Are we ready for the 2.0.0 release in mid-May?

[Mike Alexander]

--On April 30, 2006 1:16:23 PM -0400 David Hampton 
<hampton-gnucash at rainbolthampton.net> wrote:

> 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.

I went through much the same thought process.  I agree with much of 
what you are saying, but came to the opposite conclusion.  Changing the 
stock split druid like this won't always do the right thing, but I 
think it will do the right thing most of the time, certainly more so 
than ignoring lots entirely like it does now.

> 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.

In this sort of situation you would likely have separate GnuCash 
accounts for the two portfolios.  Both the stock split druid and the 
lots manager are specific to a particular GnuCash account so you would 
enter the two stock split transactions separately even if you got the 
paperwork for both at the same time and there is no way to confuse lots 
in one account with lots in the other.  It's true that fractional 
shares make things more complicated, but not enough to make the whole 
process invalid.

Reverse splits are much like regular splits in this regard.  The stock 
split druid could distribute the (negative) number of shares over the 
existing lots in the account in proportion to the number of shares in 
each lot.

It might be more intuitive to change the druid to ask for the split 
ratio and compute the number of new shares, at least as an option.  By 
far the most common split is 2 for 1 which can't give you fractional 
shares and entering this as a 2 for 1 split instead of 125 (or 
whatever) new shares is probably more the way people think of it.

Another approach to solving the lot problem for stock splits would be 
to have the stock split druid ask you how to distribute the new (or 
removed) shares.  However this is more complex and I think it would be 
rare that they wouldn't be distributed in proportion to the size of the 
lots in the account.  If you have the same stock in two different 
accounts they might be handled slightly differently, but they will be 
different transactions anyway.

-- 
Mike Alexander           mta at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI            PGP key ID: BEA343A6