I think I can get a fully customizable experience by using "NONE" and zero
cost basis. Please critique this:
;----------
2014-05-20 open Assets:Futures:GOLD-DEC-24 GOLD-DEC-24 "NONE"
2014-05-20 open Assets:Citibank:Cash USD
2014-05-20 open Income:CapitalGains USD
2014-05-20 open Expenses:CapitalLosses USD
2014-05-20 * "Buy GOLD-DEC-24 @1000.0"
Assets:Futures:GOLD-DEC-24 2 GOLD-DEC-24 { 0 USD }
2014-05-21 * "Sell GOLD-DEC-24 @1010.0"
Assets:Futures:GOLD-DEC-24 -1 GOLD-DEC-24 { 0 USD }
Assets:Citibank:Cash 10 USD
Income:CapitalGains -10 USD
2014-05-22 * "Sell GOLD-DEC-24 @990.0"
Assets:Futures:GOLD-DEC-24 -1 GOLD-DEC-24 { 0 USD }
Assets:Citibank:Cash -10 USD
Expenses:CapitalLosses 10 USD
;----------
Advantage: Full control.
Drawbacks:
1. The cost basis is just a dummy value (only to "enable a custom
experience").
2. I lose Beancount's automatic mismatch checks on futures quantity vs.
cash.
3. I also lose Beancount's automatic matching; have to do matching and
PnL calculations myself.
4. Beancount reporting doesn't automatically reflect unrealized gains.
Is this on the right track? (Point 4 is very unfortunate but I could
alleviate that by e.g. annual (December 31) entry to record unrealized
gains.)
Thanks,
Dan
On Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 10:10:03 PM UTC Dan Andersson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> For stocks (and even options), you pay for a thing (or short sell a thing)
> and cash leaves (or comes into) your cash account. Very clear. The cash is
> price * quantity * multiplier.
>
> Futures are different. No cash leaves/arrives in the beginning. Basically
> the value starts at zero. Only price differences over time matter and only
> when closing position does realized PnL bring cash in/out of cash account.
>
> How to deal with this in Beancount? Should I set the Beancount price to
> zero at first (and e.g. for informational purposes put the actual market
> price into the comment)?
>
> (I realize there is margin but that's just a virtual allocation of sorts
> (cash is still in the cash account), cannot really be determined from the
> price, plus it varies from time to time depending on volatility etc.)
>
> Thanks,
> Dan
>
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