Price Source for Mutual Fund and Stock

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Doug Brown <toquehead at gmail.com> writes:

> I am no expert here - new to Gnucash and double entry accounting, but
> what I would expect and like is for "weighted average" to use only
> transaction prices and to average the prices based on the number of
> shares purchased at each price.  This is what you would need to
> calculate a capital gain/loss using an "average cost" basis.

Yes, Weighted Average does only use the transaction entries.  I just
don't know exactly how.

> I set up a very simple gnc database to test this a bit, but am having
> trouble. I created a very simple chart of accounts with 1 security, 1
> brokerage account, 1 mutual fund, and 1 bank account. I put two buys
> in for the mutual fund (ABC):
>
> 1/jan/2008, buy 100 shares @ $10
> 15/feb/2008, buy 100 shares @ $20
>
> I manually entered one price for ABC:
> 1/feb/2008: $11
>
> I first ran the "Investment Portfolio" report. It defaults to using a
> price setting of "most recent". It used $11, so it apparently only
> looked at the price db. If I use "nearest in time", I also get $11. If
> I select "weighted average", get: "Report error \n An error occurred
> while running the report."

Take a look on the terminal or /tmp/gnucash.trace for more information
on the actual report crash.

> I tried the "Advanced Portfolio" report. If I unselect the "Set
> preference for price list data" check box, I also receive the same
> generic report error. If I enter a sale:
>
> 20/feb/2008 sell 100 @ $15
>
> Then the Advanced Portfolio correctly calculates my Basis to be $1500
> if I specify "Basis calculation method" to be "Average" (or $2000 if I
> specify FIFO).
>
> Any ideas on my report errors?

Not without a guile backtrace.

> On a related note, I have read of a UI utility to help the correct
> entry of a sale of a security (5 splits), but I have not found it. Is
> it implemented?

I'm afraid that I know of no dialog that will do that.

> d.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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