currency linked to a stock

[Sébastien de Menten]

Coming back to the currency linked (or not) to a commodity. In the gnucash
guide, I read

If you want to track income (dividends/interest/capital gains) on a
per-stock or fund basis, you will need to create an
Income:Dividends:STOCKSYMBOL, Income:Cap Gain (Long):STOCKSYMBOL,
Income:Cap Gain (Short):STOCKSYMBOL and Income:Interest:STOCKSYMBOL account
for each stock you own that pays dividends or interest.

Now, if I want to do this for the Yahoo stock, what is the currency I
should use for these income accounts ? Should I use USD ? or does it depend
on the broker/exchange/... And if it is USD, is then USD the "natural"
currency of the YAHOO commodity ? Still a bit lost...



On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 4:47 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>
>
> On Dec 17, 2014, at 2:53 PM, Sébastien de Menten <sdementen at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> On Yahoo! Finance, there are multiple symbols for Yahoo! Inc in function
> of the exchange (YHOO for Nasdaq, YHOO.BA <http://yhoo.ba/> for buenos
> aires, YHO.DE <http://yho.de/>. For XETRA,...).
> Should all these "stocks" be the same commodity in GnuCash (with then
> multiples prices in function of the currency) ? Or should they be different
> commodities (with different namespaces) ? And if I have a brokerage account
> to trade stocks, can I buy the yahoo stock on Nasdaq and sell it back on
> XETRA ? Or should I be a bank/trader to be able to do that ? (I haven't
> gone farther than sell/buy stock to/from the same exchange for my personal
> use)
> I thought there would be different stocks in GnuCash and that a stock
> would have a single currency. Now, the example of the Cheddar is a bit
> stretched as it looks more similar to "I buy a house in CAD and sell it
> back in USD" (ie it could be considered as an asset/account and not as
> a commodity).
> If one was to manage import/export of goods in multiple currencies (ie not
> through an exchange), would it use "commodities" to do so in GnuCash (one
> commodity per type of cheese (or type of electronic material or type
> of clothes) ?
>
>
> These are user questions, so I’m transferring the thread to the user list.
> Please be sure to reply there.
>
> In theory, yes, the different symbols represent different prices on the
> same security. In practice if you want to use Finance::Quote you’d need to
> make them separate securities because GnuCash can handle only one symbol
> and price source per security for online retrieval. GnuCash is probably not
> the right software for someone engaged in forex/stock arbitrage anyway.
> That said, if you’re willing to enter the prices by hand you certainly
> could enter prices in as many currencies as you like via the price editor.
>
> Whether you can do the arbitrage with your brokerage account depends on
> your account. It’s my understanding that one can trade on foreign exchanges
> with Charles Schwab, though I’ve never tried. Talk to your account
> representative. But be aware that forex is an excellent way to make a small
> fortune — out of a big one.
>
> Houses are different from cheeses in that they’re not often moved and that
> professional assistance is generally required to convey them. Cars, on the
> other hand, are often sold across the US/Canadian border and are an
> expensive enough asset that one might record it in GnuCash, especially if
> one bought them on credit.
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>
>