Transaction retrieve on TDAmeritrade only back to 3/08?

[cheapsk8]

Hi Mark,

Sorry for the Noobish question. I just downloaded the Advisor version and created a portfolio for one account to test and found that the historical transactions only downloaded back to 2/28/2008. Is this because TDAmeritrade only keeps records back to that date on it's OFX server?

What can I do to reconstruct the account history back to say 1/1/06?

TIA,

Chris

[Mark]

Hi Chris,

Yes, this is normal when retrieving from an OFX server. Different brokers maintain the transaction histories for different amounts of time on their servers. ~2 years is not un-common. Some are shorter, some are longer...

If you are using the "New Portfolio Wizard" and you retrieve "Transactions & Positions" you will get all available transactions, and then 1 adjustment entry at the earliest date, to get your current balance correct. This adjustment entry is recorded at a cost of 0, as Fund Manager doesn't have any data to know the cost basis. You can edit this transaction, or you can delete it, and record all the earlier transactions as they actually happened. Which way you proceed depends on how much accurate history you want, and what data you have access to. If you can download (or somehow have) transaction data prior to 2/28/08, you could import that data. For example, maybe you have that data in old portfolio management software, that you could export, or maybe you can go on TD Ameritrade's website and download that data to a file.

[cheapsk8]

Thanks Mark.

A followup.

I am in the process of migrating my client accounts to Schwab and want to know how I reconfigure each account portfolio to start downloading transactions from Schwab instead of for example, TDAmeritrade. Also, these downloads will occur through Schwablink and not an OFX server as in the previous example.

[Mark]

Hi Chris,

When you import from Schwablink, you just need to have all your account numbers assigned in the sub-portfolio properties, and the symbols of your investments. Matching of accounts/transactions is done by the account number and symbol. The symbols are probably okay already, but when you move you'll get new account numbers, and so you would want to use the Portfolio Editor, and right mouse click on account sub-portfolios and choose "Properties..." and enter in the new account numbers.

[cheapsk8]

Thanks again. I think I understand what I have to do now.