Preferred Stock Symbols

[Rob191]

I'm setting up Fund Manager and have run into a problem with a preferred stock. Transactions come from Schwab who recognizes FPC+A or FPC/PRA as valid symbols. It looks like none of the price servers used the same symbols. MSN and Google use FPC-A. Yahoo uses FPC-PA and there are no hits on Bloomberg.

I guess I can set the symbol to the one Schwab knows, then turn off the price updates and do them manually. But I'm wondering if there's a better solution. Any thoughts on resolving this problem where the transaction server and price servers use different symbols for the same preferred stock?

Thanks,
Bob

[Mark]

Hi Bob,

You can just change the symbol to the one used by the quote server. This does not prevent transaction retrieves from working properly as transaction retrieves are done via matching up CUSIP, not symbol. Price retrieves are done via symbol.

If you have many investments like this and don't want to have to change the symbols all the time, you can also consider just updating prices via a transaction retrieve. Whenever you retrieve transactions your prices are also updated from the broker.

[paul3nt]

Bob:

It is vexing that Finra or NASDAQ or someone hasn't standardized the symbols for preferred stocks. Because FM seems to favor Yahoo Finance for price updates I would recommend you change the symbol to XXX-PA, for a Series A preferred from common stock symbol XXX ( e.g. for Citicorp's preferred series A use C-PA.)

A partial list of the different Preferred symbol conventions for e.g. WR Berkeley's preferred Series A is :

Yahoo Finance: WRB-PA
TD Ameritrade, Google Finance : WRB-A
NYSE, Big Charts, Fidelity: WRBPRA
Market Watch : WRB.PRA
E*Trade : WRB.PR.A
Schwab: WRB+A
Scottrade : WRB.A
Interactive Brokers: ? ( does anyone know this one ?)

Paul3NT

[Rob191]

Thanks Mark and Paul for your suggestions.

Just a comment from a new guy, Fund Manager seems to be a great product with a comprehensive and well written Help function and a fantastic message board. Thanks to all.

Bob