Answers to the common questions

01How do I start the free trial?

Complete starts with two weeks free, and the Screener and Research with a free week.

1. Go to cefcomplete.com, find the prices, and choose Start free trial on the plan you want.
2. Create your account with your email and a password, or with Google.
3. Enter a card on Stripe’s secure checkout page. Nothing is charged during the free period (14 days on Complete, 7 on the others). The first payment is taken when it ends, unless you cancel before then.

Cancel at any time during the free period and you pay nothing. Question 03 shows where.

02I’m an RMS member. Is there a longer trial?

The Screener and Research plans have a free week.

03How do I cancel or change my plan?

1. Open CEF Complete and choose Settings at the top of the page.
2. Under Account & Billing, choose Plan and Billing. It opens Stripe’s secure billing page.
3. There you can cancel, switch plan or between monthly and yearly, update your card and download receipts.

When you cancel, you keep everything until the end of the time you’ve already paid for, and you won’t be charged again. If you’d rather we did it, email support@cefcomplete.com from the address on your account.

04How do I connect my broker?

Connecting lets your positions, cash and history arrive by themselves. It is read-only: CEF Complete can look, but it can never place a trade or move money.

1. Go to Portfolio and choose Bring in accounts, then Connect your broker.
2. Pick your broker. You sign in on your broker’s own website, never on ours, so we never see your broker password.
3. Back on CEF Complete, check what was read, then choose Bring these in. Nothing is added until you do.

Connections go through a secure, read-only connection partner, and are part of the Complete plan. You can disconnect at any time from the same place. If you don’t see Connect your broker, it isn’t available for your account yet: importing a file (next question) does the same job.

How Far Back Does My History Go?

Brokers only send a limited amount of history when you connect. Schwab sends about 3 months and Fidelity about 1 year, and it varies by broker. Older payments and lots will not appear from the connection alone, so import your broker’s full transaction history file under Portfolio → Bring in accounts → Upload a file. Each connected account shows the date its history starts.

Step by step, with drawings of each screen for Schwab, Fidelity, E*TRADE and other brokers: open the Bring In Your Accounts checklist. It ticks each step as you finish it. For every broker’s files, history and realized gain/loss, see the broker download guides.

05How do I import a file from my broker?

1. Download your positions from your broker’s website. A CSV file works for all the main brokers; a Schwab monthly statement (PDF) works too. For buys, sells and payments, download your history or activity as well.
2. In CEF Complete, go to Portfolio → Bring in accounts → Upload a file. Pick your broker and it shows where the download lives (for example Schwab: Accounts → Positions → Export).
3. Choose the file, or drag it onto the page. Check what was read, then choose Bring these in.

Exactly which files to bring in: each broker’s guide starts with a short checklist, every file marked Required, Strongly recommended or Optional, with one line on why. On Schwab: connect or the History CSV (All), then Realized Gain/Loss with Export Details Only for your exact lots.

Which files, broker by broker: the broker download guides show where to click, which date range and which format for Schwab, Fidelity, E*TRADE, Vanguard, Merrill, Interactive Brokers and more, for both your history file and your realized gain/loss file. They print, or save as a PDF.

It reads files from Schwab, Fidelity, E*TRADE, Vanguard, Merrill, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Firstrade and Webull, and your own RMS tracking spreadsheet. Broker files are read in your browser and not uploaded to us. Positions fill Holdings; history fills Trades and Income.

06How do I set my PT target?

PT is short for profit taking. Your PT target is the gain you choose, as a percentage, that each purchase is measured against.

1. Go to Portfolio → Trades.
2. In the PT target box at the top, type your percentage. It applies to every purchase.
3. For a different target on one fund, press the small arrow beside the PT target box (it reads “N funds” once you have some).

Each purchase you still hold then shows its PT price: what you paid a share plus your target. When one gets there, the bell and Today say so, in the site itself. The number, and any decision, are always yours.

07What does “working capital” mean here?

Working capital is the money you have at work: what you paid for the funds you hold, plus the cash waiting to be invested.

It moves when payments arrive, when you add or take out money, and when you sell: a profit adds to it and a loss takes from it. It does not change when prices go up and down. That is why RMS members judge their progress by it rather than by market value, and why CEF Complete puts it first. Your income yield is the income your funds pay in a year divided by your working capital.

A fund with no purchase price on record counts at what it is worth today until you add the cost.

08Why does a date have a gold *, or say “estimated”?

That date is our estimate. The fund hasn’t announced its next ex-date or pay date yet, so we work it out from its last payment and its usual schedule (monthly or quarterly). In the Dashboard’s and the Screener’s tables it has a gold *, and pointing at it says “Not announced yet” and “estimated” with the fund’s last payment; on a fund’s page and in Income it says “estimated” beside it.

When the fund announces, the real date replaces the estimate, usually within a day. Funds do move their dates now and then, so check the fund’s own announcement before you act on one.

09What can Complete do, and what can’t it?

Complete is the assistant in CEF Complete: the Ask Complete button. You type a question in plain words. It is part of the Complete plan.

There is a limit on questions each day; Complete shows how many you have left, and it starts again at midnight Eastern time.

10Where does the data come from, and how late is it?

• Pricesevery few minutesFrom market-data providers. They refresh every few minutes while the market is open, so they are delayed and can trail the live market by up to about 15 minutes.
• NAVonce a dayEach fund publishes its net asset value once a day, after the market closes. It appears once the fund has published it.
• Payments and datesevery morningFrom the funds’ own announcements, checked every morning before the market opens. Dates not yet announced are estimated, and shown as estimates.
• Holdings and filingsas filedFrom the funds’ public filings with the SEC, which arrive weeks after the period they describe.
• Newsthrough the dayFrom public news sources and fund press releases, each with a link to the original.

The bar along the bottom of CEF Complete shows how fresh each kind of data is, and says so plainly if something is running late. Data can be delayed, incomplete or wrong, so check anything important with the fund and your broker.

11How do I contact support?

We can’t give personal investment advice by email, any more than the site does.

12Why is it slower on my computer?

CEF Complete reads your broker files and works out your figures right in your browser, on your own computer. That keeps your files private. It also means an older computer, or Safari, can take a little longer on a big file or a busy page. Nothing is wrong when it does.

1. Use Chrome, Edge or Firefox for the smoothest experience.
2. Keep your browser up to date.
3. Close tabs you are not using.
4. A big history file can take a minute. You only import it once.

13Something looks wrong. How do I fix it myself?

The Troubleshooting guide lists what members run into most, each with why it happens and the fix, in order. For example:

• “Best guess” lotsBring in your broker’s Realized Gain/Loss file. The fix
• “Check this fund”Re-import the history, then the realized file. The fix
• Payments not matchedAssign each one to its fund on Income. The fix
• The page is slowLite Mode, and Chrome, Edge or Firefox. The fix

Every item ends with a link to email support, if it is still not right.