Transfer Short Investments between Sub Portfolios

[greatguy29]

How do I transfer a short position from one subportfolio to another.

I am getting the message "Please enter a positive number of shares" in the transfer shares between investments window.

My shares available is negative, since my position is short.

[Mark]

Hi greatguy29,

The "Transfer Between" wizard doesn't support transferring short positions. You can do it manually yourself. A couple choices:

1) If you're moving it to a new account, you can just move the whole investment.

2) If you have 2 investments, and you only want to move the shares from one to another, you can manually record the transfer out and in transactions. If you have multiple lots you can use the "Open Lots" report to get the tax basis of each lot for purposes of recording the transfer in transactions. Record 1 transfer out for all the transferred shares, and 1 transfer in for each open lot transferred.

[flight]

Mark, I am actually doing one of these in my account.

Can you advise how to fill in the fields?

For example. For the account with the short position, I am recording a Transfer In. It asks for:
date
shares
market value
OOP cost value
tax cost base - Date acquired & value

Are all of these necessary to input, and can you offer any help?

The data and shares are self explanatory, but could you some assistance elsewhere.

thanks

[Mark]

Hi flight,

Yes, you should fill in all of those when transferring shares. Press "Help" in that dialog for definitions of each field. The "market value" and "OOP cost value" are the value of the transferred shares. If you are transferring in a negative number of shares then the market value should also be negative, and the value of those shares on the date of the transfer. The OOP cost value would also be negative for negative shares, and the amount you received (plus distributions) for selling those shares you're transferring. The tax cost basis is the date you sold them, and how much you received for selling them short.

[flight]

Just to be specific. Let's say I am Short 1 share of IBM in Account A.

Account A: -1 share IBM, Cost Basis -$100

On 9/15/16, I transfer the entire account A to account B.

I would record:

Account A:
Transfer In +1 share IBM, let say market value +$110, OOP Cost +$100, Tax cost base +$100

and for Account B:
Transfer Out -1 share IBM, market value -$110, OOP Cost -$100, Tax Cost Base -$100

[flight]

And Mark, is there anyway to copy the new investment from Account A to Account B, because it doesn't exist in Account B at the moment.

thanks

[Mark]

Hi flight,

Account A:
Transfer Out, -1 share, -110 market value

Account B:
Transfer In:, -1 share, -110 market value, -100 OOP cost value, tax cost basis: date you originally sold short and -100 for value

To move the investment from Account A to Account B, just drag/drop it using the Portfolio Editor. Drag from the list view on the right, drop onto the desired destination sub-portfolio in the portfolio hierarchy on the left.

[flight]

Thanks Mark,

For the 2nd part of the question, I was looking for a way to copy just the investment, and not the transactions. I think if you drag/move, you are essentially moving the entire transaction history from one portfolio to another.

What I am getting at is, when I do a transfer, the receiving account is recording a new investment, since it doesn't exist before, and I thought there might be an easier way to set it up as opposed to creating a New Investment.

[Mark]

Hi flight,

You can either use the "New Investment" dialog, or you could also use "File / File Operations / New Investment from Existing...".