Position Units

A Position Unit is the smallest segment of an Asset Position. It is created by one opening transaction (such as a Buy, Transfer, or Account Balance) and may be paired with an optional closing transaction (like a Sell, Transfer, Dividend, or Other type).

A Unit that a Convert / Move / Spinoff carried in has two dates rather than one. It opens in the destination on the day of the move, and it points back at the purchase that acquired the quantity for its acquisition date, cost basis, acquisition fee and paid tax. Returns, the Average Cost Basis pool and scheduled wealth tax follow the open date, because that is when the account actually held it. Holding age, FIFO and LIFO ordering, and the dates a tax preset reports follow the acquisition. An incoming Transfer carrying an Acquisition date splits the two the same way, with no source Unit behind it.

The Acquisition Date and Age (days) columns in the positions table read the second of those dates, so a Unit moved between accounts shows the day it was bought rather than the day it arrived. Acquisition Date is empty on a row covering Units acquired on different days.

If a closing transaction only partially covers a Unit, the Unit will be split into two: one that is closed and another that remains open. You can control which unit is selected to be closed by configuring Cost Basis method.

Dividends and other income or cost transactions generate separate Units that consist solely of the closing transaction and do not involve a quantity (indicating they are already closed and were never opened).

Let's consider an example

• You buy 10 shares in transaction #1. You have one Unit of 10 shares.
• You buy another 10 shares in transaction #2. You now have two Units, both with 10 shares.
• You sell 15 shares in transaction #3. The system will:
  • Close the first Unit using 2/3rds of #3, which is 10 shares, leaving 5 shares to be sold.
  • Close half of the second Unit with those 5 shares.
  • Since the Unit can only have one opening and one closing transaction, the second Unit is split in half.
  • You now have one closed Unit of 10 shares, one close Unit of 5 shares and one opened Unit of 5 shares.