When you exercise an option and complete a same-day sale, the transaction consists of two components--the discounted purchase of the stock at your exercise price, followed by the sale of the stock at its current market value. The amount of the exercise transaction in Quicken reflects your discounted purchase of the stock:

Sale price - exercise price = exercise amount

For example, if you exercised 100 shares of a stock at an exercise price of $10.00 (= $1000.00), and then sold all 100 shares at a market price of $50.00 (= $5000.00), the exercise transaction amount in Quicken would be $4000.00.