Reinvestment Problem

[tommyfs58]

Using FM 2018.15.3.100 Trial Version, to ensure its accuracy. Works like a dream with one exception. I download transactions from my broker, who invests daily cash balances in a US Govt Money Market Fund. I have selected the MM Fund as the default cash account, since the distributions retrieved from the broker come down as transactions to the MM Fund. The broker’s reports, listing cash and equivalents, are really the shares and values of the MM Fund. FM is treating the dividends whether marked Div or RnvDiv as dividends withdrawn from the portfolio. Thus the Portfolio Value Report is incorrect, by that aggregate amount. Spent several hours trying to find if I’ve got some checkboxes marked wrong, but to no avail. What can I do?

[Mark]

Hi tommyfs58,

If the Portfolio Value report is not correct, check your share balances first. Make sure you have the correct number of shares in everything. If you do, then, as long as your pricing is correct, the Portfolio Value will be correct.

It sounds like your share balance is off in your cash somehow. With cash your price is fixed at 1, and the number of shares should be the value of cash. If you have some stock that pays a dividend, you should have 2 transaction, one (non-reinvested) dividend in the stock, plus a buy transaction in cash. There is no dividend in cash for this case. If your cash earns interest, this should be a reinvested distribution, where the number of shares purchased is equal to the amount of interest.

If you have both a temporary cash sweep account, and also a money market, you may want to set up a new "cash" investment and assign that as your default cash account, instead of the money market. You might like to watch our tutorial on tracking cash.

A good place to view all this is in the Data Register under the data type of "All Transactions". If you still have questions, you can post a screen shot or two showing what you have recorded, and what happened. I can try to clarify.

[tommyfs58]

Digging deeper, I’m finding inconsistencies, which I can not explain. As an experiment, I manually created Opening Balances in one of my Portfolios. Examining the Data Register, each security has an opening balance on 12/31/2016, with NO activity before that date. I then Saved All Investments.
When I run the report “Investment Transactions” from 12/02/2016 thru 12/31/2016, I generate a report that agrees with my Broker’s written report, item by item and grand total value (correct # shares and correct price/share. It’s simply my Opening Balances.
When I run the report “Portfolio Value” for 12/31/2016, I generate a report that has 3 investments showing correct shares but different prices, resulting in a difference in portfolio value of over $1800.
Therefore, I question: where is Portfolio Value Report picking up the price per share from, if not from the Data Register?
Tell me what files you would like me to send, so you might analyze what’s going on. Thanks for your help.

[Mark]

Hi tommyfs58,

In the Data Register, notice there is a drop-down in the upper/right for "Data Type". You are looking at your "All Transactions", which shows you bought X shares at a price of Y, for a total of X * Y. That is how much you paid for those shares, which can be different from their ending market value on that date. If you change that "Data Type" to "Prices", you will see your recorded closing prices. You may have a price for that same date which is different than your purchase price (let's call that closing price Z). The market value (Portfolio Value report) is the number of shares X times that closing price on that date Z. It is not the number of shares times how much you paid, it is the number of shares owned, times the closing market price. Your purchase price and the market price are recorded separately, and can be different.

[tommyfs58]

Thanks Mark. Exactly what was happening. I cleaned up the prices, leaving only the manually- entered starting positions, and voila! Now Investment Transactions total = Portfolio Value -- a good way to start. Now I'll retrieve transactions and prices from the Internet.