Changing A Symbol’s Pre-Defined Currency

StockMarketEye assigns a currency to each symbol you enter based on the symbol’s exchange suffix. A symbol’s exchange suffix is any part after a “.” at the end of the symbol.

For example, the symbol LLOY.L is Lloyds Banking Group. We know that this company trades on the London Stock Exchange because the symbol has a “.L” suffix. Because it trades in London, StockMarketEye assigns it the currency, GBP (British Pounds).

The symbol BNP.PA is BNP Paribas. Because of the “.PA” suffix we know that it trades on the Paris Exchange. So StockMarketEye assigns it the currency, EUR (Euro).

Assigning the symbol’s currency based on its exchange suffix works 99% of the time.

But what happens if StockMarketEye gets it wrong? What happens if the currency assigned to a symbol is different from the actual currency in which the stock trades? For example, if a security trades on the London Exchange, but is denominated in USD (US Dollars), how can you change it in StockMarketEye from GBP to USD?

Changing the Currency

We’ll use PHPD.L as our example symbol. PHPD.L is an exchange traded fund (ETF) for physical paladium. It trades on the London Exchange, but is actually denominated in USD rather than GBP.

1. First, we’ll need to add the Currency column to our Portfolios. The easiest way is to open the Preferences and select the Columns tab. Then click on the Prices button.
   
2. You’ll now see the “Configure Portfolio Prices Columns” window as shown below. Select the “Currency” column name in the Available Columns list on the left. Then click on the right-arrow to move it to the Configured Columns list on the right. Now click the OK button to re-configure the columns.
   
3. Close the Preferences window.
4. Now select PHPD.L in your Portfolio.
   
5. Then click in the Currency cell to start editing.
   
6. Delete the “GBP” and enter “USD”, then hit return.
7. You’ll see that StockMarketEye now shows the PHPD.L position in US Dollars, rather than British Pounds.
   

As securities normally trade in the local currency of the exchange, you will probably never need to change its currency in StockMarketEye. But if you’re interested in investing in physical paladium via the PHPD.L ETF, you now know how to set the proper currency in StockMarketEye.

Also Note You should also add the “Exch Rate” column, just as you added the “Currency” column above. Then, if the new currency is the same as the currency of your portfolio, edit the value of this column so it says 1.0. If the new currency is not the same as the currency of your portfolio, you don’t need to change it here as StockMarketEye will update the exchange rate value itself the next time the portfolio updates its quotes.

Nick