I’m not familiar with GC for stocks and such trades, but just looking at the form of the debits/credits I would hazard the guess that:
Imbalance-CAD 800.00 should be: Trading:CURRENCY:USD 800.00 instead. I’m basing this guess on how I see other Trading account related transactions balanced by GC. The fact it used Imbalance-CAD might indeed be a bug. Does it accept you changing the Imbalance split accordingly? (the two CURRENCY splits should be opposite dr/cr of each other) Regards, Adrien > On May 14, 2020 w20d135, at 10:16 PM, Jim DeLaHunt <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I did a curious stock transaction, and I'm having trouble when I record this > transaction in GnuCash 3.10. > > I bought some shares of a fund, DLR.U, which trades in US Dollar prices on > the Toronto Stock Exchange. I exchanged those shares for an identical > quantity of shares in that fund with a different name, DLR, which trades in > Canadian Dollar prices on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The purpose was to > exchange US dollars for Canadian dollars at lower cost, via the so-called > Norbert's Gambit <https://wealthsavvy.ca/norberts-gambit-questrade/>. > > The basic idea of Norbert's Gambit is that if the same security trades in one > market in one currency, and also in a second market in a second currency, > then the ratio between the two prices will always be close to the market > currency exchange rate. If the prices ever diverge, this becomes an arbitrage > opportunity: buy shares on the first market in the first currency, sell the > same quantity shares on the second market for the second currency, convert > funds back to the first currency in the conventional foreign exchange market, > and profit. The net number of shares at the end of the transaction is zero. > The DLR/DLR.U fund was created to facilitate Norbert's Gambit, but the same > technique is possible with any stock which is traded in multiple liquid > markets in multiple currencies. > > I had no trouble recording my purchase of DLR.U, in US dollars, in the US > Dollar-denominated brokerage account. I just followed the instructions in the > GnuCash Guide, 9.5. > <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=3&lang=C&doc=guide>/Buying Shares > <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=3&lang=C&doc=guide>/. > > The problem was recording the moving of the DLR.U shares to DLR, in Canadian > dollars, in a Canadian Dollar-denominated brokerage account. I started off by > following the instructions for a stock split in the GnuCash Guide, 9.10.2. > /Moderately Complex Stock Merger/ > <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=3&lang=C&doc=guide>. I took the > example of SBC shares turning into ATT shares plus cash, and changed it to > have DLR.U shares exchange for an equal number of DLR shares. > > The transaction I entered was this (simplified a bit from my actual numbers): > > *Account* *Shares* *Price* *Buy* *Sell* > Brokerage CAD:ETF:DLR 200 14.00 2,800.00 > Brokerage USD:ETF:DLR.U -200 10.00 > 2,000.00 > > That is, move out 200 shares of the US-dollar DLR.UR, at the share price at > which I bought them, and bring in 200 shares of the Canadian-dollar DLR, at > the share prices they were at when I bought the DLR.U. That's pretty much > what the real-world journal transfer of shares in my brokerage account was > like. > > I expected that GnuCash would add in TRADING:FUND splits to balance the > quantity of DLR and DLR.U shares in the transaction. I expected to see: > > *Account* *Shares* *Price* *Buy* *Sell* > Brokerage CAD:ETF:DLR 200 14.00 2,800.00 > Trading:FUND:DLR.U 200 > 10.00 > 2,000.00 > > Brokerage USD:ETF:DLR.U -200 10.00 > 2,000.00 > Trading:FUND:DLR -200 14.00 > 2,800.00 > > What I got was that, plus a Trading:CURRENCY:CAD split that was not motivated > by anything, and then an Imbalance-CAD split to balance the > Trading:CURRENCY:CAD split: > > *Account* *Shares* *Price* *Buy* *Sell* > Brokerage CAD:ETF:DLR 200 14.00 2,800.00 > Trading:FUND:DLR.U 200 10.00 2,000.00 > Trading:CURRENCY:CAD > > 800.00 > Brokerage USD:ETF:DLR.U -200 10.00 > 2,000.00 > Trading:FUND:DLR -200 14.00 > 2,800 > Imbalance-CAD > > > 800 > > I will observe that the Trading:CURRENCY:CAD split amount is exactly the > difference between the ETF:DLR amount and the FUND:DLR.U amount, if you > disregard that one is in CAD and the other is in USD. It makes me suspicious > that GnuCash doesn't know how to handle a multi-currency stock swap > transaction. > > Should there be a way to record this transaction correctly in GnuCash? If so, > what do I do? > > Or, is this a limitation in GnuCash? If so, I should file a bug about it. > > I am running GnuCash 3.10 on macOS 10.16.5. I have trading accounts enabled. > > I have not found anything about Norbert's Gambit or this kind of > multi-currency stock transaction in the documentation, the mailing list > archives, the bug database, or the wiki. > > Best regards, > —Jim DeLaHunt, software engineer, Vancouver, Canada _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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