trouble with date when importing a just exported csv file.

[Wm]

Sat, 31 Jan 2015 07:21:18 <54CCD6CE.6090808 at gmail.com>  David Carlson 
<david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>

>The bottom line after your import is complete is to have a transaction
>that results in the same total amount as that reported by your broker in
>his monthly statement and in the transaction confirmation.

Or fairly close to.

>  The problem
>is that often the three numbers (shares, price & total) do not balance
>due to rounding errors.  If you use a calculator to multiply the number
>of shares by the reported price, the total is often different than
>reported by a small but not insignificant amount.  Since the broker
>actually uses the total amount to add to or subtract from your account,
>to make your GnuCash books match his, you need to use totals too.

Nods, it is usually [1] the money that is correct with the number of 
shares or price varying over time to make the sums up.

>In the real world there is also a commission which you must decide
>whether to track separately or bury in the price in order to get correct
>totals.

And that may depend on your tax regime, i.e. are the stocks traded 
within or external to a tax protected scheme and other stuff 
jurisdiction specific, I have a UK pension fund where the costs are 
included in the price, nightmare to keep track of, I only really attempt 
to get it right twice a year, I should be doing it this month but 
haven't yet :)

>  Then, after the round trip purchase and sale you must include
>the profit or loss in the closing transaction or your books will go out
>of balance.

Hang on!  Does Larry know about Trading Accounts yet ???

>The real reason price is shown is for reference only.

Yup, two out of the money, units and price need to be right, the third 
is a function of the other two otherwise god does bad things with 
numbers ... but I'm an atheist :)

[1] there have been lengthy discussions on this down to fractions of 
cents and shares that can't be used in RL in the Ledger-CLI and friends 
lists if anyone wants to go read

-- 
Wm...