Presently, the Investment Tab allows the selection and viewing of Symbol, Quantity, Price and Value. It would be valuable if 2 additonal fields where available on this Tab. I would be of great benefit if the cost and the gain/loss of the investment was included.
I suspect this would be more involved than you think, as it is not specific to the equity/stock/bond itself, but to every purchase transaction. However, I think this is likely to be addressed whenever the team does get to a major redo of how investments are handled. The added columns would need to also include date of purchase as that would determine the tax implications, at least in areas where there is a difference between long term and short term investments. (In the US, short term gains, under one year, are taxed as regular income, but long term gains (held over one year) are taxed at a lower rate.)
To clarify what I am asking for is the net cost and gain/loss of the investment. The tax implications weren't something I felt was immediately needed but if the development team wants to pursue that portion at the same time then I wouldn't refuse it.
OK - I see you are just looking for the total of those items across all of that equity you own. However, even if only the totals are displayed, they must be calculated separately for each purchase, as they may have had different purchase prices and amounts. Even without the tax implications (which have to do with how long you have owned the shares) you may still want to know the potential gain/loss on each batch separately.
Interesting idea. I agree with Jack that the net cost and gain/loss are characteristics of a transaction - see bug 392755 for a suggestion how to capture the realized gains and losses. I understand that Michael Carpino's suggestion here concerns the "gains/losses" of an investment that are not yet realized, i.e., how does the current value of the investment compare to the money invested to obtain it. For example, if I own 30 units of XYZ that I bought for 10 euros each, then the "cost" would be 300 euros. This could be shown on the "Investment tab", so that one may compare it to the current value (shown in the Value column already). A column for "gain/loss" in absolute or % terms could be derived from this. To operationalize this, one would need to know the exact transactions that constitute the purchasing of the currently held Quantity. E.g., if I buy 10 units of XYZ on 1.1.2017 and another 10 units of XYZ on 1.7.2017, and then sell 10 units on 1.11.2017 - which 10 units do I still own now? Their purchasing value would be the "investment value". Optionally, the cumulative fees could be shown here too, although it is again unclear whether e.g., the fees of the purchase on 1.1.2017 are still relevant in my example. One could even calculate something like average annual rate of change if the duration of the holding can be determined.
PS: An alternative suggestion for how to present the information (seen from the "Equity" point of view and not from the "Current balance" point of view used in my earlier Comment 3): - A: Sum up the values of all investments into the equity ever (i.e., buy) - B: Sum up the values of all withdrawals from the equity ever (i.e., sell) - C: Calculate the current value of the quantity being held (it's already on the Tab) - D: Calculate B+C to capture to the total value - Then compare A (invested money) to D (obtained money plus current value). Fees could be added to A if desired. Maybe this would be better done in a "Report" as it reflects a mixture of the current holdings and transactions already in the past.