On Sun, 2006-04-30 at 03:36 -0400, Mike Alexander wrote: > Another thing that > I've thought of doing is to change the stock split druid to distribute > the new shares over all open lots in proportion to the size of each > lot. This is the main thing that isn't handled properly automatically > now.
I used to think the same thing, then realized making this change would just cause a different set of problems. The big issue is that it severely limits how and when you can enter your data. It pretty much requires you to have all your statements present before you start entering data. Say you've got two portfolios containing ACME stock. The first has 25 shares of ACME and sends you transaction notices as event occur. The second has 15 shares and only send monthly statements. ACME splits 3:2 on the 1st of the month. What happens? On the 4th or 5th you get notice of a split for the ACME stock in the first account telling you you received 12 shares of stock based on a split of 25 shares. How do you enter that? You don't have any data for the second account yet and won't for a month. If you start the proposed modified stock druid it will tell you that you have 40 shares cumulative, and maybe even tell you that number has a breakdown of 25 shares and 15 shares. In fact, it almost required that it give you the per-account breakdown to handle this case. You know that you have 12 new shares for the first account, but you have no paperwork telling you how many new shares for the second account. That's ok, you can compute it. 12 based on 25 must mean that you got one share for every two already in the account, so in the second account you should get 15/2 = 7.5 shares. Truncate that to 7 shares. Wouldn't it be easier to read this off a statement? OK, now you have to enter Cash In Lieu information for both accounts. Fortunately they're the same in this case because you're getting money for .5 share in each account, but that's not at all obvious from the paperwork you've received. Probably not even on it. I don't recall ever seeing a stock split notice that listed the number of fractional shares you didn't receive and what cash in lieu amount you did recieve. They only list the number of shares received. That means that you really have to wait for at least one monthly statement to arrive to get a cash in lieu amount. What happens with a 4:3 split when one account has 4 shares and the other has 5? Each account gets one new share, but the cash in lieu amounts will be different for the two accounts. What if it was 59 shares and 13 shares to start? How about the case of a reverse split. They're uncommon, but do happen. My belief now is that is easier to enter splits on a per-account basis when you have the paperwork in front of you. Yes its more work for the trivial case of a n:1 split, but I believe its easier for any other split ration. David _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
