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cannot Retrieve historical dividends

Questions about updating prices or transactions in Fund Manager

Postby kosmicmisfit » Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:03 am

Hello
I am just trying out the software and am unable to download historical dividends.
Edit/Internet Retrieve>Historical prices only downloads prices there is no option for selecting dividends as in the getting started video. I am on latest version 2018.

Please help!

thanks!
kosmicmisfit
 
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Postby Mark » Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:06 am

Hi kosmicmisfit,

The ability to retrieve dividends from Yahoo (Historical) is only available in the Professional/Advisor versions. It sounds like you may be using the Personal version. You can download the Professional trial from our download page.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby kosmicmisfit » Mon Dec 17, 2018 1:58 pm

Yes that was the issue!

I am unable to import data in csv format from schwab.

Here is the sample data

Input format is UD,TRAN,SYMB,BNUM,ANUM,CNUM !REM Schwab

UD,TRAN,SYMB,BNUM,ANUM,CNUM
171108,Buy,AAPL,3,$157.00,$4.95
180312,Buy,AAPL,1,$183.00,$0.17
180312,Buy,AAPL,2,$183.00,$4.78
180611,Buy,AAPL,20,$202.50,$4.95
kosmicmisfit
 
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Postby Mark » Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:37 pm

Hi kosmicmisfit,

The problem is you have the $ symbol in front of some values. You can either delete the $ sign from the importing file:

UD,TRAN,SYMB,BNUM,ANUM,CNUM
171108,Buy,AAPL,3,157.00,4.95
180312,Buy,AAPL,1,183.00,0.17
180312,Buy,AAPL,2,183.00,4.78
180611,Buy,AAPL,20,202.50,4.95

or add $ into your format string so it matches your data. It would be:

UD,TRAN,SYMB,BNUM,$ANUM,$CNUM !REM Schwab
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby kosmicmisfit » Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:00 am

Thank you. Silly mistake!
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Postby Houstonwb » Thu Jan 10, 2019 6:38 pm

I am still trying to enter IBB as a benchmark. Even avoiding importing Yahoo's errant trx, the ROIs are close but still off by as much as 0.5%pts. Since I suspect Yahoo's rounding, I picked up iShares' distributions and am trying to enter them.
What's wrong with this (IBB reinvested dividend transaction) file import? I get "The specified input format is illegal" in the Generic Transaction Import dialog. What's with the mix of semi-colons & commas? Thx.

CNUN,BNUN,ANUM,TRAN,MM,DD,YY,SYMB
0;0;0.032374;REINV_I;9;26;18,ibb
Houstonwb
 
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Postby Mark » Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:03 am

Hi Houstonwb,

There are a few issues here:

1) The format string isn't matching the data. Since the data fields are separated by semicolons (;), the format string should also have semicolons, not commas. So, it would be:

CNUM;BNUM;ANUM;TRAN;MM;DD;YY;SYMB

2) Small typo: the format string has CNUN and BNUN instead of CNUM and BNUM. It should be:

CNUM;BNUM;ANUM;TRAN;MM;DD;YY;SYMB

This is the reason for the error message you're seeing now, as CNUM and BNUM are missing and required.

3) The one transaction listed is a reinvested distribution of type interest income, but you have it set to reinvest at a price (ANUM) of 0.032374 for 0 shares (BNUM) and 0 commission fee (CNUM). You can't have a 0 share reinvestment. If you want to record these as reinvestments, you need to calculate the shares that would be purchased.

Another option would be to record them as distributed (DIST_I). In this case you can just record the value of the distribution, and don't need to enter shares re-purchased. The value is simpler to calculate, as it won't be impacted based on all the prior entered distributions. It is just the dist/share times the number of shares you initially purchased. The returns would be slightly different if you took the distributions, versus reinvested them.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby Houstonwb » Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:21 pm

I am trying use FMgr prices and iShare distibutions in a spreadsheet to derive a Reinvested Distribution total dollar & share amounts for the transaction.
Where does FMgr get these prices per share beyond 2 decimals?
FMgr (downloaded from Yahoo)
Date Close Shares Value Open High Low Volume
1/7/19 105.989998 34.118585 3,616.23 103.790001 106.860001 103.680000 3,158,600

Yahoo web site
Jan 07, 2019 103.7900 106.8600 103.6800 105.9900 105.9900

Both for IBB.
Houstonwb
 
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Postby Mark » Fri Jan 11, 2019 4:58 pm

That price is what is returned from Yahoo (Historical). If you look at "Help / Logs / Price Retrieve (Detailed...)" after the retrieve you'll see it is returned like that. You can also see it by clicking the "Download Data" link on the "Historical Data" tab on Yahoo.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby Houstonwb » Tue Oct 26, 2021 7:43 pm

I am revisiting importing generic/per share dividends and capital gains from financial institutions since I learned that Quote Servers do not include capital gains. I really need solid benchmarks.

The attached imports but the dividends & cap gain totals are not right.
On the left is provided by Vanguard. On the right is my translation into a format to be imported by Fund Manager.
How do I add the per share distribution such that FMgr successfully calculates and posts the total shares in the distribution based on the per share data provided by the financial institution and my share balances? What format string should I use for the reinvested distribution per share provided by the financial institution.
Attachments
Import example.xlsx
(10.11 KiB) Downloaded 136 times
Houstonwb
 
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Postby Mark » Wed Oct 27, 2021 8:23 am

Hi Houstonwb,

Are you recording that you own some shares in your benchmark investments? If not, you will need to use the DIST_* type transactions instead of the REINV_* type transactions. With the DIST_* type transactions, you can record a distribution/share by doing this:

* = For all of the DIST_* TRAN values, BNUM and CNUM are not required, but can be used to specify distributions per share when no shares will be owned. Normally, you record distributions in terms of values. When there are no shares owned though, you may wish to record a 0 value distribution, and enter a distribution per share. To supply a distribution per share figure, enter 1.0 for BNUM and the distribution per share amount in CNUM. This can be useful when importing data for investments you do not own, but wish to include the effects of distributions in performance metrics. If you own shares on the distribution date, any supplied CNUM distribution per share amount is ignored, and the distribution per share is always auto-calculated from the distribution value and shares owned. For related background on this issue, see the Distribution Per Share Prompt Dialog.


If you are recording that you own some shares in the benchmarks, record the distributions in the amounts appropriate for how many shares you own.
Thanks,
Mark
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Mark
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Postby Houstonwb » Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:41 am

I wish to download and import distributions electronically because there are a lot of them. It is not realistic to record each distribution manually.
I am using REINV_x because I am trying capture reinvested distributions, including capital gains distributions.
Should I be using DIST_x and count on FMgr to calculate and post distributions based on the total shares in the Fund Manager security?
I am trying to use mutual funds as benchmarks in two ways: to calculate returns as if there only one investment at the beginning; and adding investments to the benchmark at the same time that I add investments to individual securities to test whether they outperform a fund. In the former case, I add a round and random amount as a starting investment.
I remember that the share balance has to be correct as of the date a distribution per share is added/changed because FMgr does not recalculate other distributions after changes to earlier share balances.

I second the suggestion that Fund Manager should add a feature to download generic distributions, including capital gains, from major financial institutions. I need solid total returns, including all types of distributions, in benchmarks.
Houstonwb
 
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Postby Mark » Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:59 am

Hi Houstonwb,

It sounds like you are indeed recording that you own some shares in your benchmarks. In this case, you'll need to calculate the price and shares of each reinvestment. Since these weren't real transactions, you could determine these values based on the distribution/share, number of shares you own on that date, and the market price for reinvestments. It isn't trivial if you're trying to do a lot of these, as the number of shares owned changes as you record reinvestments.

Fund Manager does have this feature, as in the Pro/Adv version you can retrieve available distribution data from Yahoo (Historical). You want to make sure you have your purchases recorded before retrieving distributions, and FM will calculate the correct value of the distribution, as Yahoo is reporting per share distribution amounts. I'm not aware of another source of historical distribution data that we could use. If you know of any, please let me know.
Thanks,
Mark
Fund Manager - Portfolio Management Software
Mark
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Posts: 11253
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:24 pm
Location: Chandler, AZ

Postby Houstonwb » Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:01 am

Per share distribution data with capital gains is available from financial institutions, often on their open-to-the-public professional sites. For instance, see "Export Data" in the Distributions section in

Schwab
https://www.schwabassetmanagement.com/products/swppx
or
Vanguard
https://institutional.vanguard.com/inve ... /fund/0040
Houstonwb
 
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Postby Houstonwb » Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:11 am

"Fund Manager does have this feature, as in the Pro/Adv version you can retrieve available distribution data from Yahoo (Historical)." Note again for others, quote servers like Yahoo do not include capital gains.
"You want to make sure you have your purchases recorded before retrieving distributions, and FM will calculate the correct value of the distribution, as Yahoo is reporting per share distribution amounts."
Please recommend the correct format string to import reinvested per share distributions (available from the financial institutions) such that FMgr will calculate & post the total distribution based on my number of shares -- DIST_* or REINV_* ?
Houstonwb
 
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:08 pm

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