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Timely pricing

msf
in Fund Discussions
There's been some confusion (okay, I've been confused) about what prices are posted when. Some sites seem to update a fund's price at different times depending on which page you look at. Other sites post consistent prices across all their pages.

I care more about consistency than exactly when the updates take place. At least so long as the prices are posted sometime overnight. Other investors may want to see updated prices by dinner time. Personal preference.

A quick scan last night suggests the following:
  • Schwab, Fidelity - private (login to account) prices updated sometime after 6PM ET; public pages not updated for hours
  • Vanguard - as of 6:30PM, prices (public, private) consistent but not yet updated.
  • Morningstar - public pages not yet updated (are there private pages?)
  • Merrill - as of 630 PM, prices (public, private) consistent and updated.
I don't know if this pattern holds every night though I suspect it does. People have occasionally reported M* taking days to update. That's something I consider unacceptable. If you see that happen, please post and if you can, please also check Fidelity's or Schwab's public (no login) page to see if it has been updated. If so, then this is a problem specific to M*.

If you have an account on a site but do not own a fund of interest, it is still possible to get the "private" price of the fund. Start placing a "buy" order for the fund (enter the fund ticker). The brokerage trading page should give you the current price - same as if you had the fund in your portfolio and asked to see your portfolio values.

There is one situation I know of where the public data is more current than the private data: A MMF seven day yield shown at Fidelity when you trade may be out of date!

7 day yields can change over the weekend. The actual seven day yield of a MMF at close on Friday (Sat - Fri) may be different from the seven day yield on Sunday (Mon - Sun). Fidelity's public pages correctly (I think) report the updated, weekend yield. But the yield Fidelity displays when you enter a trade at noon on Monday is still the Friday yield.

I consider this unacceptable and have informed Fidelty.

Comments

  • CrashCrash
    Good work. Thanks for the facts!
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    edited April 3
    Sorry- the "current administration" has decreed that facts are no longer acceptable. If you need to know the status of anything please check with the newly repurposed Department of Education and Official Informaton.
  • CrashCrash
    edited April 3
    Combination of ignorance and sabotage on behalf of the Kremlin. Even so, there are valuable assets at MFO, and @msf is one.
  • Observant1
    edited April 3
    @msf,

    Thanks for your research. Here are a few of my casual observations.
    It may take days to obtain accurate prices for some mutual funds/ETFs via M* Portfolio Manager (free version).
    Prices for mutual funds/CITs in my Fidelity 401(k) seem to be updated after 22:00 pdt.
  • Derf
    Could time of posting cause confusion ? Market close at 4PM Eastern & after hours trading time close at 8PM.
  • yogibearbullyogibearbull
    No, the fund reporting prices are closing prices as of 4pm ET.

    There are several quote refreshes that start trickling around 6 PM ET and if something wasn't updated by 8 PM ET, it's for the next AM.

    I have noticed that some site like Yahoo Finance don't go back and fix stale quotes. That also affects fund analytics at sites that rely on Yahoo Finance data.
  • Derf
    @yogibearbull thanks for that info.
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