Investments

Investments are instruments for investing money that are traded on a market. Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds are the most common investments, so they're the ones supported most directly. Futures, commodities, options and more complex derivatives are also sometimes used, but KMyMoney has no special functionality for them. As long as they behave like a stock or a bond, they can be tracked easily.

Each investment has a Base Currency. This is the currency it's traded in. When a price quote is entered for an investment, the currency of the value given is always its base currency. A stock on the NYSE would be in US dollars, and one on the Australian markets would be in Australian dollars.

Investment Accounts hold a collection of investments. Transactions, such as buys and sells, of those investments are contained in an Investment Account. All transactions in an Investment account must relate to a specific investment. There is no separate "cash balance" in an investment account. For that, you need a Brokerage Account.

Often an investment account has an associated Brokerage Account. This is also sometimes referred to as a "Cash Account". Investment accounts cannot contain cash transactions, like a transfer from your bank. When a stock is sold, the proceeds are typically placed in the Brokerage Account.

When you create an Investment Account, you have the option of creating an associated Brokerage Account with it.