Yeah, I figured each option could be a new commodity. I don't do a lot of option trades, so I'm okay with having more commodities until something better turns up.
The thing I'm not sure of is how to represent a trade where I'm getting a credit (from selling a put or even a short sale of a stock). I can't quite seem to figure out the matching posting for this transaction if I represent receiving credit as a posting into a cash account such as Assets:US:Schwab:Cash. Any thoughts on how to do this or an example you can share? Thanks! On Monday, December 28, 2020 at 5:04:37 PM UTC-8 [email protected] wrote: > On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 5:47 PM Rajath Agasthya <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> First of all, thanks to all the contributors (especially Martin) for this >> wonderful tool! I'm new to double entry accounting and Beancount, but I'm >> blown away at how simple yet powerful this tool is, especially when >> combined with Fava. >> >> I've been reading docs and I just started setting up my beancount file. >> But as I setup my investment account, I'm a little bit lost as to how I >> should manage option trades. The trades where there is a net debit is >> straightforward (I think), but I'm not sure how to enter trades like >> selling a covered call or a put or a spread/multi-leg option that result in >> a credit. >> >> Are there some examples I can refer to on how to manage option trades? >> The docs mention options trading as a future topic to be tackled and I >> unfortunately couldn't find anything in the mailing list (perhaps I didn't >> search properly). So if anyone can point me in the right direction, I would >> really appreciate it. >> > > I do options trading, but I only record simple options, never combos like > this. > - The option can be encoded in the symbol name. This makes a lot of new > commodities to declare and put out of commissions. I haven't yet figured > out what needs to be done to make this a bit nicer (e.g. allow user to > define a commodity regex/pattern for these). > - For stable asset types, I use leaf subaccounts; for options I don't > (would be too many accounts, and it feels silly to create an account for a > single position). > - For options combinations/"strategies", if you have some way to trade all > the legs instantly, you should be able to either (a) insert all the > individual legs and their prices in a single transaction, or, if the > product is already securitized by your broker, trade it like any other > product (one leg with the derivative instrument). > > Hope this helps, you do have to get a bit creative if you trade options, > but, well, you trade options, so you will be able to figure out something > :-) > > > >> >> Thanks, >> Rajath >> >> -- >> 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 view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/51c57efc-8915-4edd-981a-cb997c1f143cn%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/51c57efc-8915-4edd-981a-cb997c1f143cn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/b12e5c7d-f2d7-4b9c-8131-3cac25b17810n%40googlegroups.com.
