Trouble shooting Performance Report

[mcrews]

Hello,

I've got 2 portfolios where the bond positions are showing wild numbers in the performance report but when looking at the individual securities, everything looks correct.

I'm at a loss to troubleshoot this issue.

Thank you,

Matthew

[Mark]

Hi Matthew,

Are you looking at a Portfolio Performance report? Which fields are you wondering about? If you use "Help / Help on Report..." you can get a description and generally see the equation used in calculating each field, so you can see what might be wrong.

[mcrews]

Hi Mark,

Yeah I have no idea. I have a CD that is worth $15K in an account. Look at the prices and it looks all proper. Then run a report for Q1 2018 and I get a starting value of $28K and an ending value of $17K.

There have been zero transactions related to the CD, which was bought in 2015.

The factor i'm sure is that I switched custodians during Q4'17 and Q1'18 which I'm sure is the problem but don't know why or where to dig.

Matthew

[Mark]

Hi Matthew,

Are you looking at a Portfolio Performance report?

Look at the dates of your report. The market value on any particular date is the number of shares owned, times the closing price on that date. You can use the Data Register to view all your closing prices, and share balances on each date where you have a price recorded. Select "Prices" under "Data Type" to see all your recorded closing prices/share balances. This should show you why there is a change in market value between the report dates.

[mcrews]

I am looking at the Portfolio Performance Report.

01/01/2018 Beg Value + Acc Int 28294.25
Income 112.50
03/31/2018 End Value + Acc Int 17073.68

Data Register

12/31/17 Closing Price ... $1.0 Shares ... 15,000 Value 15,044.25
03/31/18 Closing Price ... $1.0 Shares ... 15,000 Value 15,073.68

Only transactions are 37.50 income monthly

[Mark]

Hi Matthew,

Check this:

Investment Properties... / Income

for this investment. Are those values all correct? It seems like you may have a large portion of accrued interest. You can also turn off "Options / Report Preferences... / Portfolio Performance / Include Accrued Interest" and verify the values are now what you are seeing in the Data Register. They should match exactly when this option is off.

[mcrews]

Mark,

So that is the problem. It is accrued interest. I'm not sure how to remove that. When I turned off the option, the Performance Report beg/end values showed as expected.

How do I correct that. That number is clearly being skewed by something I don't see.

Thank you!

Matthew

[Mark]

Hi Matthew,

You control this under "Investment Properties... / Income". If you've got the style set to "Bond Interest" then your prices should be near $100, not near $1. It needs to be priced near $100, so the shares are 1/100th the face value, and then the accrued interest will calculate correctly. For example, if your bond is worth $15,000, you should have 150 shares near $100/share. See these tips for recording bond transactions.

[mcrews]

Yes, that makes sense.

I think I know the problem ... I moved prices from $100 to $1 to be compatible with the TD Ameritrade TRN download file. But that created other issues. Nothing is easy.

Regardless I believe I can solve it now.

Matthew