I think it's possible that you really have two separate accounts, a 1. cash account, used to cover your margin 2. margin account, used to borrow The former is an Asset, the latter a Liability. (1) is used to cover for the risk involved in the positions acquired with (2). That's how I'd track this
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 8:53 AM, Justus Pendleton <[email protected]> wrote: > I have a marginable cash account with Interactive Brokers. If it has a > positive balance, then it is an asset and I earn interest income. So I > originally set it up something like this: > > open Assets:IB > > 2000-01-01 * "Opening balance" > Assets:IB 100.00 USD > Equity:Opening-Balances > > 2000-01-01 * "Interest income" > Assets:IB 2.00 USD > Income:Interest > > But since the account is marginable, it can go below zero. At which point > it switches from being an asset to a liability. Instead of having interest > income, I have an interest expense. > > 2000-01-02 * "Withdraw lots of money" > Assets:IB -500.00 USD ; this makes the account balance negative > Assets:BofA > > 2000-01-02 * "Interest payment" > Assets:IB -2.00 USD > Income:Interest ; or should I start putting Expenses:Interest here > instead? > > Now, I realise that at some level Assets and Liabilities are the same > things just with different signs. And the same is true-ish for Income and > Expenses. So I guess I'm looking for advice on best practices or experience > from people who've done something like this before. > > 1. Should I bother setting up a Liability:IB and use that when the balance > in Assets:IB goes below $0? > 2. Should I bother using Expenses:Interest versus Income:Interest (but > with the "wrong" sign)? > > Has anyone found any real pros or cons in actual use between these > approaches? Are there things that are easier or harder with one approach > versus another? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Beancount" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/beancount/71958c8f-f6f6-454f-bf5d-66d5681eb4f8%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/71958c8f-f6f6-454f-bf5d-66d5681eb4f8%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAK21%2BhPJa8PpxpVCwR%3DRNqKrJXw6jzaFA%2Bh-iPsc%2BP4KTWMDhA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
