On Apr 24, 2009, at 7:35 AM, Tim Docker wrote:
a stock purchase/sale. Is there a convention for this?
Yes, the typical convention is as follows:
2004/05/01 Stock purchase
Assets:Broker 50 AAPL @ $30.00
Expenses:Broker:Commissions $19.95
Assets:Broker $-1,500.00
This assumes you have a brokerage account that is capable of managed
both liquid and commodity assets. Now, on the day of the sale:
2005/08/01 Stock sale
Assets:Broker -50 APPL {$30.00} @ $50.00
Expenses:Broker:Commissions $19.95
Income:Capital Gains $-1,000.00
Assets:Broker $2,500.00
You can, of course, elide the amount of the last posting. I just put
it there for clarity's sake.
The {$30.00} is a lot price. You can also use a lot date,
[2004/05/01], or both, in case you have several lots of the same price/
date and your taxation model is based on longest-held-first.
John
