Mutual Fund Sale Details

[Mike C.]

I had time to generate some simple security buys and sales to better 
understand how lots works and  know I understand what you mean by "mix 
and match".  I wasn't able to find any clear documentation on using 
lots, only the procedure for selling shares in the Tutorial and Concepts 
Guide.  I see now that the correct procedure is to enter the sale in one 
transaction in the register, not two, and then go to "view lots" and 
Scrub Account.  Another transaction then shows up in the register with 
the correct gain/loss but it is listed as "Orphans-USD"  that needs to 
be changed to the correct income account (capital gains).  This seems to 
work well and give the correct profit/loss although I read that there 
may be a problem if there is a stock split.  This is a big help in 
calculating the cost basis if dividends have been reinvested over 
several years before the sale and is a valuable feature.
Gains are always calculated using FIFO cost basis which will be 
different than the average cost basis provided by some mutual fund 
companies but is the only choice for stock sales in the US.
Mike


On 2/9/2010 8:07 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:
> "Mike C."<subscribe307 at verizon.net>  writes:
>
>    
>> OK, I didn't know I was "mix and matching".  I was using the register
>> for all entries but getting the value of the profit from the "View
>> Lots" which changed after the file was saved.  In this case it was
>> simple to figure out what the profit should be since the sale was from
>> shares all purchased at one time but in other cases the sale shares
>> could be from many purchases or dividend reinvestments at different
>> unit prices.  Is there a better way to do this and have GC determine
>> the profit?
>> Mike
>>      
> unfortunately there is not a good way for GnuCash to compute the profit.
>
>    
>>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>>>          
> -derek
>    
>
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