Weird cost basis display from Vanguard

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Topic Author
blu9535
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:17 am

Weird cost basis display from Vanguard

Post by blu9535 »

At least it's weird to me... never seen it before.
In this Vanguard screenshot of my holdings of VBIRX, can someone explain why there were relatively large gains for me in this fund on Oct 4 2012, Dec 27 2012, and Jan 10 2013? I believe these were just standard automatic transactions that I had set up to buy every other week. I have never received gifted shares or any such thing. How can there be a negative cost per share?
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House Blend
Posts: 4878
Joined: Fri May 04, 2007 1:02 pm

Re: Weird cost basis display from Vanguard

Post by House Blend »

Does look strange. Have you asked Vanguard?

Have you ever sold shares in this account? If you had a wash sale, then some of the loss will be acquired by the replacement shares, but it is difficult to imagine a scenario with a short term bond fund in which the loss would give you a negative cost basis. It should increase the cost basis of the replacement shares.

I would be looking carefully over my 2012, 2013 annual statements and 1099's
and make sure that all transactions on the account made sense to me.
And the Q1 2014 statement.

I have definitely seen weird cost basis displays on my VG account, most recently when I switched a muni fund from FIFO to Spec ID. Even after waiting a few weeks, the "details" were still not updated. I complained, and then after a few more weeks the specific lots magically appeared.
sscritic
Posts: 21853
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:36 am

Re: Weird cost basis display from Vanguard

Post by sscritic »

blu9535 wrote:At least it's weird to me... never seen it before.
In this Vanguard screenshot of my holdings of VBIRX, can someone explain why there were relatively large gains for me in this fund on Oct 4 2012, Dec 27 2012, and Jan 10 2013? I believe these were just standard automatic transactions that I had set up to buy every other week. I have never received gifted shares or any such thing. How can there be a negative cost per share?
I think House Blend is on the right track. However, the dollar amounts on the dates you give are not large. If you really bought 34 shares for 34 cents, then yes you have big gains, but those numbers are adjustments, not really purchases.

10/24 $0.34
12/27 $1.74
01/10 $2.08

Note that these dollar amounts match close-by lots, e.g., 10/4 with 11/15 (also $0.34). The one I can't match, or rather I can overmatch, is $1.73 with $1.74 and another $1.73 (two positive and one negative).
Topic Author
blu9535
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:17 am

Re: Weird cost basis display from Vanguard

Post by blu9535 »

House Blend wrote:Does look strange. Have you asked Vanguard?

Have you ever sold shares in this account? If you had a wash sale, then some of the loss will be acquired by the replacement shares, but it is difficult to imagine a scenario with a short term bond fund in which the loss would give you a negative cost basis. It should increase the cost basis of the replacement shares.

I would be looking carefully over my 2012, 2013 annual statements and 1099's
and make sure that all transactions on the account made sense to me.
And the Q1 2014 statement.

I have definitely seen weird cost basis displays on my VG account, most recently when I switched a muni fund from FIFO to Spec ID. Even after waiting a few weeks, the "details" were still not updated. I complained, and then after a few more weeks the specific lots magically appeared.
The response from Vanguard was:
"The large gains you experienced on a few of your lots are due to wash sale adjustments on the account. The losses you realized when selling, get added back to the cost of the original lots in the wash sale string."
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