The section you cite in the Guide is an introductory one that sets out a generalized definition of a mutual fund to ensure that subsequent sections are interpreted accurately. I don't profess to be an expert, but ETFs look and feel to me exactly like a mutual fund, so I've never been bothered by the lack of reference to ETFs, either in the program or the documentation. It would be easy enough and rather trivial to change the text to read "A mutual fund or exchange traded fund (ETF) ..."
As for the program itself, it is important to be clear as to whether you are referring to: 1) the account type setting, which defines the actual account that holds transactions, or 2) the commodity namespace, which is an attribute of a security. The former is an integral part of the GnuCash data structure and hasn't changed in the 19 years I've been using GnuCash. I doubt it will be changed anytime soon, as it's used throughout the application to manage program functionality. It's possible that changing it from "Mutual Fund" to "Fund" might not be a significant issue. As I am not a programmer, though, it's not for me to say one way or the other. The latter is, as John noted, a free text list that can be used to aggregate commodities in any way a user finds helpful. (There was a time that this entry affected price lookups, but I believe that time is past, thankfully) The drop down list on the user interface unfortunately masks the editable nature of the list and leads most users to believe it is hard coded, but it is not. David T. On Sep 21, 2024, 8:27 AM, at 8:27 AM, flywire <flywi...@gmail.com> wrote: >https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2024-September/113205.html >John >Ralls wrote: > >> ... > > >Posts with links can be opened directly if there is clear space around >the >link. Would commodity Wheat be Type Stock? > >While this is raised in the context of Managed Funds >https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/invest_concepts1.html#invest_types2 >defines Stocks and Mutual Funds: > >> ...A mutual fund is a group investment mechanism in which you can buy >into >> many stocks simultaneously. For example, a “S&P 500 index fund” is a >fund >> which purchases all 500 stocks listed in the Standard and Poor’s >index. >> When you buy a share of this fund, you are really buying a small >amount of >> each of the 500 stocks contained within the fund. Mutual funds are >treated >> exactly like a single stock, both for tax purposes and in accounting. > > >Firstly, the definition applies equally to Exchange Traded Funds and >unlisted Managed Funds. Seems painful splitting the same stock exchange >(workspace) into two types. Why differentiate between Account Type >Stock >and Mutual Fund? > >Secondly, assuming there is good reason to split from Stock, why not >use a >more generic term "Fund" for Account Type instead of "Mutual Fund"? > > >Regards > >> >_______________________________________________ >gnucash-user mailing list >gnucash-user@gnucash.org >To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >----- >Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
