Coin Market Cap prices in GBP

[JasonH]

Hi,
I've set up a couple of crypto currency investments and have successfully retrieved prices from Coin Market Cap. It appears that these are in USD. So I've used exchange rates to convert them to GBP. This looks like it is working. However when I enter historical transactions it appears that I must enter the historical price and commission amount in USD for everything to work. I have tried unticking the "Specify Exchange Rate to Default" but this doesn't seem to make a difference.

I have read the documentation on exchange rates, having never used them before, and so it is probable that I'm doing something wrong. What I would like to do is either:
a) Retrieve prices from Coin Market Cap in GBP -or-
b) Retrieve prices and convert to GBP and then enter historical transactions in GBP

Thanks,
Jason

[Mark]

Hi Jason,

The Coin Market Cap server is only offering prices quoted in USD. A given investment is assigned to a single currency, and all prices/transactions must be entered in that one currency. You can display it in other currencies, using an exchange rate, but the entered prices/transactions must all be whatever currency is assigned to that investment.

Unfortunately, this means you can't do either of the 2 options requested and retrieve prices from this server. You would have to either stick with USD, or find another source for crypto currency quotes in GBP. You could also enter the prices manually, or import them from a file you create.

[JasonH]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply. Is it possible to create "dummy" crypto investments that retrieve from Coin Market Cap and convert to GBP; export those prices in GBP; and then import into my "real" crypto investments?

Regards,
Jason

[Mark]

Hi Jason,

Yes, you could definitely do that. Just make sure "View / Exchange Rate Adjusted" is turned on when you do the export. Use "File / Export / Prices / Comma Delimited...". You might want that one investment in its own sub-portfolio, so you just export those prices.

If you're using the Professional or Advisor version, you can do this in an automated way by using "File / File Operations / Create Investment from Investments...". You would take the USD crypto investment, and divide it by your exchange rate investment, and create a new GBP crypto investment. This will be automatically updated whenever your USD crypto or exchange rate investment update.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi JasonH,

As Mark said, the transactions have to be recorded in the currency the investment is. But it is not difficult, so why would you want to convert the investment in GBP first?

An example: if you have bought 1000 GBP of bitcoin the 01/10/17. And the exchange rate GBP/USD for this date is 1,3396 (or another value, as indicated by your exchange rate investment GBP/USD)

So you record a buy of 1339,6 USD in your USB Bitcoin investment.

In the Data Register window > All Transactions, your purchase is displayed in GBP (provided GBP is the current selected/displayed currency), so you can check it is 1000 GBP here.

In the buy transaction, it is recommended to check the "Specify Exchange Rate to Default" option and specify the exchange rate used for the conversion here, so your are sure that the exchange rate wil not change, and that the value will always be 1000 GBP (if you don't check this option, the exchange rate used will be the price found in the GBP/USD investment, and this could change eventually, for example if you download historical prices from another source for the GBP/USD investment).

The exchange rate value you use is not really important in fact, what is important is that you have bought for 1000 GBP of bitcoin, so the conversion has to be right.

[JasonH]

Hi Jason,

Yes, you could definitely do that. Just make sure "View / Exchange Rate Adjusted" is turned on when you do the export. Use "File / Export / Prices / Comma Delimited...". You might want that one investment in its own sub-portfolio, so you just export those prices.

If you're using the Professional or Advisor version, you can do this in an automated way by using "File / File Operations / Create Investment from Investments...". You would take the USD crypto investment, and divide it by your exchange rate investment, and create a new GBP crypto investment. This will be automatically updated whenever your USD crypto or exchange rate investment update.

Thanks Mark, I'll give that a go. I've got the Personal version so I won't be able to automate as you suggested.
Regards,
Jason

[JasonH]

Hi JasonH,

As Mark said, the transactions have to be recorded in the currency the investment is. But it is not difficult, so why would you want to convert the investment in GBP first?

An example: if you have bought 1000 GBP of bitcoin the 01/10/17. And the exchange rate GBP/USD for this date is 1,3396 (or another value, as indicated by your exchange rate investment GBP/USD)

So you record a buy of 1339,6 USD in your USB Bitcoin investment.

In the Data Register window > All Transactions, your purchase is displayed in GBP (provided GBP is the current selected/displayed currency), so you can check it is 1000 GBP here.

In the buy transaction, it is recommended to check the "Specify Exchange Rate to Default" option and specify the exchange rate used for the conversion here, so your are sure that the exchange rate wil not change, and that the value will always be 1000 GBP (if you don't check this option, the exchange rate used will be the price found in the GBP/USD investment, and this could change eventually, for example if you download historical prices from another source for the GBP/USD investment).

The exchange rate value you use is not really important in fact, what is important is that you have bought for 1000 GBP of bitcoin, so the conversion has to be right.

Hi Djobydjoba,

I'm English, so I buy most things in GBP including the crypto currencies I hold with Coinbase. What I don't want to do (laziness really) is to convert each historical price to USD and convert each commission amount to USD when I enter my transactions. I think Mark's approach will work and I will try it out this weekend.

My only investment not bought in GBP is a crypto currency I bought on another market. I bought those with Bitcoins. So the next thing for me to figure out is how to transfer Bitcoins between Coinbase and that market paying a commission in Bitcoins and then how to buy another crypto currency using Bitcoins and not GBP.

Regards,
Jason

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Jason,

Okay, if it's because of laziness I understand better your request. I thought you wasn't aware that the transactions could be entered in USD, or how to do it...

Regards.

[JasonH]

Hi Djobydjoba,

As my transactions are currently in Excel and I could easily add conversion columns then my inherent laziness is probably giving me more work. However, I would rather have the transactions in GBP as it would be easier for me to mentally comprehend. Probably...

Regards,
Jason