Stock accounts and double entry

[ian+gnucash-user@beware.dropbear.id.au]

I have been trying to use the stock account type and I run into
trouble. Suppose I buy shares and enter it in the stock account
as a transfer from a bank account. Now I seel the share at a greater price
and again enter it as a transfer to the bank account.

The problem seems to be that the capital gain has materialized out of
nowhere as far as a double entry accounting system is concerned. There
is no corresponding decrement from another account.

How are you meant to use these things?

One solution I can see is to do sales as a single entry, transfer
the initial purchase value back to the bank and make a new transfer from
a "realized capital gains" account to the bank account. This kind of
works except that you end up with a negative number of "shares"
corresponding to the backing out of the initial purchase price.

A smaller but still significant problem is how do handle brokerage,
stampduty etc?

I notice a large number of options under "Action" but what effect do that
have on anything?

Thanks in advance for any clues?

Ian