<title>Convert foreign currencies for investments</title>
<category>investing</category>
<klink type="prcdr">How do I convert foreign currencies for investments?</klink>
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<tease>Why?</tease>
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<p>If you purchase stock in a company that trades on a foreign exchange, your investment gains and losses may be tracked in a foreign currency. Money can help you make the currency conversion so you can see how your foreign stocks are doing in U.S. dollars.</p>
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<p variant="impt">When you create an investment account containing foreign investments, make sure you choose U.S. dollars for the currency type. This sets the standard currency that you will later use to view your investment transactions. If you did not choose U.S. dollars for your investment account, make this change before completing the following procedure. <alink type="prcdr" href="changeinvestmentaccountdetails.xml"/></p>
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<li>Start a new transaction in your investment account.</li>
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<tease><showme/></tease>
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<li>On the <emph>Investing</emph> menu, click <emph>Portfolio</emph>.</li>
<li>In the left pane, click <emph>Enter transactions</emph>, and then click the type of transaction you want to enter.</li>
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<li>Enter your transaction details, leaving the <emph>Price</emph> box blank.</li>
<p variant="note">The <emph>Price</emph> box will not appear until you have selected an investment.</p>
<li>In the <emph>Total</emph> box, type the amount you spent or received in the foreign currency.</li>
<p>For example, if you reside in the United States, but purchased stock in Australia, you would type the amount you spent in Australian dollars.</p>
<li>Press the <emph>F8</emph> key.</li>
<li>In the <emph>Transaction currency</emph> box, click the foreign currency to which you're converting.</li>
<li>Choose whether you want to show the exchange rate as <emph>US dollar per foreign currency</emph> or <emph>Foreign currency per US dollar</emph>.</li>
<p>For example, if you know that $1.00 in the United States is equal to $1.50 in Australia, click <emph>U.S. Dollar per Australian Dollar</emph>.</p>
<li>In the <emph>Exchange rate</emph> box, type the exchange rate for the date the transaction took place.</li>
<li>If you want to use this exchange rate for future transactions in this currency, select the <emph>Use this rate as the new default exchange rate for this currency</emph> check box.</li>
<li>Click <emph>OK</emph> twice.</li>
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<p>Many factors affect your exchange rate, including timing and commissions. Your broker can tell you the correct exchange rate.</p>
