Importing from Quicken

[Ian Lewis]

Steve,

What I think Charles was trying to say is, If there is a standard practice
where you can record stock shorting using standard double-entry bookkeeping
then yes. If not then no.

I'm not an expert so I'm not sure how you might do it, but my hunch is that
you can record these using standard double entry accounting. If someone
knows how to do this the or has a good way of recording shorted stocks then
please chime so we can update the wiki and/or documentation.

Ian

2008/3/3, Steve <zephod at cfl.rr.com>:
>
>
> ---- Charles Day <cedayiv at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Richard Ullger <rullger at ntlworld.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Charles Day wrote:
> > > >
> > > > That is a good question. I have not tried to enter shorts or covers
> in
> > > > GnuCash. Off the top of my head, it seems like you would need a
> > > "Borrowed
> > > > Shares:Security Name" liability account for which the underlying
> > > "commodity"
> > > > (GnuCash term) is the security being sold short. Transfer shares
> from
> > > that
> > > > account into your portfolio and immediately sell them. That would be
> the
> > > > short, leaving you with the cash you got from the sale plus a
> liability
> > > of
> > > > the borrowed shares.  For the cover, buy shares for the liability
> > > account.
> > > >
> > >
> > > When you short shares, your broker borrows the shares on your behalf
> and
> > > sells them. You do not actually realise any cash for the sale so you
> do
> > > not have that cash to go and buy more shares. When you buy to cover
> you
> > > receive the difference between the sale and the cover if there was a
> > > gain or your account is debited with the difference if there was a
> loss.
> > >
> >
> > Ah, yes, I had forgotten how that worked. Had I actually gotten around
> to
> > shorting ANF a few days ago as I had planned, I would have known better.
> :(
> >
> > Anyway, I'm sure there must be a fairly standard way of recording this
> type
> > of transaction in a double-entry accounting package. If there is not
> already
> > a GnuCash druid/wizard to drive the process, then that would be a nice
> > enhancement.
>
>
> Err.. I'm still not clear on this. Does GC 2.2.3 in fact support shorting
> stocks.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve
>
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