Tracking stock transactions...

[Matt Armstrong]

Chirik <chirik+gnucash@castlefur.com> writes:

> I thought I'd done my stock transactions correctly in GnuCash, but
> looking over my accounts lastnight, I noticed that things didn't add
> up as I expected, and it's due to my stock transactions.
>
> When I buy stock, I transfer the money from my brokerage account to
> a stock account with the appropriate symbol, so GnuCash can track
> the value.  When the stock is then sold, it's transferred back to
> the brokerage account.

This is how things were wet up for me when I recently imported all my
Quicken data into GnuCash.


> The change in value of the stock isn't being reflected in an income
> or expense account, though.
>
> Is this the way it should be working, or am I doing something wrong?
> If I bought a stock for $10/share, and sold it for $15/share...
> shouldn't the $5/share profit on the stock come from an income
> account?  Just like, if I sell it for $5 share, shouldn't the $5
> loss be reflected in an expense account?

Very good question -- gains and losses on stock transactions is
pertinent to taxes.