance measure is based on downloaded data and will not be affected by changes in the Portfolio's As of date option.
    With respect to Return % YTD, it does not matter how long you have owned the security of if you owned it at the beginning of the year.

    The data-supplier often does not provide that data for ETFs and may miss it for a variety of stocks; I don't know of a specific pattern.  For my current universe of roughly 150 securities, I am showing about 15 with blank and 30 with N/A for Return%-YTD.  Those counts exclude bonds and MM for which the data would not be downloaded anyway.  

    Thank you! They probably need a new data supplier for this info.  This info is readily available on most financial sites that I use. I appreciate your answer.
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