Stock portfolio support and report editing?

[John Ralls]

On Feb 3, 2010, at 9:57 PM, Arthur Torrey wrote:

> I am running GC 2.2.9 on Gentoo Linux, under KDE 4.3.3.  I am trying to figure 
> out if GC is a suitable application for what I want to do in the way of 
> managing and tracking a stock and investment portfolio.  Currently I'm just 
> using a "paper" system, with no real money or transactions, but I don't see 
> how that can matter - I figure once I get something working I can export the 
> structure to a fresh set of books and go "live".
> 
> I have tried searching the archives, and not found anything really relevant - 
> if I missed something, feel free to point me at other links.
> 
> So far I have been unable to get the kind of information I want displayed, and 
> figure out how to get GC to track and display the information I want.
> 
> I have gotten the quote fetching setup working, at least when I hit the "get 
> quotes" button in the price editor it comes back with a price.  However it 
> does not seem able to transfer the price for the stock into the register - 
> even when attempting to purchase a stock - but if I copy the price into the 
> register manually, and attempt to purchase a specified dollar amount (say 
> $500.00) the price per share will often change when I hit enter... (the price 
> I copied from the price editor would have been gotten just a few minutes 
> earlier when I first entered the security information)
> 
> What I WANT to be able to do, is enter a "trailing stop" price, or a price 
> that is a set percentage below the stock price, and which serves as a signal 
> to sell if the stock price drops excessively ("Sell the losers, let the 
> winners ride")  I then want to update the stock price and the trailing stop 
> (if the stock price has gone up) and graph them at the market close each day, 
> similar to what the "tradestops.com" website 
> <https://www.tradestops.com/index.asp> does, and put up a signal if a stock's 
> price has dropped below the trailing stop price.
> 
> Assume I want to purchase stock "ABC" - I create an account for it, and enter 
> it in the price editor, and "get quotes" for it - but the price does not show 
> up in the account register anywhere that I can see - how can I make it do 
> this?  
> 
> How can I enter a "trailing stop" price?
> 
> I understand how to make the price editor get the daily quotes, but how can I 
> get any changes in price to show up in the stock accounts?
> 
> How can I make my trailing stop price recalculate as needed?
> 
> How can I get a graph of my stock prices?
> 
> I have noticed that there is a toolbar button for "add report" but it is 
> always grayed out and inactive - what do I need to do to add a report - which 
> I think might be how to do some of the above?
> 
> If this is something that GC isn't really suited for, I'd be interested in any 
> suggestions for alternative Linux software (I really do NOT want to use web 
> applications, as I want my financial data to stay on MY machine, not someone 
> elses...)  I have found several links to stock market tracking programs, but 
> all appear to be "dead code" - last update years back, no signs of life on 
> their mailing lists, etc...
> 

Gnucash is an accounting program: It tracks the flow of money (in the case of financial instruments like stocks and bonds) from a cash account to an asset account (converting to units of the asset at the price of that particular trade) and back. It can report on current market value of assets, but changes in market price aren't transactions and aren't reflected in the register.

The register shows what you paid for the stock when you bought it and what you got for the stock when you sold it. Depending on how you set it up (i.e., whether you break out commissions and other trading fees in separate splits) the "price per share" may or may not reflect the price on your trade ticket. The important thing is that the amount of money coming from or going to your cash account is correct.

Prices in Price Editor (whether retrieved or entered manually) are reflected in the currency value of the stock account on the Accounts page and in the various portfolio reports. 

Sorry, I don't know of any FOSS portfolio tracking or stock trading programs.

Regards,
John Ralls