Same Stock in Two Different Brokerage Accounts

[Murry McEntire]

On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 1:32 PM, Al Smith <alsecond55 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello!
> Can anyone tell me how to do this in gnucash?
> I have investments with a brokerage house (Brokers R US) split between two
> different accounts (account #1234 and account #6789). There is some overlap
> in the equities contained in these accounts so that both accounts have 100
> shares of the stock XYZ. I would like the account tree in gnucash to look
> like this;
>
> Assets
>      Investments
>           Brokers R Us
>                Account #1234
>                     Stock
>                          XYZ
>                Account #6789
>                     Stock
>                           XYZ
>
> However, when I try to add XYZ to the second account, an error message pops
> up saying "That commodity already exists.", and I cannot proceed.
> I've tried making another account under Investments called Brokers R You
> then adding the sub-accounts Account #6789, Stock, and XYZ but I get the
> same error message. I'd really like to have both 1234 and 6789 in the same
> gnucash file, in order to simplify recording transfers. I can't simply
> combine the two accounts into one at Brokers R Us, since income into each
> one is treated differently for tax purposes. Can someone suggest an
> approach?
> Thanks.
> _______________________________________________
>
>
I've had the same type of stock in four accounts at one time, so it can be
done.

When I created the first account  Inv:BrokerA:XYZ I filled out the Account
Name "XYZ",
description, Account Type of "Stock". For the security/currency, I hit the
"New" button and filled out the New Security panel values, i.e., Full Name,
Symbol, Type, etc.. for stock XYZ and saved it. then saved the account.

When creating the second account Inv:BrokerB:XYZ, I again filled out the
Account Name "XYZ" description, and Account Type of Stock., however for the
Security/currency, I picked the existing Type: and Security "XYZ" I'd
entered for the first account then hit OK. then saved the account.
Two accounts with the same type of stock.

Murry