How to handle an investment when currency changes?

Hello,

I have an investment in a managed fund which until a few days ago was
denominated in Swiss Francs. It has just been re-denominated in Euros. Is
there a neat way to handle this in the investment account without losing all
the historic data? Or is best way to "sell" it virtually, then "buy" it
again in the new currency?

In microsoft.public.uk.money, RichT wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I have an investment in a managed fund which until a few days ago was
>denominated in Swiss Francs. It has just been re-denominated in Euros. Is
>there a neat way to handle this in the investment account without losing all
>the historic data? Or is best way to "sell" it virtually, then "buy" it
>again in the new currency?
>

Before trying this, make an extra copy/backup of your file, so that
you could undo things if you don't like the result.

Try changing the Country/Region in the investment Details to a
Euro-using country.

> Try changing the Country/Region in the investment Details to a
> Euro-using country.

Unfortunately that just changes the currency symbol and does not recalculate
the historical rates into the new currency.

In microsoft.public.uk.money, RichT wrote:

>
>> Try changing the Country/Region in the investment Details to a
>> Euro-using country.
>
>Unfortunately that just changes the currency symbol and does not recalculate
>the historical rates into the new currency.

What *does* it do? Does it treat 20 CHF from a previous quote as if
it were a 20 euro quote from back then? Did your previous Buy and
Sell transactions stay OK? The Buys and Sells are the critical ones.

Hi RichT,

As far as I know, there is no 'neat way'.

The problem is that Money ONLY knows the CURRENT conversion rate Euros <>
Swiss Francs. I believe all versions of Money are equally poor in this
respect. If you let it convert it will force inappropriate unit prices for
previous purchase transactions (and thus spoil your 'history') or corrupt
the number of units purchased (which would be even worse). Part of the
problem is that it is not clear or obvious (to me) what goes on during a
'change denomination' process.

I think your best bet would be to virtually sell in the existing investment
account, create a new investment account denominated in Euro and virtually
buy the exact same number of units in this new account. Your 'price history'
will be preserved, though split onto two pages. You may be able to aggregate
both accounts in one report.

teabag




"RichT" <> wrote in message
news:4929b5ec$0$877$...
> Hello,
>
> I have an investment in a managed fund which until a few days ago was
> denominated in Swiss Francs. It has just been re-denominated in Euros. Is
> there a neat way to handle this in the investment account without losing
> all the historic data? Or is best way to "sell" it virtually, then "buy"
> it again in the new currency?
>

> What *does* it do? Does it treat 20 CHF from a previous quote as if
> it were a 20 euro quote from back then? Did your previous Buy and
> Sell transactions stay OK? The Buys and Sells are the critical ones.

Yes - it converts 20CHF directly to 20EUR - not very useful.

I also tried the "virtual buy/sell" solution but that does not work either,
as it is not possible to freeze the exchange rate at the rate on the day of
the switchover.

In the end I recreated the entire investment account in EUR and manually
inputed annual highs and lows using the x-rate on that day (using historical
data on oanda.com). In the end it only took 10mins or so to put in the key
highs and lows so no great problem.