[GNC] how to track Future and Options

[John Ralls]

> On Dec 14, 2018, at 10:51 AM, Christian Pinedo Zamalloa <chr.pinedo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I would like your experience to track Futures and Options with gnucash.
> - Any special account to use? It is not a mutual fund, stock...
> - Advice?
> 
> In the case of Futures which I am more interested in we could have an
> "active" or "bank" account:
> - day 0: ingress of the guarantee, i.e., 1000 €
> - day 1: earnings or loss 1st day, i.e., -100 €
> - day 2: earnings or loss 2nd day, i.e., +123 €
> - ...
> - final day: earnings or loss last day, i.e., +50 €
> 
> I am sure if the advanced portfolio report would include this account...
> 

As far as GnuCash is concerned an option is a stock. You need to learn the rules in your jurisdiction about whether individual investors are required to "mark to market"; they generally aren't. If you're not required to, then for accounting purposes there are only two events with an option: Buying and selling; expiration of an unexercised option is a sale at 0, one loses one's whole investment. If you are required to mark-to-market then you probably want a more sophisticated accounting program than GnuCash; in GnuCash you'd have to manually post the gain or loss daily, and no, I don't think the APR knows how to deal with mark-to-market transactions. 

You also need to learn the rules for when you exercise an option: In the US you add the cost of the option to the basis for the purchased stock for a call or deduct it from the proceeds for a put. If you're the one writing the option then it's the other way around.

Futures are just options for tangible goods or currency, same rules.

Regards,
John Ralls