Stocks and shares

[didikrm]

Hello,

This is my first post on this forum. I realise that it's not currently very active, but I am hoping that this will help new users how to set up stock portfolios on this amazing app!

I have followed the instruction in the documentation on how to create a stock portfolio and how to add shares to them. However, I needed to create a cash account which is used to purchase those shares and receive dividends or funds when the shares are sold. I think having a cash account is how broker accounts work in that they are used directly to store the funds.

Following this approach means that the shares transactions originate from the broker (cash) account rather than the stock shares (as explained in the guide). So in my example, the "account" would the cash broker account rather than the shares account (see screenshot: https://ibb.co/qFLbL0Z).

As a result of this, when I click on any shares on the left menu, I see the content of the accounts that link to them rather than the list of purchases, dividends and sale made. I am curious if others use the same approach when reproducing the structure of their broker accounts.

My other question is about how to handle close positions (not just partial but sell all shares from a single company/ETF). At the moment, I create a dummy payee called "Closed positions" and replace all existing actions of purchases/sales/dividend related to that stock into deposits and withdrawals from/to the broker (cash) account, then delete the share account. Again, I am curious to know how other users handle such scenarios.

Thanks in advance for your inputs. Hopefully, this will be helpful for other looking to use MMEx to track their stock investments.

[Nikolay]

It's very complicated and confusing. I'm trying to solve this in version 2.0.0.

https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/2718
https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/2729
https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/2702

[didikrm]

Thanks Nikolay. I know that you are working on some great enhancements to the app. I am not a coder, but I can help with the testing when it's ready.

I was just trying to see if and how others use MMEX to actively manage their stock holdings.

Looking forward to v2.

[jsantacana]

Hello.
I am very happy with version 1.3.6, so thank you very much.
However I cannot use Investment accounts stocks and shares because they don't work properly.
I can't wait for the new version 2.0 hopping it will work well with Investment accounts.

[Nikolay]

May this video would help?

[jsantacana]

Thank you so much Nikolay.
I really do appreciate your help. Perhaps I don't know how to work with them.
I am going to follow slowly the steps showed on the video.

[Abramoluna1]

I have been fearing investing from stock but this is really the way!
Thanks pal!

[Nickallington]

Hi all
I have trouble with this too. I think the stocks and shares part is the weakest element of MMEX, which is otherwise a very useful tool. I have trouble setting it up if I already have stocks, as no money is transferred in to start the process, and I don't want to go back and record 20 years of data to facilitate it. Also, there are problems when, as happened with me, a companyI held with shares in EUR was taken over by an American company, so I now have an equivalent holding in USD, or another EUR one which was taken private by a UK company, so I received a lump of cash in GBP. And dividends? I have not found a way to manage dividends that are paid directly into a personal bank account, and not via a broker account. Interest? Bonds are not covered at all. They pay interest rather than dividends, and though I use the dividend option, they are taxed differently, meaning I have to separate them out in reports. Distributions from unit trusts/mutual funds are also not included, whether reinvested or taken out as cash, and scrip dividends and share splits are also missing.This whole area is where a lot of simplification and user-friendly logic seems to be needed, or at the least, some more comprehensive user documentation. I look forward to any improvements you can all come up with!

[Renato]

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10410&p=22159&hilit=user#p22159

[BohoRex]

I'd LOVE to see a fresh "how to" video or instructions on setting up a fresh investment portfolio...

i.e.: Initial setup of a broker account ( such as Fidelity ) - then showing in MMEx how to make the transfer of funds from my bank account already set up - to Fidelity - then the individual stocks purchased on each transaction. (Fidelity does this as a money-market cash account to hold funds til I choose what stocks/mutual funds to purchase within my IRA account with Fidelity)

The YT video presumes prior setup of that (from what I can see) - and with it being a new year - it's a prime time to start fresh (for me)... I have setup an investment account in MMEx - that had an initial cash balance - but I can see no way to transfer that cash to stock (or mutual fund) purchases... when I add transactions - it simply adds to the balance - making it look like I have 2x the money that's really there (doesn't move it from the initial balance to have made the purchases). I see no option to transfer funds from one account to another for a stock transaction to be made.

I've played with MMex for several hours - and for the life of me - just can't figure out how to handle those transfers and then the mutual fund purchases... and have it show up correctly in MMex


Win 64-bit version 1.6.2

[oldgrayrider]

New user trying to sort out portfolio accounts. Problem: how to create a recurring transaction as part of an income amount (payroll) going to a portfolio account as a 401k transaction. Two income contribution amounts, 1 from employee and 1 match from employer. I am so far not able to execute this.

[steen]

Hi Nikolay,
have you got any news about the 2.0 version?
Release date?
Thanks in advance!

It's very complicated and confusing. I'm trying to solve this in version 2.0.0.

https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/2718
https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/2729
https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/2702

[MartinArmstrong]

have you got any news about the 2.0 version? Release date?

The next release after the current 1.6.4 will be MMEX 1.7.0. There is no fixed released date for that version yet but it is getting near.

Beyond that there will be MMEX 1.7.1, 1.7.2 etc.

There are certainly no solid plans yet for version 2.0. Much has changed in the world since @Nikolay wrote his comment in Jan 2021.

[karsey]

A workaround for setting up your initial stocks is to pair each initial "purchase" (or withdrawal in the share account) with a transfer from a bank account for the same amount. Just do it for all your shares until they all have two entries: one for the initial setup purchase/withdrawal and another for a transfer from a bank account for the same amount.

When you're done, your bank account is going to be completely out of whack, it's fine.

Just adjust the starting balance by an appropriate amount which makes brings it back to the actual starting balance.

Eg. You've just set up your mmex database and you're starting from scratch, you set up a checking account with $100, a savings account with $500, and then you set up your "MyBroker" under stock portfolio, add a transaction, and you have 10 shares of ABC.NYSE with an average cost of $3, so the amount invested is $30, and the current price is $5, bringing the account value to $50 with an unrealized gain of $20.

When you create the share account, and create the initial withdrawal transfer for $30, subsequently go into the share account and make a transfer from your checking account for $30. The balance in the share account will be 0. The stock portfolio will be fine.

However now your checking is at $70 and that's just not true! Right click on it and adjust the opening balance by +$30.

All is well in the world. I hope this is helpful for someone!

[Nickallington]

While not having a nice answer to the problem, I wouldn't recommend this on principle, even if it does the job (I get that). The problem is that unless you start using MMEX at the same time as you open your first bank account as a teenager, any manual balance adjustment is going to break the link between your MMEX start point and your paper statement or other system endpoint. Not a good start, from an audit perpective. OK, maybe many people don't care, but from my point of view, if you are going to bother to run a personal accounting system, you might as well try and do it properly!

There are situations where you get shares without purchasing them, such as inheritance (common, I suspect), and I would like to see a Shares In function that doesn't require a corresponding debit (though you could make a debit to the donor). And many people these days don't use broker accounts at all - they deal direct. There seem to have been some changes to MMEX investments over the years as the documentation doesn't seem to tie up with current process, and I think there are probably better ways to do this, pending a thorough review of this part of MMEX. I will be looking at this in more detail soon, and will post if I have any useful input.

[bookeeper]

A few days ago I made my first post here on the forum. I praised MMEX and am excited to have discovered a great new program for managing finances, but I am completely stuck on creating a stock portfolio.

My initial thesis was that I would open a broker account to which I would transfer funds from a checking account. I would create (register/add) the relevant stocks to a list (similar to how a beneficiary list works) that I plan to buy or have bought in the past, and then “add” this particular stock to a stock portfolio with specific parameters and dates, and MMEX would deduct the corresponding value from the broker account, thereby reducing the balance of funds.

However, I found out that the matter is much more complicated and I am still at the stage where I probably very poorly understand the principle of working with stocks and stock accounts.

The Portfolio Performance program has worked very well for me, but it does not allow you to perform common operations with personal finances. That is why I use 2 programs. One for stocks and the other for personal finances.
I was happy to finally find a program that combines these two things into one, but so far it hasn't been very successful. I'm not giving up hope and I'm still trying to research how it works. Thanks to the community and this forum, for the contributions you make here.

[guangong]

hi @bookeeper

With the latest master branch build, you can accomplish this. would you mind having a re-try?

let's call this v1.5 if the past function set is v1.0, the major changes are
1. enable regular transfer between a checking account and an investment account (your portfolio here),
2. with share account transfer disabled, as it is to track the detailed buy/sell transaction
3. all balance would go to the investment account (your portfolio here), all dot lines here are done on the fly.
4. fix some bugs, and refine the layout and wording.