Re: FX

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Posted by Mark on October 06, 2007 at 10:00:29:

In Reply to: FX posted by Robert A on October 05, 2007 at 22:08:56:

: Hi Mark
: I'm still using version 6.8 while waiting for a version of FM that will seamlessly import from Quicken, complete with effective treatment of Ameritrade's typical cash plus money market sweep transactions.

: Today I did something I've been meaning to do for years. Instead of using pink sheet symbols and US dollars for my Canadian stocks, I used their TSX symbols, which downloads prices in Canadian dollars. I then set up a Canadian Dollar investment, and tied all my Canadian stocks to it. This investment (USDCAD=X) currently has only one price - today's. I checked "Exchange Rate Adjusted".

: Every thing worked perfectly, i.e., the Canadian stocks' prices were downloaded in Canadian dollars and automatically converted to US dollars using the current exchange rate.

: I was very pleased until I looked back and saw that the program had back-adjusted all the past prices according to today's exchange rate, including my purchase prices from many months ago. This renders my past purchase (and sales) prices inaccurate as the US dollar - Canadian dollar exchange rate has changed very dramatically over the past year. It also renders past performance data inaccurate.

: Is there a work-around for this problem?

Hi Robert,

When you use an exchange rate adjusted investment, and you have "View / Exchange Rate Adjusted" turned on, your investments in that currency will be shown in your default currency. (No data in your investment is modified or back adjusted. To see it in the native currency, turn off "View / Exchange Rate Adjusted".)

In order to figure out the conversion rate, it looks at your "Options / Currency Settings..." values. Since you have assigned an investment to be used as the exchange rate, the conversion uses the prices in this exchange rate investment. If you only have 1 price recorded, it will use that 1 price for all dates. You can just record more prices, for other dates. The exchange rate can be different for each day, all the way back in time.

Also, if you have some specific question on the Quicken import or cash account feature, please let me know.

Thanks,
Mark
--
Fund Manager - Portfolio Management Software

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