Newbie question about download call option transactions

[slboomer]

Hi,
I just downloaded transactions from Scottrade including some call options.
What I am confused about is I see two transactions for each call option that I sold on Apr 1 and 2. 1st a buy for zero dollars on 2/25 (never happened) then a "sell to open" on the correct date. Can I delete the fictitious buy, or is that some sort of placeholder?

[Mark]

Hi slboomer,

I'm not sure why there was an extra transaction. It may be something Scottrade records when selling call options. If you'd like to see the actual data sent down by Scottrade, you can look in the log files after a transaction download. For details on these log files, see the bottom of this page:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/tintrtv.html

If you determine this isn't a real transaction, it is perfectly fine to delete it.

[surendar jeyadev]

I find similar 'fake' transactions in my Banc of America Inv. Serv.
retrieves. For a dividend payment, there is

1. Dividend payment entry (right arrow)
2. Two transactions with the amount negative
3. One transaction with a positive amount

I do not reinvest dividends and they end up in the cash
(money market) account. I assume that the extra entries
of BofA's internal moves from cash to money market.

As there are so many to worry about, I just choose
'Select None' in the transaction list window and then just
select the ones I want. The rest never enter any of the
files!

Trying to find which ones to choose and which ones to
ignore takes some time, but once you have it, it is a snap
to import just the data you want.

Hope this helps.

sj