Retrieved vs Received Dividends

[Mary Kennedy]

DoubleDividends.jpg (64.16 KiB) Viewed 3664 times

Hi Mark. I am attaching a picture of the source of my dilemma. You can see that FM lists two types of transactions within my dividend-paying stocks. One is called "retrieved," the other is "received." I assume these are referencing the same transaction, as they come within days of each other. So if a dividend is scheduled for the 10th, the "retrieved" message might come on the 7th, and then the "received" message comes on the 10th.

My question has to do with how the total income is calculated. I am pretty sure the "retrieved" dividends are not counted. On the other hand, I tried deleting these from one stock and the total return went down as a result (this is obviously a stupid way to learn how the system works, bcs now I have to figure out how to recover the stuff I erased!)

My question now is how FM makes sense of these pairs of retrieved and received dividends when it calculates total returns. Is it double-counting dividends? Should I be cleaning those "retrieved" things out of the record?

[Mark]

Hi Mary Kennedy,

It looks like you've double recorded your dividends. The one that says "Retrieved Dividend: 0.4 per share" in the memo is from Yahoo (Historical). The one that says "DIVIDEND RECEIVED" is probably from your broker when you do the transaction retrieve. Since you're retrieving transactions from your broker, you do not also want to retrieve dividends from Yahoo.

To fix this, just delete the "Retrieved..." dividends.

To prevent this from being a problem in the future, do not choose the option to retrieve dividends/splits from Yahoo (Historical). These are options when using this server. Since you're getting transactions from your broker, you don't want to also get them from Yahoo.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

For now I don’t want to retrieve dividends, but when I retrieve actual prices from Yahoo the dividends are automatically recorded and I have to delete them manually (since I have been using the Professional Version). Maybe I am overlooking something, but I don’t see where I can choose (not) to retrieve dividends in the internet retrieve settings.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Silvan,

The option is in the Yahoo (Historical) dialog. This is the only quote server that retrieves dividends, and when using it, you are given the option whether to retrieve splits or dividends, as shown here:

Yahoo (Historical) Dialog

YahooHistDlg.png (6.48 KiB) Viewed 3559 times

Just un-check those options if you don't want to get dividends from Yahoo when retrieving.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I found the dialog and those options were already unchecked. The dividends are not retrieved using the Yahoo quote server for current prices?
If so, I don't understand why I retrieved the dividends because I didn't retrieve any historical prices using the historical Yahoo server. Are there other ways I could have retrieved them without retrieving historical prices?

[Mark]

Hi silvan,

Dividends can be retrieved from Yahoo (Historical), retrieved with the transaction retrieve feature, imported from a file, or manually entered. No other quote server besides Yahoo (Historical) retrieves dividends.

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

So if I understand you well, the dividends are also automatically retrieved from the normal (not historical) Yahoo quote server.
Is there also a dialog or another setting for this server so the dividends are not retrieved when I do my regular price retrievals?
I only see this dialog when retrieving historical prices.

[Mark]

Hi silvan,

No, dividends are not retrieved when retrieving prices from the "Yahoo" quote server. That server only gets pricing data. The only quote server that can retrieve dividends is "Yahoo (Historical)".

[silvan]

Hi Mark,

Okay, thanks for the information. I will look further into it.

[gmow]

Mark, my current Yahoo Historical dialog does not have the dividend option just date range?

[gmow]

I found the issue, running personal edition. Only available on Pro Advisor.