Currency investment

From ACCOUNTS, click Edit Investments for the account, then Edit beside the currency investment.

A currency investment records an amount held in a currency, such as USD or EUR. You can hold several currencies in the same account by adding separate currency investments. The account’s main Cash investment keeps its own currency.

To add a currency investment, use Add CAD Investment, Add USD Investment or Add Other Currency Investment from the account’s investment list. Select Currency as the investment type and, for another currency, select the currency from the dropdown menu.

Quantity, value and book value

• Quantity: the amount held in the selected currency. For example, enter 1,000 for a holding of US$1,000.
• Price in CAD: the Canadian-dollar value of one unit of that currency. For example, a price of 1.35 means that US$1 is worth CA$1.35.
• Value: the total value in CAD. The form calculates it from quantity × price. You can instead enter the CAD value, and the form calculates the quantity using the price. In the example above, the value is CA$1,350.
• Book value in CAD: the total adjusted cost base in Canadian dollars. For a foreign-currency holding, this can differ from its current CAD value. It is used to calculate capital gains or losses in a non-registered account.
• Valuation date: the date of the entered value, in YYYY-MM-DD format. The form initially sets it to today.

For a CAD currency investment, the conversion and book-value fields are omitted. Enter its CAD value directly.

Exchange rates and price history

Currency exchange rates are updated daily from the European Central Bank. The latest stored rate is filled in when you open the form. A historical exchange-rate graph is shown when data are available. Automatic price updates change the CAD price and value; they do not change the quantity held or its book value.

Expected growth

• Yearly Interest rate (%): the annual interest you expect the holding to earn.
• Yearly Capital appreciation growth rate (%): the annual change you expect in the holding’s value in CAD, separate from interest. This field is not shown for CAD holdings.
• Distributions automatically reinvested? Select this if the interest should remain invested. Otherwise, it is withdrawn for cash flow in the TIME MACHINE.

These rates are projection assumptions. The historical exchange-rate graph does not determine them.

Risk, fees and other fields

For foreign currencies, select a risk from 1 (least risky) to 20 (most risky). When available, the risk tooltip shows a rank based on three-year historical volatility.

Buying and selling fees can be entered as CAD amounts and/or percentages. Selecting Debit the cash investment? subtracts the purchase cost, including buying fees, from the account’s current Cash holding. Alternatively, you can adjust Cash separately after entering the account’s investments.

You can also change the name, add a note, or select another account. Mock investment. Ignore. excludes the holding from the TIME MACHINE.

Click Save and continue to save your changes.