Tracking gold - I know about ^XAUUSD.. that's 1 oz. How to track 100g, 25g, etc. bars

HaventGotAClue

I use ^XAUUSD for the symbols for my 1 oz gold items and quantity is number of 1 oz items I have.

How do you track / record 5 100g bars? or 3 25g coins?

There's no symbol for each of those different weights, right?

100g = 3.21507 troy ounces.

so if you have 5 100g bars, do you have to record it as quan 16.07535 of ^XAUUSD?

but then you have to do math to figure out how many bars that is?

There's no way to make your own symbols based on actual symbols? like XAUSD100 is 3.21507*XAUUSD

I'd like to see at a glance that I have 5 100g bars… and have the price / bar be accurate / automatically populated when updating quotes.

Any advice?

Jim_Harman

I do not know of a way to automatically download gold prices other than the ^XAUUSD 1 oz price.

But if you want to be able to track how many of each type of bar and coin you have, you can create your own securities for the various sizes of bars and coins and update the prices manually. The easiest way to update several prices for the same date is to create an Investing > Portfolio view that includes all the ones you want to update and set the As of date to the correct date. Then you can enter the prices manually in the Quote/Price column. If you hold all the gold in one account, you can also update the prices by going to that account, clicking on Holdings, and entering them there.

You could automate this to some extent by making a spreadsheet that computes the prices. You could save the prices in an appropriately formatted CSV file and import them from that. This would also work for historical prices. You could export the ^XAUUSD prices from Quicken, calculate the prices for the other coins and bars, and import those to Quicken. Be sure to do any experimenting with bulk imports on a test file and back up your data file before doing the actual import, in case something goes wrong.

Jim_Harman

I do not know of a way to automatically download gold prices other than the ^XAUUSD 1 oz price.

But if you want to be able to track how many of each type of bar and coin you have, you can create your own securities for the various sizes of bars and coins and update the prices manually. The easiest way to update several prices for the same date is to create an Investing > Portfolio view that includes all the ones you want to update and set the As of date to the correct date. Then you can enter the prices manually in the Quote/Price column. If you hold all the gold in one account, you can also update the prices by going to that account, clicking on Holdings, and entering them there.

You could automate this to some extent by making a spreadsheet that computes the prices. You could save the prices in an appropriately formatted CSV file and import them from that. This would also work for historical prices. You could export the ^XAUUSD prices from Quicken, calculate the prices for the other coins and bars, and import those to Quicken. Be sure to do any experimenting with bulk imports on a test file and back up your data file before doing the actual import, in case something goes wrong.

HaventGotAClue

Thanks! I came from Managing Your Money back when windows first came out and Managing your money didn't make the move to windows all that well, then folded.

Funny (sad?) - after decades? there's still things that Quicken doesn't do. I don't think I'm the only one in a situation like this that it's not worth developers' time. And I know I just deal with simple things - etfs, mutual funds, common stocks, bonds, gold. Loads of other financial things that exist that I don't have a clue about / likely could be handled by Quicken better. But I guess they are more focused on making sure you have a subscription / paying on a regular basis : )

But yeah, a customer created 'symbol' that is a user determined fraction / multiple of a listed quote… sounds nice (at least to me), might solve other people's issues?

maybe in a future update!?

Certainly don't mean to shoot the messenger here! THANK YOU for your time and advice!!

NotACPA

@HaventGotAClue Let's get one thing straight. The XAUUSD symbol wasn't created by Q/Intuit … but rather by FOREX, the global foreign exchange market for trading currencies.

And it's FOREX's decision as to what quantities of gold to trade in and what quotes to provide … not Q's.

Can you name another independent, publicly available source for gold prices?

HaventGotAClue

@NotACPA thanks. I saw a thread here from the past year that the ^XAUUSD that made it sound like that symbol is new. (is that accurate from what you know?). But regardless of it being new / old, from quicken or elsewhere, at least in this situation - wanting to automate the updating of value of 25g, 100g gold items, it would seem to me that I'm not the only one that has those items and wants to include them in quicken.

For this and maybe other situations I can't think of / don't know about…. it'd be nice if quicken let you create a 'symbol' or formula that lets you do something with a listed symbol.

And sure, something that's 100g of gold might be worth more / less than a strict multiplier of 1 oz of gold, but still more accurate than using the value of 1 oz of gold or relying on having to manually update. and it allows you to see that you have 20 100g bars, not have to list them as 64 1 oz bars (converting g to troy oz)

NotACPA

@HaventGotAClue But you can create your own symbol(s) now, as long as they're not a real symbol which could cause confusion with Q's quotes download.

Then, go to your security list, click on those securities/symbols and click "More" and "Edit Price History" to update all of your quotes for that security already.

Yes, it's still a manual process, but for those "20 100g bars", you'd only have to input one price, not 20. And 1 update for your 25g coins. Surely, that's not too horrific.

And, I note that you didn't provide a response to my query re: "another independent, publicly available source for gold prices". So where to you think that Q/Intuit should get those quotes for download?

NotACPA

Further note that Q can import, from a CSV file, security quotes. SO, if you find a source such as I asked for, you could download quotes into a CSV file, edit that file to match Q's needs (primarily the symbol) and import it.

Quotes are the only time that Q will accept a CSV file, but that could be useful in your situation.

HaventGotAClue

@NotACPA Why the hostility? I could be mistaken, but it seems you have an axe to grind / your posts come off preachy.

'Let's get one thing straight'

I was asking if there's a symbol for different weights of gold besides 1 oz.

And as a work around, wondering if there's a way to create a user made symbol that's based on the value of a downloaded quote.

You get preachy about who's decision it is to put out quotes then later post the same info as @Jim_Harman about manually updating quotes.

Though, where HE suggests making a backup, you chide with 'Surely, that's not too horrific.'

and further appear to want to show your superiority, going back to your question of

'So where to you think that Q/Intuit should get those quotes for download?'

I don't know. I was asking a question regarding a work around for a quote that I (it appears I was correct in assuming) doesn't exist.

If I misread your intent with that question and are really looking for an answer - you did ask it 2x…. feel free to start another post.

I think conventional wisdom is to not co-op someone else's thread / question.

And if you need to pontificate…. why do it in a forum where people are looking for help and not wanting to have to wade through failed bullying attempts?

Quicken Jasmine

Hello All,

This post has deteriorated, become argumentative, and is now closed for further discussion.

Thank you!