Adjusting for Mergers

When a company undergoes a merger, stock symbols (tickers) usually reflect the change.   For example, when Hewlett-Packard (HP) merged with Compaq (CPQ), the ticker symbol for the stock traded on the NYSE was changed to HPQ.   This Ticker change can cause trade-matching issues in your data file when importing from broker trade history reports.

TradeLog looks at the Date and Ticker data on your trade history report during the import process to determine proper trade-matching. The ticker description in both the opening and closing transactions must be identical, or the two transactions will not be matched correctly.

The Ticker description in each "pre-merger" opening transaction must be adjusted. Please see Selecting a Single Trade for Editing and Editing a Trade.

Example:

On 10/04/2000, John bought 1000 "pre-merger" shares of Compaq.   On 9/14/2001, he sold

1000 "post-merger" shares.   Due to the change in the stock ticker (reflected on his broker trade history report), the opening and closing transactions were not matched correctly in TradeLog.

To correct this, the "pre-merger" opening transaction must be adjusted:

1. John changes the ticker description in the opening transaction to "HPQ", then hits <Enter> twice to save his changes.

    

2. TradeLog automatically re-matches and renumbers his trades.   The opening and closing transactions are now matched correctly - see below:

Adjusting for a company that underwent a merger and a split at the same time can be done as follows:

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above to change all relevent tickers to the new company symbol.

    

2. After changing the stock tickers adjust for a stock split. See: Adjusting for Stock Splits