how to show stock trades?

[James LewisMoss]

>>>>> On Thu, 16 Aug 2001 15:34:07 -0700 (PDT), Nikunj Bansal <nikunj@yahoo.com> said:

 Nikunj> James, Thanks for the reply. I have a follow up question:

 Nikunj> What is the type of your account "Stock Trading Account"? 
 Nikunj> Does your balance sheet still balance after the stock trades?

"STA" is a bank type account.

I actually don't look at the balance sheet so I couldn't tell you.
Maybe one of the report people could explain better?  Robert?

 Nikunj> As far as I can see it.. I pretty much do the same thing. I
 Nikunj> have a Datek brokerage account. So I set up a top level
 Nikunj> account called Datek with type Bank. Under that I have an
 Nikunj> account called "Cash in Datek" which is also of type Bank (I
 Nikunj> figured this would be like another Checking/Savings
 Nikunj> account). And I also have accounts for each of the stocks
 Nikunj> that I have traded in.  They are of type Stock. When I buy a
 Nikunj> stock.. I increase the number of stock in that Stock account
 Nikunj> and simultaneously reduce money in the "Cash in Datek"
 Nikunj> account. When I sell, I do the vice-versa. Of course, I also
 Nikunj> take the commissions out and put them in another Expense
 Nikunj> account similar to what you described.

 Nikunj> Now heres the deal right. When you look at the balance sheet,
 Nikunj> your Assets should be equal to (Liabilities + Equity + Net
 Nikunj> Profit). For the above pair of transactions, your Assets have
 Nikunj> gone up (due to increase in the "Cash in Datek" account, but
 Nikunj> none of the other components went up to balance it out.
 Nikunj> Ideally, the Net Profit component should increase to balance
 Nikunj> the increase in Assets. But what combination of accounts
 Nikunj> should I set up to show that?

 Nikunj> Any insights?

Nope. Sorry.

Jim

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