Stock Splits
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This just seems to change the total, without changing the underlying data.
Suppose I bought 100 units for $678 on Aug 13 2010 and 50 units for $420 on August 20 2011 and today there is a 2 for 1 stock split so that I now own 300 units.
In the securities detail view the register in the middle is unchanged showing 150 units but the total window to the right changes to show 300 units. How can I get the total of the units in the register to equal the display window. What ought to happen is that the register should show the two entries as being 200 units for $678 and 100 units for $420.
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1
richard_regal
on 10 Dec, 2012 09:26 PM
Anyone? Or am I missing something so blindingly obvious that you are afraid I shall take offence when you tell me what I have not done right?
2
-Kevin N.
on 10 Dec, 2012 10:11 PM
HI Richard,
I'll take a stab at this one, I can't say for sure if I'm right though.
Since the hypothetical split is happening in December, it should not effect the quantity of original shares displayed in the register that were purchased back in Aug.
If I remember correctly, MS Money performed splits in the manner that you are referring to and it was kind of confusing when it changed the original purchases by the split ratio.
It made it harder to compare what MS Money was displaying with what my statements would dispay.
It seems that MD performs splits the way it does and you're not doing anything wrong.
The 'Securities Detail' pane shows the corrected number of shares and the split history in the upper right-hand quadrant. Correct?
-Kevin N.
3
richard_regal
on 11 Dec, 2012 07:18 PM
Well not having the number of shares in the register panel add up to the number of shares you have is also confusing. It is also problematical if one acquires shares after the stock split
Suppose I bought 100 units for $678 on Aug 13 2010 and 50 units for $420 on August 20 2011 and in November there is a 2 for 1 stock split so that I now own 300 units. In December I buy a further 50 units for $250. I own 350 and yet the detail shows only 200 shares. If next February I sell 150 shares I need to be able to identify them with the original purchase block. How would I remove 150 shares from a block of 100?
You are right that Money did it the way I describe, and there is a reason for that. It is the way anyone who has to pay tax on their capital gains needs the information.
That the detail pane gives the correct total is useful, but is not enough.
(There is also a separate but related problem dealing with imported data from Money, but first things first.)
4
-Kevin N.
on 11 Dec, 2012 08:51 PM
Hi Richard,
Playing around with this a little.
When I recreate this scenario, the detail shows the correct 350 shares.
See screenshot: RichardRegal-1
When you sell the 150 shares you can allocate them in the lot matching window from the now 200 available shares of the 09/13 purchase.
See screenshot RichardRegal-2
To start using lot matching, click the 'Edit Security' button in the 'Securities Detail' view of the security in question. In the resulting form, click the 'Lot Matching' option.
HTH -Kevin N.
5
richard_regal
on 12 Dec, 2012 06:26 PM
Well everything is all over the place and nothing there is consistent with anything else. About the only thing that is correct (but not shown in your examples) is the share price line, which correctly adjusts the historical prices to account for stock splits (and which matches the behaviour of web sites that give a history). For everything else the Register does not match the price line (the correct/adjusted prices are not shown in the register) or the lot matching window (the correct/adjusted share numbers are not given in the register). The lot matching window does not match the register and nor does it match the price line as the lot matching window does not the correct/adjusted prices.
This does not strike me as less confusing than having everything show the correct/adjusted prices and share numbers. Having the register match the 5 year old brokers note and everything else doing some things correctly but not everything just seems odd, especially as I probably no longer have the brokers note.
Maybe it is just because I am too used to dealing with share holdings and capital gains on both sides of the Atlantic, but the way MD shows the data in the register is just not helpful.
I have not been able to find if the capital gain is calculated correctly, but I assume it is.
6
Dick Schiltz
on 13 Dec, 2012 12:23 AM
I'll just in with a slightly different issue that could be a correction factor for these problems.
The cost basis isn't apparently imported correctly from any institutions I've imported. In fact, there is NO cost basis. How can that be set? I see a 'cost basis' on a security view; but, see no way to change it. A same security in different institutions can have different AVERAGE cost basis so I'm assuming the same security can be named differently by the financial institution if only the 'cost basis' can be entered on the 'security view'. Can either of you give some input here?
Dick
7
Tom Freeman
on 29 Dec, 2012 10:06 PM
@richard the split function adjusts the share count, cost basis, and if entered the current price at the time of split. It does not alter the original transaction. This is important if you want to match your register against your statement.
The real issue is that the cost basis price did not update in the lot match box and I will put in a ticket for that.
@dick How are you importing? The cost basis is set by the transactions.
Tom
8
Learn to Fly
on 30 Dec, 2012 01:05 AM
Tom,
Well I did simply establish the cost/share to accurately reflect my cost basis. That worked ok with some minor adjustments. Then I adjusted the 'starting balance' to get the 'cash' balance to be correct. It does appear that will track my tax gain/loss OK although I haven't confirmed that the ETFs are being downloaded OK. I did manually enter the actual value on a given date for an 'uptodate' value of the security. I'll be checking further for those downloads.
As of now the importing is with the ofx downloads. The only errors I was getting are those two I forwarded to you folks. I will try another update on Monday to see if the errors still occur. they may just 'go away' after multiple tries..that's my plan anyway.
Dick
9
richard_regal
on 04 Jan, 2013 08:23 PM
I guess we will just have to disagree on what the real issue is. To me having a register that does not add up to the shares held is the real issue. Having the register tie up to statements from 4 years ago that I have long since thrown away is not important. Perhaps having the additional shares (or the reduction when there has been a consolidation) show up as a line item in the register would help.
10
Learn to Fly
on 04 Jan, 2013 09:39 PM
Richard,
I'm not sure what you mean about the 'real issue'. It is true that a download from Schwab didn't handle a split accurately; but, it makes no difference as I just manually entered the data as indicated in the last email.
The only errors I was asking about in the last email was 1) a pin entry error, and 2) some other error that I never figured out what was/is.
On the pin error I have since found out that it was a lockout by Schwab because when getting started I believe the frequency of my attempts to login with likely a PW error or two resulted in the lockout. That was fixed with a call to Schwab. The second one apparently just 'went away' as it didn't show up again since I reported it with the image shown.
As indicated in my last email I think all my accounts are showing up ok on the downloads. I'm now struggling with reporting for tax purposes. So far it's just my learning curve that is keeping it from happening smoothly.
Happy New Year to you all.
Dick L Schiltz
Email: [email blocked]
Web: PlanoFlightSchool.com
6300 Beech Street
Plano TX 75093
System closed this discussion on 31 Mar, 2015 03:55 PM.