Search found 53 matches

by ZedThou
Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:18 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: gnucash bond quotes
Replies: 19
Views: 13541

Re: gnucash bond quotes

MikeK, send me a pm with your email and I'll send you a bare-bones gnucash file with example tracking accounts set up.
by ZedThou
Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:22 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: gnucash bond quotes
Replies: 19
Views: 13541

Re: gnucash bond quotes

Right now the "price" is the average of bid/ask rounded to the nearest cent. I don't really know what would be most appropriate. Perhaps the 3rd party price. The code is easy to modify, just add a line $info{$symbol, 'price'}  = $info{$symbol, 'bid'}; after the '# clean things up a bit' section of c...
by ZedThou
Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:19 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: gnucash bond quotes
Replies: 19
Views: 13541

Re: gnucash bond quotes

gnucash is a full-fledged double-entry accounting package, so it might be overkill for portfolio tracking. On the other hand, I have set up a separate "Tracking - positive" account that does exactly that - every disparate asset which is a "stock", "bond" or "gold" are put into their own subaccounts....
by ZedThou
Wed Jan 04, 2012 5:04 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: gnucash bond quotes
Replies: 19
Views: 13541

Re: gnucash bond quotes

Here are the security editor settings for a specific bond.

edit - it is counterintuitive but the Symbol field is the important one, rather than the CUSIP field

Image
by ZedThou
Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:24 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: gnucash bond quotes
Replies: 19
Views: 13541

gnucash bond quotes

Ever since buying bonds I've been unable to track their price in gnucash without manually entering the prices. So now I've made an extension of the Finance::Quote Perl modules that grabs the quotes from Fidelity Fixed Income Search, given the CUSIP. I'll submit it for inclusion into the Finance::Quo...
by ZedThou
Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:33 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: EDV vs direct ownership of zeros
Replies: 14
Views: 7564

Re: EDV vs direct ownership of zeros

I've wondered the same thing since buying a thinly-traded ETF is something with which I have no experience. I've looked at Fidelity's long term Treasury STRIPS and they have a spread of about 1.6% which is quite a bit more than the EDV spread at the moment which is less than 0.5% On the other hand, ...
by ZedThou
Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:35 am
Forum: Gold
Topic: Gold's chart is really strange today
Replies: 2
Views: 2473

Re: Gold's chart is really strange today

Saw the same thing on Yahoo Finance yesterday, periodically it would inexplicably quote 1744. I think "Dec 11" is a clue, and it's just not working correctly.

edit: for gold quotes I usually just go to http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au24hr3day.html
by ZedThou
Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:05 am
Forum: Cash
Topic: EE Bond Phantom Return Analysis
Replies: 12
Views: 10782

Re: EE Bond Phantom Return Analysis

However, at the end of the day, I won't bother with these, because the double rate *only* applies to paper EE bonds, and they won't be available past this year. And you can only buy $5k. There's a chance that digital EE bonds will also receive the 20 year doubling treatment, but there's no evidence...
by ZedThou
Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:36 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: Buying / Selling Treasuries at Schwab, Not Exactly Commission Free
Replies: 11
Views: 8070

Re: Buying / Selling Treasuries at Schwab, Not Exactly Commission Free

$25 seems pretty good...do they also build in a spread for the house? I think that Scottrade does this...I figured this out when comparing the price of a bond to Vanguard also, there is a markup by Scottrade, as the same bond costs more than it does at vanguard, as i recall...haven't looked @ this ...
by ZedThou
Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:05 am
Forum: Bonds
Topic: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial
Replies: 129
Views: 242766

Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

I've given up on the idea of trading treasury bonds in my Scottrade Roth IRA and have transferred the assets to a Fidelity Roth IRA. I'm about to sell TLT and buy bonds, and just wanted to make sure there was no reason to avoid the just-issued 11/15/2041 maturity treasury bonds - CUSIP 912810QT8. Fo...
by ZedThou
Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:33 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial
Replies: 129
Views: 242766

Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

3pm Thursday was the last time bonds were traded, which explains the time stamp on the quotes I believe. The $11,000 numbers were confusing me, and I think you're right about them being $1,000 bonds. The numbers quoted in the image seem to have been for a default value of 10 bonds. Any integer input...
by ZedThou
Fri Nov 11, 2011 9:28 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial
Replies: 129
Views: 242766

Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Gumby, thanks very much for this guide. I hold TLT in a Scottrade Roth IRA and am now considering buying the bonds themselves instead, but I don't quite understand how it works at Scottrade. I guess Scottrade acts as principal and thus marks the bonds up a bit for investors who wish to buy. Here is ...
by ZedThou
Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:51 pm
Forum: Bonds
Topic: VUSTX up, TLT down
Replies: 4
Views: 3347

VUSTX up, TLT down

I've had to start buying VUSTX in my wife's 403(b) to keep the bond portion of our portfolio at the proper allocation, and so I've started tracking it. Today I see VUSTX is up roughly a percent, while TLT was down about the same. Does anyone know why this might be the case? Incidentally, I was plann...
by ZedThou
Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:16 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: FYI: toward a healthy diet
Replies: 27
Views: 11004

Re: FYI: toward a healthy diet

I came here for financial advice, but I've ended up with a bunch of shave soaps and apparently am about to start eating sardines.

Not that I'm complaining, of course.
by ZedThou
Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:04 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Life Hacks
Replies: 49
Views: 19753

Re: Life Hacks

This thread made me aware of different shaving techniques for the first time. So I ended up with a new Edwin Jagger, a sampler pack of 22 types of blades, brush, mug, several soaps and creams, etc. I've tried it twice now and definitely need more practice. Maybe very long term I'll save money compar...
by ZedThou
Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:46 pm
Forum: Cash
Topic: Will They Discontinue/Modify EE Bonds
Replies: 33
Views: 16231

Re: Will They Discontinue/Modify EE Bonds

You're right, that's a super pain in the butt.  One way to address this is that if you have a strongly-encrypted password management tool (like Lastpass or something), take a few minutes to key in your card's contents as a secure note or in the site description.  That way you can spend a little les...
by ZedThou
Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:05 pm
Forum: Cash
Topic: Will They Discontinue/Modify EE Bonds
Replies: 33
Views: 16231

Re: Will They Discontinue/Modify EE Bonds

1) only the paper EE bonds double after 20 years, the electronic ones do not. Source . I believe the information on that page is incomplete with respect to the EE electronic bond's interest earnings after 20 years. See http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ebonds/res_e_bonds_eeratesa...