>
> I have been trying to figure out how to use Gnucash to track
> realized gains calculations on stock trades, but I don't quite
> understand it. Can someone give me a few hints on this? I've
> tried reading all of the documentation, but I'm still missing
> something.
I don't know how GnuCash handles it, but I -think- I've figured out how
to do it from a traditional accounting standpoint...
> My guesses are:
>
> - Changing the price of a stock requires a transfer of money from
> another account. This doesn't seem right because it doesn't
> differentiate between realized gain and unrealized gain.
More importantly, stocks are not money. If anything, they should be
treated as inventory.
> - Selling a stock is recorded as a split. $50 is transferred into
> the brokerage account, $30 is transferred from the stock account,
> and $20 is transferred from the realized gain account. This doesn't
> sound right because it doesn't take into account the price changes.
I think this is the closest...
Let's deal with both the buying and selling transactions...
I'm going to assume the following:
A brokerage account "Broker", configured as if it were a bank account.
An income account "Capital Gains"
An asset account "Stock Holdings (at cost)"
Buying 1 share of stock at $30 would be recorded as:
Stock Holdings (at cost) $30
Broker $30
Selling that share of stock at $50 would be recorded as:
Broker $50
Stock Holdings (at cost) $30
Capital Gains $20
Then everything balances: your accounting books properly reflect your
costs, as well as your gains when realised. A more complicated setup
could easily have several stock holding accounts (say, short term and
long term stocks), and many capital gains accounts (short term, long
term, non-taxable, etc).
> - A combination of the two is used. Changing a stock price draws
> $20 from an "unrealized gain" account. Selling a stock transfers
> $20 from the "unrealized gain" account into a "realized gain"
> account. Is this close?
> - Another option is that I'm completely wrong on all of this and I
> haven't got a clue how it's handled.
>
> If Gnucash can handle this, then I am interested in learning how to
> use it. If Gnucash does not yet handle this information, then I am
> interested in helping to implement it. Quicken handles this, except
> it's all done as magic to the user. There doesn't seem to be a way
> to choose where quicken gets this profit from. With Quicken, all
> profit comes from a single account. It is difficult to separate
> profit into different accounts for things like tracking taxable
> income and non-taxable income.
>
> Any thoughts?
Tell me if any of the muddled addle-brained mutterings above were any
help...
>
> Thanks.
>
> Gerald
>
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