Unexpected Historical Return Number

[ballardian]

Hi Mark,

So I have an account that as best I can tell today started calculating the OOP Historical Gain for the cash/money market fund as 4499.4%. And I can't figure out why. I sort by OOP Historical Gain and that issue was always at the bottom but today it is at the top. And it seems VERY unlikley a cash position would ever do almost 5k of Gain.

Any ideas on what is up or what happened? Windows did crash the other day and then updated. FM was likely open at the time.

[Mark]

Hi ballardian,

Do you maybe have some transactions not recorded at a price of 1? Look at your cash transactions in the Data Register.

[ballardian]

That is the first thing I checked and all transactions are at 1. All prices also appear to be all at 1.

[Mark]

Do you have any Transfer type transactions?

[ballardian]

No.

[Mark]

And if you move the ending report date back, at some point does the figure seem more reasonable? This might help you find the problem.

[ballardian]

Hmmm. So it appears before a certain date it shows as N/A which would explain being at the bottom of the sort. Once I put a dividend in on 5/6 for 8.88 at a price of 1/share it now shows the 4000 number.

I have removed cash from this account but it was marked as a redemption at $1/share so I wouldn't expect any huge gain calculated from it.

[Mark]

What is the exact name of the field, as shown in the "Custom Report Settings" dialog box that you're looking at?

[ballardian]

The primary place I was noticing this was in Portfolio Manager - Customize (Columns) -> putting a check in "OOP Historical %Gain"

In reports I was using %Gain_AI that gave me the same numbers.

[Mark]

If you're seeing it with the field:

%Gain_AI (between)

Add the fields:

Gain_AI (between)
Out of pocket basis with AI (between)

to the Custom report as well. This will help you isolate where the extreme numbers are coming from. You can then break it down even more. If you look in the Custom Report Settings dialog box, when you select one of these fields, it shows the "Description", and how you can see more detail on each of these fields by adding the fields they are composed of.

[ballardian]

Ok. That was intersting.... OOP basis_AI(btw) on 5/5/2021 shows as -4.06. on 5/6/2021 is shows as +4.82. That is the EXACT difference in the amount of the dividend I put in for that date. (8.88 recorded as 8.8 shares a 1 dollar price).

I guess I'll remove the dividend and re-add it and see if that changes anything.

[ballardian]

I removed the dividend from BND and it went back to N/A for OOP Historical %Gain. I added it back in -- 5/6/21, Distribution Type = Dividend, not reinvested value = 8.88 and it jumped right back to the 4499.4% number again.

I'm on the most updated versions:

2020.16.9.100
Quote Module: 562
Transaction Module: 245

[ballardian]

I tried adding a dividend in a second sub account and it appeared to work as expected.

Is is possible this single money market fund data file is corrupted somehow?

[Mark]

No, I don't think the file is corrupt. Look at the 2 numbers, and divide them. They should come out to the %Gain_AI (between) amount.

If you use the non-AI versions, do you get the same results? Do you have bond style interest assigned to this investment? See "Investment Properties... / Income".

[ballardian]

Neither BND nor VMFXX are set to any income style both are set to: No Income

OK. So.... on the day before I record a dividend in ETF1 -- MoneyMarket Reports:
OOP basis_AI(btw): -4.06
Gain_AI(btw): Same as afterwards
%Gain_AI: N/A

On the day after I record a single 8.88 dividend from ETF1 into MoneyMarket. MoneyMarket reports:
OOP basis_AI(btw): +4.82
Gain_AI(btw): Same as before
%Gain_AI: +4,4499.4%

Gain_AI(btw)/OOP basis_AI(btw) = 44.9937... so that seems to line up with 4499.4% BUT the OOP_basisAI(btw) appears to be where the starting issue is. It literally jumps the exact amount of the single dividend I added 8.88.

It seems strange to me that basis jumped that much? Unless I'm really missing something which I think I must be.

I went back to the last distribution on 4/7 and the OOP basis_AI(btw) was -17.xx and after it was only -4.06. I also in Jan moved a lot of money from the money market fund into another issue so my current shares aren't that many. The MoneyMarket fund also used to have interest income and looking at that it has been reduced to almost for the past year or so. As well as I have removed money from this account in the past a few times.

It looks like this last dividend crossed me over from a negative cost basis to a positive cost basis which is why the % finally showed up. I can't conceptually wrap my head around this to know this makes sense...have a moneymarket account say 4499.4% return. My other sub accounts with a similiar sweep report 0.2% increase.

How does the cost basis get so .... influenced and different?

This MM fund was a replacement for an old one for the broker. I recorded the final transer as a redemption of Old.MM and purchase of New.MM. All at a $1 per share.

I still feel like I am missing something that I don't understand.