i got 6000 shares of ktov which my average was 0.89 stock price and sell price was above this and still showing as a negative.
Therefore if i had a sell limit of my average price i wouldve taken a loss.
im assuming this is because of pounds to us or us to pounds convertion that is causing this problem?
I still fail to understand that if i bought this stock a month ago and my average is 0.89 when i was above it i was red?? Im assuming if i sold and converted to pounds i loose? is it not better for trading212 to have its own convertion rate to some extent?
otherwise i can see this causing issues in the near future.
or maybe give us the ability to convert from pounds to usd in the app. show our actually balance by preference or both pounds and usd
this way if i deposit £1000 and then convert to usd, i then buy the stocks in usd and and when i sell into usd i dont actally loose if lets say i had a limit order on my average? but when i decide to convert later i could potentially loose or gain then?
proof in the pick i was annoyed that my average was 3p higher but when u have 6000 shares its almost 150 loss…
If you decide to exercise your own discretion as to the point at which you choose to convert between USD and GBP then you are effectively engaging in foreign exchange speculation, as a sort of secondary activity to the primary activity of investing in stocks. It is very hard if not impossible to consistently profit from this secondary activity.
So far as the UK tax is concerned profits and losses must be computed using the exchange rates at the moments of purchase and sale of stock. Suppose you delay a conversion from USD to GBP to a time past that where the sale of US company actually stock took place. This has no effect on your capital gains tax liability and tends to complicate your record keeping since you have to keep records of what the exchange rate was at the point you sold the US stock but chose not to convert the USD proceeds to GBP.
Yes, in the above you are seeing a GBP loss due to dollar weakening. Other times currency movements will work in your favour. Over a lifetime of investing the minuses and pluses will average out. It is tempting to think that by careful choice of the times at which you convert currency you can make the pluses more than the minuses. But I and many others have found that this is easier said than done. In circumstance like you describe above I take the currency loss on the chin, and perhaps reinvest the proceeds in another USD position while the USD is weak.
