Trading CFD's and Selling Short

[John & Jenny Ireland]

Hi,

I am very impressed by GnuCash, and it's documentation.

I am up to the stage of designing my set of accounts, and would like to know
the neatest or most elegant way to record my trading.

Jenny and I are retired and we both trade shares in individual accounts. I
have no problem there, the documentation is excellent.

We also have an Australian SMSF (self managed super fund) and Jenny trades
shares and can trade short, I trade CFD's (contracts for difference) and
trade long and short on margin.

e.g. Open a CFD for 1000 BHP SHORT at $50.00 on 10% margin.    What happens
is that 10% or $5000 is debited to the fund's equity account, and the
proceeds of the sale credited to an account with the broker who pays short
interest on it (these numbers are updated daily with price movements), and
1000 BHP is debited to the contract.  When the short is covered all this is
washed up and the only thing that has to remain in the accounts is  ' P/L
on Contract No. ****,  +/- $x '

or  Open a CFD for 1,000,000 FML LONG at 5c on 35% margin.    Similar
outcome but $17500 is debited from equity, the broker makes up the rest and
buys the shares so he can enter into a contract with the fund, and charges
long interest on the full value.  The fund receives interest on its GLV
(gross liquidation value) including the $5000 and $17500 deposits.

The three interest rates are different.


So is there a good way to set this up so we can keep a running balance of
the accounts, and of each instrument ??

Also, we trade on recommendations (tips) that come from several different
sources. Is there a good way to amalgamate the results from each source
which may be spread over the four accounts ??

Now perhaps this is not what GnuCash was designed for, and I should do my
analysis in, say, Excel, and slash and burn at the EOY for the tax return.

Before I tear my hair out, I thought I should ask for advice and help.


Thank you very much, I may be able to pass on the outcome to other users.


Kind Regards,    John.