downloading transactions from Fidelity

[David Reiser]

There is a script-- ofx.py -- available from http://www.jongsma.org/gc/  
which may well accomplish what you want. You will also need the bank  
info from another script there. If it hasn't changed, the relevant  
section for Fidelity Investments is:

   <bank:bank>
     <bank:name>Fidelity Investments</bank:name>
     <bank:guid>5189</bank:guid>
     <bank:updated>02/25/2004</bank:updated>
      
<bank:keywords>|corporation|distributors|house|investment|</bank: 
keywords>
     <bank:bankurl>
       <bankurl:homepage>http://personal.fidelity.com/</bankurl:homepage>
        
<bankurl:statements>https://scs.fidelity.com/tpv/ 
logout_webxpress.shtml</bankurl:statements>
     </bank:bankurl>
     <bank:banking>
       <banking:statements>1</banking:statements>
     </bank:banking>
     <bank:signon>
       <signon:userfield>User ID</signon:userfield>
       <signon:passfield>Password</signon:passfield>
     </bank:signon>
      
<bank:config>http://www.microsoft.com/money/money2004/usa/5189.xml</ 
bank:config>
     <bank:driver>O</bank:driver>
   </bank:bank>

The key points are the bank guid and the https address. You may have to  
experiment with the login parameters you pass to the script from the  
command line. I found that for Ameritrade, I had to enter my account  
number twice -- once as the user ID and the second for the account ID.  
Ameritrade also uses a different PIN for ofx connections than it uses  
for a password on the web site. However, the Fidelity help info at  
their site says that they use the same PIN on the regular web site as  
for Quicken/MSMoney connections. For ofx.py, the PIN is entered in  
response to a "password:" query from the python script after you have  
already entered the 'python ofx.py site user account' command.

You will have to edit the script to define the Fidelity case. It's  
fairly straightforward at the top of the ofx.py file.

There is also a different site if you're trying to download 401K  
Fidelity account info.

I don't know how much security Fidelity uses against brute force  
attacks. Vanguard used to lock me out of my account for no apparent  
reason, and the only explanation customer service could come up with is  
that the failed password count (three times) did not reset upon a  
successful connection. So over a few months, a couple spurious typing  
failures would lock me out. (That is, unless some other user was  
putting my name in with their password and locking me out instead of  
themselves...) If you run this script a whole bunch of times and have  
only a little success, but are not completely successful at downloading  
the info, you might find account access temporarily suspended. Happily,  
I figured the Ameritrade stuff out before I triggered any undo  
oversight.

Once you get a successful download, you can import that into gnucash  
using File/Import OFX-QFX menu item in gnucash. It isn't as automatic  
as MSMoney, but it works quite well once it is set up. If you open the  
downloaded file with a text editor, you should be able to tell if you  
successfully downloaded all the expected data. It isn't pretty, but the  
text fields ought to obviously point to  transactions you know about.

I have also found that even though the python script allows entering a  
start date for the transaction download, Ameritrade ignores that and  
gives me 31 days. It looks like Fidelity does 90 days. They say they  
will download up to 90 days each time you log in, depending on your  
last download. I think you get 90 days every time, but all the software  
(including Gnucash) successfully screens out previously imported  
transactions. Ah, the joys of having unique transaction IDs...

Good luck. I think ofx.py should be able to get you the download you  
need.

Dave
--
David Reiser
dbreiser at earthlink.net

On Feb 2, 2005, at 5:31 PM, Manish Bhatia wrote:

> Hi
>  I would like to move to GnuCash from MS Money.  My problem is that I  
> use Fidelity as my broker and it doesn't allow me to download  
> transactions from the website as a qif or ofx file.  I can only  
> download them as a csv file.  When using Money, the software can  
> automatically download transactions from Fidelity - though I remember  
> reading somewhere that this is not possible using GnuCash since these  
> companies are unwilling to declare the address of their ofx servers.
>
>  My question is - are there any GnuCash users out there who have had  
> this problem.  How did they solve it?  Is it possible to download the  
> csv file and then write some perl/python code to parse the  
> transactions and add them into GnuCash using some API?
>
> Thanks
> Manish