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Quicken needs both cost basis/amount invested and market price (historical and/or current) information to perform investment calculations. Performance measures such as gain (realized and unrealized) and average annual return (IRR) will not be accurate if this information is missing.

If you're currently in the process of setting up your investments in Quicken, or if you want to track only your holdings and don't need detailed performance analysis or tax tracking, then incomplete information and placeholder entries are not a problem.

It's important to be clear that certain performance and tax calculations are not to be considered reliable unless Quicken can work with complete and accurate historical information.

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• How are holding periods affected when information is missing?

  Because holding periods are calculated from the date you purchased or acquired the security, holding period information shown in Quicken is accurate only if you use Quicken to track lots for that security.

• When should I add missing information to a placeholder entry?
  Enter the missing transaction history for a security if you want the additional benefits of performance monitoring, tax tracking, or historical record keeping. When you enter the missing transactions, Quicken subtracts shares from the placeholder entry until they equal zero.