Calculating currency gain & loss

[coolnodje]

Hi,

my goal is to be able to keep track of currency gain and loss on a daily
basis in the following scenario:

My income is in USD. My expenses are in XXX.

I exchange USD in XXX from time to time, according to needs and FX rate.

When I need more XXX for spending, I'd like to be able at any given
moment to know whether I should change more USD or spend the already
exchanged XXX.

To give a concrete example, this translate into 2 Asset bank accounts:

Asset:Bank:USD Account
Asset:Bank:XXX Account

Asset:Bank:USD Account
Date   |Description                            |    Transfer           
            |Credit|Debit|Balance
01/01 |change 100USD at 1.20XXX|Asset:Bank:XXX Account |            |100|100

Asset:Bank:XXX Account 
Date   |Description                            |    Transfer           
            |Credit|Debit|Balance
01/01 |change 100USD at 1.20XXX|Asset:Bank:USD Account |     120|       
|120

Next month I have to spend XXX100 but USD/XXX is now 1.30. I should
change more USD.

This is clear with a simple transaction but with a backlog of many years
of transaction, it's impossible to decide without a properly configured
tool.

I've reading the doc extensively but can't figure out how to get a clear
control panel for this.

I've activated the Currency Trading Accounts. What I have now is a list
of all transaction in USd as well as in XXX.
When I look at the Accounts tab, the default currency being USD, I have
the tally in XXX, in USD, and the XXX equivalent Total(USD) calculated
from the day.

But this doesn't help really.

>From Peter Sellinger article, I gather "The purpose of a currency
trading accounts is not to perform conversions, but to calculate gains
and losses. "
Which is exactly what I want. But I can't figure out how calculate those
on a daily basis to keep track of unrealized gain/loss for each every
curency.

Thanks for an help,