Benchmark Reinvesting

[oyz79]

I have a handful of benchmark mutual funds and ETFs setup. When looking at historical dividends for each benchmark, I see them listed. However, they are not reinvested. How can I reinvest dividends for these benchmarks?

Also, when plotting the benchmark "Portfolio/Investment(s) Price+Dist Overlay", are the non-invested dividends accounted for in the total return that is plotted for each benchmark?

[Mark]

Hi oyz79,

You can edit the distribution transactions, and check the "Reinvested" box and adjust the entry values accordingly. You would then have the option to enter at what price you purchased the reinvested shares, and how many shares were purchased. If you're retrieving historical dividends, and getting this data from the Yahoo (Historical) server there is an option to choose whether to record as "Distributed" or "Reinvested". If you use the Reinvested option, it will reinvest at the market value on the end of the day when the distribution was paid.

Yes, that graph factors in distributions, whether they were reinvested or not.

[Houstonwb]

I am downloading some funds/ETFs prices and distributions to calculate ROIs for benchmarks. Yahoo Finance occasionally has incorrect data.
What is the best way to manually correct dividends? Will my correction cause subsequent share amounts to be corrected based on the new share balance and the subsequent correct reinvested dividends?
I notice that you suggest entering zero shares, but then the balances do not update to show reinvested dividends.
Sometimes I give up and start fresh, creating a new investment with a different file name. How should I delete the old file?
FMgr shows 3 decimals of retrieved dividends. Yahoo shows 5. I am hoping FMgr is able to retrieve 5 and use that in its calculations? I ask because FMgr's longer ROIs are off compared to the fund sites by modest amounts that might be accounted for by rounding.
Any way to just download dividends to avoid repeatedly downloading a couple of decades of prices?

[Mark]

Hi Houstonwb,

To manually correct a dividend, use the Data Register. If you edit a reinvestment, and change the number of shares, that will change the share balance going forward. However, it will not change the amount/shares for already recorded future dividends. You would have to re-retrieve those, or edit them. When retrieving dividends from Yahoo, Yahoo reports the dividend/share amount, so to get the total correct dividend value, you do need to have the correct share balance recorded at the time of retrieval.

FM should retrieve the full resolution of the dist/share as reported by Yahoo. You might compare what Yahoo is showing to FM in the Data Register, and make sure you have the display resolution turned up on price. See "Options / General Preferences... / Display / Price Digits", and set it to 6. If Yahoo is showing more resolution that FM retrieves, please give me an example ticker symbol/date.

FM won't delete investment files from your hard drive. You can only "close" an investment. If you want to delete the file, you'd have to do that yourself in File Explorer or something similar.

With Yahoo (Historical) there is no option to only download dividends, you always get prices too.

[Houstonwb]

Thank you for the quick & complete reply. I think I will have to download ibb for dates around the error. Among other errors, Yahoo Finance shows distributions of
Dec 21, 2006 0.00033 Dividend
Dec 23, 2005 0.00033 Dividend
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IBB/his ... equency=1d
The iShares site shows
Dec 21, 2006 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000
Dec 23, 2005 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000
https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239 ... ionsDialog
I posted a note in their system but am not holding my breath for a correction. Any recommendations about alternative servers for historical prices?

The FMgr transaction description field shows 3 digit distributions per share in the description.
"Reinvestment Retrieved Dividend: 0.000 per share"
But I see 6 digits in the register with the preferences set to 6 and the description is now showing 6 digits. So let's say all is good.

[Mark]

Hi Houstonwb,

There are other servers you can use for historical prices, however Yahoo (Historical) is the only one that can retrieve distribution data as transactions.

The memo was probably written at a time when you retrieved and had the Price display preference set to 3 digits.