Unrealized gains: conclusions?

[Charles Day]

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 10:29 AM, Mike Alexander <mta at umich.edu> wrote:

> --On July 7, 2008 8:46:37 AM -0700 Charles Day <cedayiv at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > So from your and Michael's comments, I think we can add these to the
> > list:
> >
> > 9. Entering unrealized gains is optional and must remain so.
> > Therefore use of trading accounts must be optional.
>
> I'm all in favor of making trading accounts optional.  They are a
> global option in my patch, but really should probably be an option
> associated with a specific Gnucash file.  However, I don't think it's
> correct to say that trading accounts record unrealized gains.  They
> record the net conversion between commodities which makes it possible
> to calculate unrealized gains.  This is perhaps a small distinction,
> but I think it is a useful one.
>

Ah, I think I see what you mean. Unless you have forgotten to record
realized gains, or you are revaluing your existing holdings (or GnuCash is
doing so against your will), trading accounts have a net zero balance. So
trading accounts are not incompatible with cash basis accounting. Do I have
that right?


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