Calculating ROI when there are spin-offs

[Mary Kennedy]

I am trying to get ROI squared away for a company that split itself in two. I now own 200 shares of each company. FM correctly imported Company B as a new acquisition with zero cost basis. However:
(a) In the next two weeks B's price went up quite a bit and FM can't seem to calculating any ROI for it. It just has an NA in the ROI column, and I'm guessing that is because there was zero cost to start with.
(b) also, FM did not realize that Company B came from Company A, so the ROI for Company A now reads as a negative 54%, presumably because its price went down when it split in half.

Is there a way to manually enter this transaction so that FM will be able to follow both companies properly?

[Mark]

Hi Mary Kennedy,

Instead of retrieving/importing from your broker, you are usually better off utilizing the "Spin-Off Wizard" in Fund Manager. Often times the new shares will come in with a cost of 0, which leads to the kind of results you were seeing. If you instead use the spin-off wizard, Fund Manager will properly allocate the cost basis/performance between the original parent and the new child investment. You may want to delete the transfer in or zero cost purchase in the child, and then use the spin-off wizard. Right mouse click on the parent investment and choose "Investment Data / Spin-Off..." and fill out that dialog. Press "Help" in this dialog for more information about using that wizard.

[Mary Kennedy]

Wow! Thanks for this. I had no idea that wizard was there. What a wonderful program you have built!