Mutual Fund Distributions from Yahoo

[Good_Vibe]

Dear Mark:

To benchmark mutual funds actually owned, I maintain a MONITOR portfolio which contains comparable funds. Each MONITOR fund is initiated with purchase of one share (in Fund Manager). Other than reinvesting distributions, no other purchases or redemptions of a monitor fund is ever made in FM.

Each day, I “Retrieve selected prices” with “Retrieve dividends” “Reinvested”. There is usually at least 30 to 45 days between a dividend distribution by a fund and its appearance on Yahoo. I know this because I get the dividend distribution notification from the funds I own; then check to see when they are available on Yahoo.

For example, I obtained January 19 prices this morning (January 20). There are still no December dividends posted for funds we received dividends on last month. It appears that such delay is common for mutual funds.

My problem, I have no way of knowing when comparison funds in the MONITOR portfolio (which we don’t actually own) get their dividends (and gains) to Yahoo. In the past, I simply delete 45 to 60 days of price data and repeat the retrieve prices with distributions to get the dividends. Is there an easier, more reliable way to accomplish this?

Need the distribution information to compute CAGR and analyze gain.

Thanks, Phil

[Mark]

Hi Phil,

I don't have any specific information on the timing of when dividends are posted to Yahoo. I can say that it isn't necessary to delete any pricing data. You can just simply re-retrieve historical prices/dividends. Any missing dividends will be retrieved, and any dividends you may already have in your records will be skipped (you shouldn't get duplicates).

[Good_Vibe]

Dear Mark:

Good to know. Reduces the chance for error on my part.

There appear to be many sites for price/distribution retrievals. I have tried Bloomberg and Morningstar (with revised symbols) but haven't been able to get data from either. Is their service subscription only? Do I need to do something besides modify the site and the symbol?

Really appreciate your clear, concise information.

Thanks, Phil

[Mark]

Hi Phil,

Are you talking about using the price retrieve feature in Fund Manager? If so, you don't need a subscription for any of the quote servers supported by Fund Manager. We do offer a Bloomberg server, but don't have one for Morningstar... You can see the list of all of them, and links to their websites, here:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/intrtv.html

All you need to do is modify the server you're retrieving from, and the investment's symbol property. You can use your web browser to visit any of the quote servers, and verify the symbol is available as you're using.

[Good_Vibe]

Dear Mark:

Mornningstar was an error on my part; I've tried Google and MSN. The Bloomberg symbols are different than those for Yahoo, Google, & MSN.

Again,
Thank you very much
Phil