Share Balance is not displaying correctly on the Investment Transaction screen

Geo H

I recently upgraded to Mac 6.4.5 and when I entered the Investment Transaction screen I noticed the layout was different. I went to the columns control and noticed many of my usual fields had been unchecked. So I rebuilt the layout and then noticed the "Shares" field was showing the same value as the "Shares In" field. I thought that the Shares field was the current shares balance. When I look at the "Portfolio" view I see the correct current shares balance. Am I mistaken in thinking the "Shares" field is supposed to be the total number of shares not the current transaction's number of shares?

jacobs

In the Portfolio view, Shares shows your total shares held.

In the Transaction register, Shares shows the total number of shares in a transaction. Positive numbers are shares in, negative numbers are shares out. There is no reason I can think of for having the Shares In/Shares Out fields and the Shares field visible in your register. Shares In/Shares Out are unsigned (always positive) values, while Shares is a single column signed (positive or negative value). This is similar to a checking account, where you can show Payment (money out) and Deposit (money in) columns for unsigned numbers, or a single Amount column for a signed number; you wouldn't show both. 

Geo H

Thank you Jacob. I was coming back to update my issue and saw your reply. It turns out that this is more of a "User" error. When I looked closer I saw I had selected the Brokerage Account not my individual Account, which is listed under Brokerage. On that Transaction screen it had the "Share Balance" field I was use to seeing. I didn't have that field to select on the brokerage screen and that was where my confusion came from. Thanks for taking the time to share you explanation with me.

jacobs

In the Portfolio view, Shares shows your total shares held.

In the Transaction register, Shares shows the total number of shares in a transaction. Positive numbers are shares in, negative numbers are shares out. There is no reason I can think of for having the Shares In/Shares Out fields and the Shares field visible in your register. Shares In/Shares Out are unsigned (always positive) values, while Shares is a single column signed (positive or negative value). This is similar to a checking account, where you can show Payment (money out) and Deposit (money in) columns for unsigned numbers, or a single Amount column for a signed number; you wouldn't show both. 

Geo H

Thank you Jacob. I was coming back to update my issue and saw your reply. It turns out that this is more of a "User" error. When I looked closer I saw I had selected the Brokerage Account not my individual Account, which is listed under Brokerage. On that Transaction screen it had the "Share Balance" field I was use to seeing. I didn't have that field to select on the brokerage screen and that was where my confusion came from. Thanks for taking the time to share you explanation with me.