OFX Import and negative prices on stock transactions

[Charles Gagnon]

David Reiser wrote:
> On Feb 7, 2008, at 11:00 PM, Charles Gagnon wrote:
[...]
>> Instead, I get one transaction only (so the commission is rolled into
>> the base price which) and it looks like:
> 
> Yes, libofx rolls the commission into the base price. Recently, fields  
> have been added to libofx so that commissions and fees could be  
> handled separately, but I don't think the code has been updated to use  
> those changes.

That's okay I think. My focus with gnucash is accounting and taxes and I 
think rolling the commission into the basis prices fits that model.

>>
>>   Buy 60 units of ABAX at -37.80 = 2269 (in the sell column)
>>   (the quantity shows up positive as it should it a BUY but the price
>> is negative)
> That's odd. The buy should have a negative total -- cash flow  
> convention is that it is negative when it leaves your account, as it  
> (the cash) is leaving your account to buy the stock the total should  
> be negative.

This one is killing me. I would have to manually reverse all my 
transactions. I am running: GnuCash 2.2.1, Built 2007-11-23 from r16462. 
Would a newer version help me?

Anything I could try to see if it works better?

My insitution can also produce QFX files. Does that have a chance at 
being handled better? As I said, I've been using gnucash forever but I'm 
new to the ofx/qfx thing.

> All of my stock purchases from ameritrade show a positive unitprice,  
> but a negative total (as I think it should to follow the common  
> convention). I'm pretty sure the ofx spec also proclaims that stock  
> purchases should have a negative total.

A negative total? What do you mean? The purchase will show up in the buy 
column but the total will still be positive no? Or should the 
institution put a negative total for it to show in the right column?

Maybe my total is positive (see OFX extract below), the number shows up 
as a sell. And the only to 'sell' a positive quantity (+60) is to make 
the price negative so Gnucash adjusts.

In other words, it should be:

buy	+60		+10/ea		-600
sell	-60		+10/ea		+600

But I get:

buy	+60		-10/ea		+600 (shows up as a sell)
sell	-60		-10/ea		-600 (shows up as a buy)
		
Do I make sense?

Anybody has link to the OFX standard I could refer to if I want to 
contact IB and ask why the total amount for the transactions do not 
follow standards.

Thanks.

[...]
>> ### extract from OFX file ###
>>            <BUYSTOCK>
>>                <INVBUY>
>>                 <INVTRAN>
>>
>> <FITID>20080115202000.000[-5:EST].xxxxxxxxxx.USD.002567105</FITID>
>>                    <DTTRADE>20080115202000.000[-5:EST]</DTTRADE>
>>                 </INVTRAN>
>>                <SECID>
>>                    <UNIQUEID>002567105</UNIQUEID>
>>                    <UNIQUEIDTYPE>CUSIP</UNIQUEIDTYPE>
>>                </SECID>
>>                <UNITS>60.0</UNITS>
>>                <UNITPRICE>37.8000</UNITPRICE>
>>                <COMMISSION>1.00</COMMISSION>
>>                <TOTAL>2269.00</TOTAL>
>>                <CURRENCY>
>>                    <CURRATE>1.0</CURRATE>
>>                    <CURSYM>USD</CURSYM>
>>                </CURRENCY>
>>                <SUBACCTSEC>CASH</SUBACCTSEC>
>>                <SUBACCTFUND>CASH</SUBACCTFUND>
>>                </INVBUY>
>>                <BUYTYPE>BUYTOCOVER</BUYTYPE>
>>              </BUYSTOCK>
>> ### end ###
>>
>> --
>> Charles Gagnon                   | My views are my views and they
>> http://unixrealm.com             | do not represent those of anybody
>> charlesg at unixrealm.com        | but me.
> 
> 
> Dave
> --
> David Reiser
> dbreiser at earthlink.net
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Charles Gagnon                   | My views are my views and they
http://unixrealm.com             | do not represent those of anybody
charlesg at unixrealm.com        | but me.