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Posted by John Pollard on May 2, 2007, 1:54 pm
Please log in for more thread options L wrote:
> I've used Quicken for literally decades.
>
> But, the new 'placeholder' transactions for my portfolio
> really have me stumped.
>
> I have an Ameritrade account, that had some cash in it,
> as well as stocks. Ameritrade 'moved' the cash into a
> money market, paying interest (all good). But Quicken
> made 'placeholders' for the move into "MMDA1".
> The help file tells me to edit each placeholder
> transaction with the cost, value per share, etc. and I
> have...
> But the "placeholder" transactions are still there.
>
> When I look at my holdings, MMDA is not even listed. The
> old 'Cash' value is listed, with a balance of a few cents
> (something got lost in the shuffle, for sure). Quicken
> tells me my downloaded cash value for Ameritrade doesn't
> match my register (ummm.. yeah... I know).
> Upshoot of it all is that the register bears little or no
> relationship to the totals of my investments.
>
> I don't even know where to start. I mean, I could delete
> the placeholders... but then the cash portion of the
> account simply disappears. I used to be able to balance
> my ameritrade account information to what was downloaded,
> but no longer, thanks to the 'improvements' in the way
> Quicken handles things.
> Does anyone have a suggestion/resource I can use to sort
> this out?
I don't know that I can help at all; but my first suggestion
would be to look at exactly what happened in the real world, and
for how you can cause Quicken to reflect, as closely as
possible, that real-world activity.
Example: I don't think the fi "'moved' the cash into a money
market" (even you quoted "moved"). Didn't they "buy" shares of
a money market mutual fund with the cash?
If that's true, where is the buy transaction in your Quicken
account?
Did the fi download a buy transaction? While I think they
should, I'm not sure all do. If no Buy transaction was
downloaded, it could indicate that the fi does not intend to
download any "sweep" transactions (the buys and sells that
maintain the balance in the mm fund).
For that situation, I think you have at least two options:
manually enter the buys and sells yourself; or (if the fi offers
it), have Quicken treat the mm fund as if it were brokerage cash
(so no buy or sell transactions are needed, but no mm fund is
seen either: cash=mm-fund-value). I can't tell you whether the
latter will cause you to get offers for placeholders or not.
(To find out if Quicken can treat the mm fund as cash, go to
Investing > Investing Activities > Adjust Cash Balance ... while
the account Transactions tab is open. See if there is a "Cash
Representation" button at the bottom of the dialog, if so click
it ... if not, your fi doesn't offer the option.)
If your fi doesn't offer the mm-as-cash option (or you don't
want to use it), and doesn't download sweep transactions, I
think you're stuck manually entering the buys and sells for the
mm fund ... or using the placeholders to track the mm fund
value.
If you decide not to use placeholders, you should delete the
non-placeholder transactions in your account for the mm, dated
on, or before, the placeholder, that were entered in Quicken
after the placeholder was entered. Then delete the
placeholder(s). Then manually enter the buy(s) (and sells, if
called for) to keep your mm fund balance in sync with your fi.
--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
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