// Stocks
How to Record a Stock Split
A split is recorded from your broker's file during an import, with the ratio confirmed by you. It rescales every trade of the open position dated before the effective date — share counts by the ratio, price per share the other way — and the position's value doesn't change.
A split changes how many shares you hold and what each one cost, without changing what the position is worth. Recording it rescales your existing trades so the per-share numbers keep matching your broker.
// 01 · the route
How a split gets recorded
Several brokers include a split row in their exports. Those rows never appear in the preview table — a split isn’t a trade — so they get their own confirmation block above it, and the Import button stays locked until you have answered each one.
Import the statement covering the split
Run the file through the wizard as usual. A split it contains is picked up during the preview step.Check the ratio
The card shows the shares you held immediately before the split and a suggested ratio worked out from that and the share change in the file. It is pre-filled, not pre-decided — correct it if your broker wrote it differently.Confirm, or leave it out
Confirming arms the rescale. Excluding the split row instead means it neither applies nor blocks the import, and the rest of the file still imports normally.
// 02 · the effect
What it rescales
| What | How it changes |
|---|---|
| Share counts | Multiplied by the ratio. |
| Price per share | Divided by the ratio. |
| Position value | Unchanged — that's the point. |
| Realized result | Unchanged. |
| Which trades | Every trade of that ticker's open position dated before the effective date. |
Trades dated on or after the effective date already reflect the new share count — a split applies before the market opens that day — so they’re left alone, as are positions you’ve already closed, whose result is settled.
Open option contracts on the ticker are adjusted too: contracts multiply and strikes divide by the ratio, so a later close matches the adjusted terms.
// 03 · the gates
When a split isn't applied
My file has no split row
Not every export carries one, and a split that happened before the period you imported won’t be in the file at all. In that case the position keeps the share counts and prices it was recorded with. Import the statement covering the split if your broker will produce one; if it won’t, get in touch and we’ll sort the position out with you.
No trades before the effective date
A split rescales trades dated before it. If this account holds none for that ticker — the opening buys live in a statement you haven’t imported — the split is skipped and the import says so. Import the statement with the buys first, then this one; the split then finds what it applies to.
The split is already recorded
The same effective date applied twice is recognized and skipped rather than doubling the position.
I deselected that ticker
A ticker-scoped import leaves the split out along with the ticker’s trades, and its card collapses to a one-liner rather than asking for a ratio it won’t use. See fixing an import that looks wrong.