Thoughts about the stock quote database

[Dave Peticolas]

=?iso-8859-1?Q?Tor-=D8yvind_Gundersen?= writes:
> 
> I don't think I can stop using GnuCash after getting the taste of it. Good
> work, guys :)

On behalf of everyone, thanks!


> I recently joined the gnucash-devel list, so I haven't even had the time to
> lurk around a lot, but I've browsed through the recent entries in the
> archive. There I read about the ongoing process of separating the stock
> qoutes from the GnuCash accounts.
> 
> My main question: Will this stock quote database be a separate product or
> will it only be a part of GnuCash? I think it would be great to have a
> separate quote database accessible from a variety of financial applications
> like GnuCash (of course:), Gnumeric(?), graph plotters, technical analysis
> programs, ...well, you name it.
> 
> By outsourcing the stock quote handling, GnuCash doesn't have to know about
> how to access all the different stock exchanges, and the end user doesn't
> have to maintain different databases containing the same quote datasets (a
> big advantage).

We already do online quotes, but that work is 'outsourced' to the
Finance::Quote program (available on sourceforge). It is a separate
project from GnuCash.

As far as the database itself, it may make sense to eventually separate
it from GnuCash. In the short term, we kind of need it asap, so it will
probably be a part of GnuCash.


> Because of its fundamental usage, the quote database should only include
> "official market prices", or else the results from, say, a technical
> analysis program would be at least unreliable.
> 
> Following this thought, I don't see how it makes sense to put the buy/sell
> price from an actual transaction in a GnuCash account into the quote
> database, as the price entered in GnuCash might be the result of a special
> deal like, say, a bet :)
> 
> That would also solve the problem of how deleted transactions in GnuCash
> would affect the quote database (as mentioned in the other thread). Simply
> because a stand-alone quote database wouldn't be affected at all.

What if we annotated quotes with their source? Then quotes for particular
transactions could be excluded from analysis.


> 
> I hope this hasn't already been discussed to death, and I really hope I
> presented some new points and not only stated established facts.

Actually, we're just starting to talk about this, so please join in.

dave