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The Grumpy Editor's Guide to Personal Finance Managers, Part 2

The Grumpy Editor's Guide to Personal Finance Managers, Part 2

Posted Oct 3, 2005 9:15 UTC (Mon) by ekj (guest, #1524)
In reply to: The Grumpy Editor's Guide to Personal Finance Managers, Part 2 by sean.hunter
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's Guide to Personal Finance Managers, Part 2

Agreed. It is an example of exposing to the user the fact that two (from the point of view of the user) separate entities are *implemented* the same way.

From the point of view of Gnucash (or any finance-application) commodities and stock are very similar both:

  • You can buy and sell them.
  • Prices (and thus value) change over time.
  • There can be fees associated with buying or selling them.
  • The prices are denoted in some currency, and can frequently be found online.
On the other hand, the two are not identical, even from the POV of the program because:

  • Stock can split, or join operations that make no sense for a commodity. 100kg of gold won't spontaneously transform into 200kg of gold at half the price.
  • Stock can pay dividended. I don't know that commodities ever do.


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