Bond quantity and negative value for sold shares

[nelsondh]

I'm trying to get my portfolio value to reflect reality but see two issues.

One is that bonds imported from my broker when setting up FM came across as full face value. Example: a $10k bond in the broker's data came across as 10K "shares". FM wants that to be divided by 100. Because it isn't, a $10K bond is showing a value of a milion bucks (I wish!) at the currently downloaded price.I'm relatively new to FM. How do I fix that? The program help isn't "helping"!

The second issue, using bonds as an example, is that when a bond is called, the "shares" show as a negative value and so does the value. I don't understand that since once it is called its value is zero and the cash account should grow equal to the redemption value. Can anyone help with that?

[Mark]

Hi nelsondh,

Sorry about the troubles. Bonds should be retrieved from your broker properly, where it divides the face value by 100 to record the shares as FM records them. What sort of "import" did you do from your broker? Did you use the New Portfolio Wizard and retrieve transactions and positions? Which broker are you using?

To manually fix this, use the Data Register (Edit / All Data...). Select the "Transactions (all)" data type, and edit the transactions, so the shares are 1/100th the face value.

When a bond is called, you should have a sell transaction recorded. If you have a default cash account assigned, the proceeds from that sell should get deposited into your default cash account. Check the properties of your sub-portfolio to see your default cash account assignment.

[nelsondh]

Thanks for the reply. Problem is, if I select one of the bonds in the data register and click 'edit' there's no editable filed for quantity, just for price plus a few high-low options. I imported from Schwab, but long enough ago I don't recall which means I used. I'm on the latest version of FM 11.1.

On the negative value question, I'll do some digging on how I have the sweep set up and get back to the message board if I can't sort it out.

[nelsondh]

The inability to edit qunatities seems to be bond specific. I tried to edit an equity and in that case there was a field to edit quatity. Maybe aa program upgrade issue? Or some other approach? Let me know.

[Mark]

Hi nelsondh,

Your quantity is determined from your recorded transactions. What you've described is that you are in the Data Register under the "Prices" data type. You cannot edit the quantity here, only the closing price information. Instead, change the "Data Type" to "Transactions (all)". Now, you will see all your transactions, which determine your share balance. Select any one, and press "Edit...", and now you can edit the share quantity.

[nelsondh]

Tried your suggestion and bond problem is fixed.

Checked the sweep setting. None was set, so I selected the sweep account I used. FM should pick up future transacins OKnow. There is an offeset beteen sweep value in Schwab vs FM though due to past transactions not being captured in FM. Do I manually correct that in FM or is there a way to capture current value form Schwab?

Thanks for helping out a newbie! I'm a Mac guy hence expect everything to be intuitive. Run FM on a Macbook Pro using VMWare Fusion 2.0 running Windows XP. Seems to work fine except for printing. VMware doesn't recognize my Mac printer like it's supposed to, so I have to export reports to Excel if I want hard copy.

[Mark]

Hi nelsondh,

Glad you got the bond issue corrected. To adjust your cash balance, just record a new buy or sell for the amount you want to adjust by. If you want to get it from Schwab, you'd need to start that account over, by using the New Portfolio Wizard, and retrieving "Transactions and Positions". It should retrieve all available transactions, and if necessary make any adjustment entries for you, to get the current balances correct. This is necessary when the transaction history is not available back to account inception.