Incorrect Split Transaction Retrieval from Yahoo Historical

[LynneB]

I'm using the Professional edition to retrieve historical data (prices, splits and dividends). For the past few months this process occasionally resulted in improbably large (or small) values for Alpha and other statistics. The problem seems to be how FM is interpreting Yahoo's data, which itself is problematic.

For example, the ETF "JNK" did a reverse split on May 6, 2019. Here's the detailed log of the price retrieval:

*** Returned Data:
Date,Stock Splits
2019-05-06,3/1
*** End of Returned Data:
Updating: "JNK"
Split for JNK with ratio = 3.000000 on 5/6/2019
Retrieving from server: (YAHOO-HISTORICAL)


This "3/1" split is retrieved by FM as "3 for 1", but it should actually be "1 for 3". To verify, here's how the split was described in the press at the time: "... JNK will trade at a post-reverse split price of around $105, following a 1:3 reverse split." Of course, the upside-down split ratio makes it impossible to display split-adjusted historical prices correctly.

I found this problem in all splits for 2019. The workaround is to edit the split, then reload prices.

[Mark]

Hi LynneB,

Thanks for pointing this out. It appears Yahoo changed the format of how they report splits. We have just now released an update to fix this. Use "Help / FM on the Web / Check for Updates..." to get quote module 542.

[LynneB]

Thank you for working this Father's Day weekend on this! FM is working correctly now.