Capital gains

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting Jean-David Beyer <jeandavid8 at verizon.net>:

> In my (real) example, the debits add up to the selling price; the credits
> add up to the selling price. You want it that way.

Except then your stock price is off.  It /really/ doesn't work that way.
You really need to ignore the fact that the sum of the credits DO NOT
add up to the selling price...

>> My previous proposal applied to this transaction would look like
>> the following:
>>
>> A:Inv:AmMargin                              $2989.00
>> E:InvExp:AmMargin                              $8.00
>> A:Inv:AmMargin:BRKb    -1.00      $2997.00            $2997.00
>> I:CapGain:AmMargin                                    $1509.88
>> A:Inv:AmMargin:BRKb     0.00         $0.00  $1509.88
>
> In your example, the debits add up to much more than the selling price, and
> the credits add up to much more than the selling price. To what reality in
> your example does the number $4506.88 correspond?

It corresponds to the selling price plus the Capital Gains.  Ignore the
1509.88..  That's on both sides of the equation /solely/ to balance the
gains.  That's the only reason it's there, an no other.  It has no
affect on the "real" transaction, which is the other three splits.

Think about it this way...  You really have two transactions here, but you're
entering it as one.   One transaction is the actual sale..  It reduces
the number of shares of stock and balances out into the commission, fees,
and payout.   The second transaction is the gains..  It balances out the
currency input/output of the account so that the net CURRENCY flow gets
balanced.   Put it all together and you have this transaction above.

It may look weird to your eyes, but it's really the right answer.  If you
really get bothered by it you could enter it as two transactions, but then
you have to somehow keep those two transactions linked.

I'm pretty sure that 2.0 will create transactions that look like this anyways,
so you might as well get used to it now.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available