Investment Register Display Oddity

[David T.]

David,

That is an interesting behavior. 

For clarity, I will note that non-highlighted transactions show both the shares and the amount spent.

I imagine that there is something about the fact that the current transaction is trying to show information about the anchor split (the split that brings this transaction into this register), whereas non-selected transactions show a default arrangement. The fact that no one has even mentioned it in this long a period of time shows you how much that behavior gets noticed. 

I will note a couple of things: 

1) if the display is set to Basic, all transactions show both shares and amount; 
2) when in Transaction Journal, every transaction shows the shares in this spot; and 
3) when in Auto-Split view, the dollar amounts in the current transaction are displayed below in the splits

Now, here’s an added wrinkle: in the event of a sell that involves more than one lot, the lots function creates separate splits for each lot in the aggregated sale. This results in the transaction appearing multiple times in the register when in Auto-Split view, with each non-highlighted instance showing the number of shares involved in that particular split. That makes sense. However, when you highlight any of these transactions, the full transaction displays—and the total shares at the top reflects the full number of shares in the transaction. That might be confusing (if anyone were to have noticed it before you, that is!).

Items 2 & 3 support my suggestion that in expanded view, the first line of the transaction display provides information about the anchor split. However, that multi-split situation messes with that a bit.

So, perhaps not so much a bug as an idiosyncrasy?

Cheers,
David T.

> On Dec 1, 2016, at 8:16 AM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi. In the security register view I just noticed that when purchasing stock
> the display for the currently selected transaction shows the number of
> shares purchased in both the Total Shares and Total Buy boxes, but in
> non-selected transactions, the Total buy box shows the total dollars spent.
> 
> Reviewing the documentation, it appears that it has been that way for a
> very long time, probably over 10 years. I am currently using Release 2.6.14
> in Windows 10.
> 
> The documentation shows the register in single line Basic Ledger view while
> I prefer Double Line Transaction Journal or Auto split view, but the view
> preference does not affect the numbers.
> 
> Is that the way it is supposed to be, and if so, what is the rationale?
> 
> By the way, I was unable to find any reference in the current help or
> Tutorial manuals describing the extra fields visible in the security
> register view.
> 
> I suspect that is a bug and the Total Buy box should be showing the amount
> just as the Buy box shows the amount in the buy split line when in Auto
> split view or Transaction Journal view.
> 
> 
> David C
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