Overview
When you open an investment account in Quicken, you’ll see several balances, not just one. This article quickly breaks down how Quicken calculates market value, securities value, cash balance, and your total market value, so you can identify them and have more control over your investments.
Security Value
The security value is how much that specific stock or fund is worth right now on the open market based on the exact number of shares you currently hold.
The Mathematical Formula For any individual investment security in your portfolio, Quicken calculates the value using this exact equation:
Security Value = total of shares owned * current price per share
(e.g., owning 10 shares of a stock priced at $150 results in a security value of $1,500)
Cash Balance
The cash balance is the actual money sitting in your investment account that has not been used to buy stocks or funds yet. The cash balance is provided by your financial institution, but for manual accounts, you can also enter the cash amount manually.
Calculation: It adds cash deposits and income (like dividends), and subtracts fees, withdrawals, or security purchases to provide your cash balance in real-time.
Total Market Value
The total market value is the current, real-time price of your portfolio on the open market. It is a combination of both securities value and cash balance.
The Mathematical Formula For any individual stock, mutual fund, or ETF, Quicken calculates the value using this exact equation:
Total Market Value = (total of shares owned *current price per share) + uninvested cash.
(e.g., owning 10 shares of a stock priced at $150 plus $200 results in a total market value of $1,700 )
How Quicken Displays Market Value
Quicken shows this calculation at two distinct levels in your software:
Account Level:
The combined market value of all securities held within that specific investment account, plus any uninvested cash sitting in the account's money market fund.
Portfolio Level: The grand total of all your investment accounts combined, which fluctuates throughout the day as market prices update.
If your balances appear to be incorrect, please refer to the article “
