Stocks, gains/losses, do I really have to calculate them by hand?

[Ross Boylan]

On Wed, 2012-04-25 at 08:52 -0500, David Carlson wrote:
> I do not think that we need to have a solution that would work for all
> cases.  Day-traders, mutual fund accounts or 401-k accounts may
> require
> external software or spreadsheet solutions.  People who want to use
> LIFO
> or special methods of lot selection and manipulation can find their
> own
> solutions.  In the US, at least, FIFO and average cost are the only
> methods to be considered seriously.
I'm not sure who is to be doing the considering, but I think all methods
deserve consideration.  There's nothing in the tax code that dictates
those two choices, for example.

As of Jan 1 of this year US mutual fund companies are required to track
the basis of shares bought and sold; I think the rule applies to brokers
(i.e., stocks) too, but I'm  not sure.

So there may be increasing amounts of external help as time passes.

Tracking this stuff in a spreadsheet is difficult and awkward; it would
be great if gnucash could do it.  As I indicated in the "role of users"
thread, it's absence was a show-stopper for me.

I guess getting something work is a pretty substantial project, though
maybe the existing work on lots has done much of it.

Ross