Using Fraction Traded Smaller Than 1/100000000

[Garrett Green]

On Feb 28, 2011, at 9:35 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:

> Garrett Green writes:
> 
>> I am trying to match my account with the accuracy of the fraction traded for a fund that trades in fractions of 1/1000000000, however I can't seem to decrease the fraction traded for this commodity below 1/100000000 (the up arrow is grayed out when I reach 1/100000000),  Is there a way to make the fraction traded smaller?
>> 
>> e.g. The account shows 15.12345678 shares, but I need 15.123456789 shares.
>> 
>> Searching on the list gave me a clue about making sure that the account is set to use the commodity value, and I made sure I am set up this way.
> 
> Sorry, you've reached the limit of what the UI will let you do.  The
> issue is that once you get to too many significant figures you can
> easily over-run the math when computing exchange rates.
> 
> Where in the real world is someone trading in 1/10^9 shares?

My initial confusion was because the interface let me type in a larger
number but it was reduced to the interface limit when the window
was closed.  It wasn't until I was unsuccessful a couple of times that
I saw the up arrow was grayed out.

I was surprised to see such small fractional shares in my account as
well, but in the 401k that my company recently switched to, they track
mutual fund shares to this level.  Maybe to avoid using fractional
cents?  I am assuming that they can make purchases aggregated
across many employees and they then split the shares internally.

>> Garrett
> 
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> 
> -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
>       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available

I was hoping to be able to keep the share balances equal between the
401k brokerage and Gnucash, but I guess I can add a small adjustment
transaction if needed.  Thanks for letting me know.

Garrett