Why so many Place Holders after downloading E Trade Transactions? Makes this useless

When I down load my information from E Trade there are so many place Holders makes the situation impossible. The software should automate the process not complicate it.
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  • chappyII
    chappyII Member
    Over 9 securities. 2 to 3 place holders on each one. Called a Quicken Tech person and he was clueless. After a few pointed questions we all of a sudden developed a communications probably and this was after waiting 30 minutes. Customer service was lacking in my case.
  • NotACPA
    NotACPA SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    This might take some effort and time, but to REALLY resolve the matter you need to pull out your printed ETrade statements and resolve those placeholders 1 by 1 ... starting with the oldest place holder for any security.  Then proceed to the next security.
    In general, they are caused by unrecorded transactions, because ETrade downloads each security held, and the units thereof, with each download and then compares that to what's shown in Q.  Any discrepancy results in a Placeholder.
    BUT multiple placeholders in a single security indicates that there are multiple un-recorded transactions (or mis-recorded transactions) for that security.
    SO, the question presents itself: How often are you downloading from ETrade?  Because, in general, a download initiated from within Q only goes back 30-90 days, depending upon the brokerage/bank/card/etc.

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

  • Sherlock
    Sherlock Member ✭✭✭✭
    Placeholders are an indication that the share balances in an account differ between Quicken and the financial institution.  This difference may be temporary, an indication that the securities are not properly matched, or an indication that transactions are not been properly entered.  I suggest you reconcile the account with a statement from the financial institution.
  • Tom Young
    Tom Young SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    The suggestions above to reconcile your Quicken Account to the Financial Institution (FI) holding the securities really is the only way to really get things right.  The assumption is, of course, that the FI is sending you the correct number of shares to balance to, and I know from experience that the number of shares transmitted from the FI isn't always correct.
    I have found that Schwab frequently sends me a ReinvDiv transaction (X number of shares bought at $Y per share) but then Quicken immediately tells my my Account is "short" that same X number of shares!  (Obviously Schwab is sending a share balance that's before the shares bought in the ReinvDiv transaction.)  Since I never, ever, ever accept placeholders and since I can see the issue right in front of me, I ignore the suggestion to accept the placeholder.  If I allowed Quicken to enter placeholders in my Account automatically, I'd expect I'd have hundreds of placeholder entries in my Account - 2 for each ReinvDiv if I'm not mistaken.
    Moral of the story: Don't allow Quicken to automatically post placeholders.
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