New Guy Struggling with OX downloads and options importing

[travelboysteve]

Hi Mark,
I looked high and low for answers, went through the tutorial, and I am stuck.
I am trying out your software to perhaps use it to keep track of maybe 5-10 clients.
My problems are when I have been using my own account to do some testing.
Here's the layout that I am testing, real basic, but problematic so far.
I only have 1 master account, and 1 sub account, (mine), with another sub account (IRA) that has a zero balance at my brokerage. Only the IRA has a zero balance.

#1 When I do a transfer from optionsexpress, everything seems to go in fine, but the balances are off between FM and OX.
#2 Without changing a thing, I go to reconcile the account, and it brings up a new cash account that is astronomical in quantity and shares making the balance like 736,000,000. I wish I had that much dough,....
#3 I know I am missing some settings somewhere and I just simply can not find where to either edit this or ensure the transfer settings are correct.
For your info, my trading involves credit spreads using options so there is a cash margin amount in the account along with excess cash and neither of these amounts seems to be coming through. The total cash balance is simply wrong.
I am wondering if I should somehow just simply transfer positions only because they seem to come through fine.
But herein lies the eventual problem.
If I had to send out a report to a client, their balance would be wrong as no cash would be included. This would need to be included obviously.
This seems to be a bummer because I really like the platform so far.
I am looking for a software that has little to no manual input required because I trade frequently and this would get to be cumbersome.
I hope I have clarified my problems.
For the record, I have started 3 times with brand new accounts, and each time,a different balance appears, and no, this is not during market hours.
Thanks,
Steve

[Mark]

Hi Steve,

1)
How exactly are you transferring from OptionsExpress? Are you retrieving just transactions, or are you using the New Portfolio Wizard and retrieving both transactions and positions?

What may be happening is if you are retrieving historical transactions only, you may be off by the amount of balances before historical data is available on the OptionsExpress OFX server. Many brokers only keep historical data for a certain period of time (90 days is the shortest I've heard of). If you're only getting transactions, and your broker doesn't have the full history, your balances will be off, and you'll have to correct this manually.

If however you use the New Portfolio Wizard as described in the Getting Started Tutorial under the "Retrieve Historical Transactions and Positions" section your balance should end up correct. In this case, Fund Manager retrieves all available transactions, and then also records adjustments to get your balances correct to the current position balances.

2) Is this balance listed in the "Fund Manager" column, or the "Statement" column? Notice, this dialog shows the balances of every investment in both Fund Manager and from your statement. It lists the share balances in Fund Manager, and from your statement, and then what the difference is.

3) You can track cash. Your broker may not report the cash side of transactions, but you can set up a default cash account in Fund Manager, and when you retrieve transactions, check the option to automatically record corresponding entry in default cash account.

In general, the hardest part is getting started, and getting things set up right. If you are lucky enough to be trading with a broker that has an OFX server this makes updating transactions going forward much easier.

[travelboysteve]

Hi Mark,
Thank you for the speedy response.
I am transferring all data back to when I opened this particular account in Feb. Does this mean I may have to check each and every trade to see if they are missing some? Wow, I hope not. It all looks correct glancing at start and end dates. Using the wizard, I am transferring correctly all historic and current positions. But when it finishes out, it seems to be off by a small amount. I am thinking cash margin or margin equity may be the culprit as they display as vaues in my OX account.
The strange cash amount seems to be coming through as "shares" times price, so this is where the 736 million balance comes from. The stranger thing is, I can't figure out how FM came up with the amounts it IS using.
I did set up default cash account according to the tutorial, is there a trick or setting that I need to pay particular attention to? In OX the option requirements and any other cash is totaled in their money market heading.
After I remove the "cash" investment and create a new one with the proper settings, I go to reconcile and it just wipes out my new cash investment, replacing it with a random set of values, so it seems.
I have tried just letting it run, (reconcile), but it always comes back from OX with this inflated cash amount that messes everything up, and I can't seem to edit it in the last reconcile dialogue box.
I will keep trying your platform as I won't be using it for a large group of clients or funds, it would just be nice to get my test account up and running........You mentioned an OFX server, is that what OX uses, because I have no idea,.....I will eat dinner, erase the main portfolio, and try again. Could it be because I am using the trial version?

[travelboysteve]

Hi Mark, One last thought,
I am wondering if FM is seeing the credit spreads as "purchased stock" and does not include the cash being held.
I can't imagine that is it, 1 long, 1 short, sort of like a covered call really, only difference being the net credit,...your thoughts?
Again,
The positions seem to come in just fine, it's this stupid cash balance I am struggling with,.....
thanks,Steve

[travelboysteve]

Hey Mark,
So I have attempted to resolve the cash problem.
Now I have it down to being incorrect because it does not transfer any of the money I put into the account. Only the debits during transactions.
So now, it shows a negative balance and reduces the total account balance in FM. I looked around in OX for help, but their data just goes out as is.
I went step by painful step in the tutorial. 3 more times with the same result.
One thing I am not clear on, if I download directly into FM, do I need to also download say a QIF file as well. The instructions were not clear on that. I presume it is 2 ways to obtain data. I tried it both ways, and it gets worse with the QIF file. I tried deleting all the investment files and starting fresh each time. What I get, is a portfolio balance of -$xxxxx
I'm frustrated that OX and FM can't seem to get the easiest part of my account figured out.
Is there a way to bypass it or enter it manually and avoid all this nonsense?
Please help,........
Thanks,Steve

[travelboysteve]

OK, so now I still can't get the cash amount right, and now it is not showing the long options I hold in the value report or in the basic account value.
What am I missing?
Please know I have run my own business accounting for over 20 years and I am pretty competent with financial software,...
The problem I am having is being able to over ride imported data.
it seems FM wants to calculate my cash and certain positions it's own way.
why won't it show my long call option positions?
They clearly show the positions, but are not part of the totals,.....
your thoughts?
Should I try downloading the trial version again?
That is the ONLY thing I have not tried yet.

*** note, I noticed in each of the last 3 attempts to download from OX, it did not count the shares of stock I had in the account. It would list them and the calls I have written against them, but showed a quantity of zero shares.
I had to reconcile and manually add them.
Please tell me this is not par for this platform?

[Mark]

Hi Steve,

When retrieving transactions or positions this is using the OFX server of your broker (OX).

You can manually override anything you want. The key is to get the share balance correct. Values are simply current closing prices time shares owned. The share balance cannot be directly specified, it is a combination of all recorded transactions up to the date you are looking at the share balance. You can view/edit/delete all your transactions in the Data Register under the "Investments (all)" data type.

Running a reconciliation does not change the share balances. It simply shows the Fund Manager balances and compares them to the retrieved statement balances. You also have the opportunity to manually edit any investment so that the balances can be made to match.

It sounds like a short web conference might be the easiest way to help resolve these issues. If you'd like, please call me on Monday at 480-705-0129. (I'm not in the office today.) You can call from 9-5 PST. If you'd prefer I call you, please email me your phone number and a good time to call. As long as you have a high speed internet connection we can do a web conference and work through this together.

[travelboysteve]

PM sent,.........