Sell stocks with a profit: Capital gains

Alexander Engelhardt kamaitachi at gmx.de
Thu Jan 3 10:08:06 EST 2013


Hello Gnucash users,

I have only today read this section of the manual:
http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide/invest-sell1.html#invest-sellexample2

So before that, I have entered my actions of selling stocks in a 
different way, without the Income:Capital Gains account. Here is an 
example of how I entered my sells:
http://i.imgur.com/8PvZi.png

In this simple example, I bought 10 stocks for 100€ each, i.e. spent 
1000€. Then I sold the 10 pieces for 120€ each, i.e. gained 1200€. This 
is a 200€ increase in my net assets, but there is no income account 
where the 200€ came from.
When I have done it this way, I now believe that I have created 200€ out 
of nothing. I don't understand where they come from, and why GnuCash 
didn't complain when I entered it this way.

Can anyone clear this up for me?

Thanks in advance,
  Alex


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