Does "transfer between..." transfer gain/loss for each lot?

[tomseeley]

I've just found how to record transfers within a single IRA account at a single broker, from one of their funds to another, within the same IRA. I'm using FIFO in all cases, when I use FM. The transfers I've just figured out how to record are from stock funds (with gains/losses for each lot being transferred) into money market funds.

When I look at the data after I record the transfer in/out, it appears to me that FM "carries" the gain/loss associated with each lot in the source fund into the destination fund. Am I reading the data right?

I have no problem with that, since all my funds are in IRAs and gains per se aren't taxable by themselves; the whole withdrawal once I take it out is taxable.

My confusion is that FM records a "gain" in my yearly performance report, even though I've transferred funds into money market accts in my IRAs. Strictly speaking, there's no gain or loss associated with money market funds; from day to day they're all worth a buck a share.

So am I reading FM correctly even in this case? Or am I missing something completely!

[Mark]

Hi tomseeley

Is there some reason you're using transfers instead of buys/sells? Buys/sells are more straight-forward, and since you are in an IRA, there are no concerns about capital gains/losses. Just a thought...

When you record transfers, you record the OOP cost of transfer in transactions, and for transfer out transactions, the OOP cost of the transferred shares are calculated for you. You would want to keep these equal, so the OOP cost transferred out equals the OOP cost transferred in.

When you are looking at the Portfolio Performance report, that report is calculating gains/losses based on OOP costributions/withdrawals. There is an option to control whether you want to use market value or OOP for transfers in these cases. See "Options / General Preferences... / Other / Transfer Transaction OOP Calculations Use:". You can set this to either 'Original OOP' or 'Market Value'.

[tomseeley]

Aha! I was doing it with buy/sell until I found the transfer between function and thought I'd get cute! But I see your point. In order to avoid the source of my confusion, and since it really doesn't matter in an IRA, I'll go back to the way I did it before!

Thx!