Currencies

MyTraderDash works in two currencies: US dollars (USD) and Canadian dollars (CAD). You can hold both, in the same account or in different ones, and choose which one your totals are shown in.

Every trade keeps its own currency

A trade is stored in the currency your broker reports it in. A buy of AAPL at US$180 stays a US$180 buy; a buy of RY at CA$140 stays a CA$140 buy. The CURR column of the Trade Log shows it, and the trade rows inside a group show each trade's own price.

The same company on two listings is two different holdings. DLR (in CAD) and DLR.U (in USD) are separate positions, even in the same account. Moving shares from one to the other is a journal; see Transfers between accounts.

When the app starts converting

As long as everything is in USD, the app has nothing to convert: each page just shows USD where the currency toggle would be.

Your workspace becomes multi-currency the first time one of these happens:

• a CAD trade is imported, synced or added,
• you give an account more than one currency (the Currency field in Add Account or when editing an account), or
• you run a Canadian Tax report (it is calculated in CAD).

From then on every trade also gets a value in the other currency, older trades included, and your positions and strategies get their CAD returns. The first time can take a moment on a large history. This can't be switched off, and it doesn't need to be: it only adds information.

Which currency a page shows

Every page with money on it says its currency at the top, next to Accounts: the Dashboard, the Trade Log, Dividends, Strategies (and a strategy's page), Events, Ticker Reports and a ticker's report page.

• With one currency, it just shows it (for example USD).
• Once your workspace is multi-currency it is a USD | CAD toggle. Switch a page to the other currency to see its totals there, and back. It changes only that page and is kept in the page's address, so a bookmark or a shared link opens in the same currency. Export on the page follows it.
• A page opens in your Display Currency: the card on Accounts & Data, with its USD / CAD switch. It starts on USD; if most of your accounts are Canadian, switch it to CAD. It is saved with your workspace, so it's the same on every device. The toggle on a page never changes it.

The currency covers the totals: group results (ENTRY, EXIT, RETURN $), P&L, the Dashboard, the Dividends page and strategy totals. Prices of single trades don't change with it: they always show in the trade's own currency.

Where the currency is written

Main figures say their currency in small grey letters after the amount: $12,345.67 USD. That covers the cards at the top of each page (Dashboard, Trade Log, Dividends, a strategy, a ticker's holdings), the totals under charts and calendars, and the headers of money columns (ENTRY USD, RETURN $ USD, Value USD). It shows even when all your trades are in one currency.

A single trade's price, fees and total are in the trade's own currency. They carry a code only when it isn't the page's currency: on a page in USD, a Canadian trade shows $140.00 CAD.

How a trade is converted

The app converts with the daily USD/CAD rate: the Bank of Canada's from May 2007 on, and for earlier dates (back to 1971, where the Bank of Canada publishes no daily rate) the US Federal Reserve's, which is within about 0.01% of it. Each trade uses the rate of its settlement date when the broker file has one, otherwise its trade date. On weekends and holidays, when no rate is published, it uses the most recent rate before that day — never one more than 7 days old. If no rate covers the date, the app doesn't guess: the trade is not saved and the import (or the edit) says which date has no rate. The app fills missing rates by itself every business day, so this only happens before 1971 or during a long outage of the rate sources.

Each trade is converted at its own date. This is why a position can show a gain in one currency and not in the other.

Example. You buy 10 shares at US$100 when US$1 = CA$1.35, and sell them later at US$100 when US$1 = CA$1.40:

In USD you broke even. In CAD you gained $50, because the US dollar rose while you held the shares. Both are correct; they answer different questions.

Values about today, such as the market value of your holdings on the Dashboard and the dividend projections, are converted at the latest available rate. A new rate is added once each business day. The Dashboard's Portfolio Value Over Time converts each point at that day's rate.

Broker rate vs market rate

When your broker converts money between currencies, it uses its own rate, which usually includes a small fee (the spread). The Bank of Canada rate has no spread. So the CAD amount the app shows for a USD trade can differ a little from the amount on your broker's statement.

Two cases where the app uses the broker's own rate instead:

• Some broker rows print the conversion rate. When a trade's price is in one currency but it settled in the other, and the row includes the rate the broker applied, the app uses that rate for the trade.
• Moving shares between a CAD and a USD listing. When the broker file includes the rate it used for the move, the cost carried over to the new listing uses that rate. This keeps your cost basis the same as the one your broker reports for the new listing.

Multi-currency accounts

Many Canadian accounts hold both currencies (for example a TFSA with a USD side). In MyTraderDash, give that account both currencies in its Currency field. Then:

• each trade keeps the currency the broker reported;
• CAD and USD listings of the same stock stay separate positions;
• a dividend goes to the listing that earned it, which can be paid in either currency (see Dividends);
• totals for the account are shown in your display currency.

Related

• Performance and P&L: what the converted totals add up.
• Dividends: projections are listed in each stock's currency, totals in yours.
• Transfers between accounts: journals between CAD and USD listings.