The Lemon Fool

I bought a very small number of BRK.B yesterday. The stock is $ denominated whereas the rest of my pot is £ denominated. This has got me thinking about how I measure the performance of Berkshire on an ongoing basis! Do I convert to £ regularly and calculate my XIRR figures from the translation or do I keep in $ and ignore any impact currency movements may have on my investment? Do any other UK "Lemons" hold Berkshire?

Opinion gratefully received!

I don't hold any shares not quoted in GBp, but if I did I think that I would evaluate it both in its quoted currency and in Sterling. Fairly simple to do, as you have no dividends to complicate matters. Keep the original cost in GBP and convert the current value to GBP using the current exchange rate.

TJH

I hold almost twenty foreign shares in operating companies (mostly American and Canadian), the largest holding being Berkshire Hathaway which I bought over 20 years ago.

I calculate my returns in sterling and the foreign currency, converting dividends into sterling at the time of receipt (for the calculation). If you don't calculate in both currencies you lose the effect of currency movements, which can be quite dramatic. My summary valuation spreadsheet shows the value of all my foreign holdings in sterling, not the foreign currencies, but also the value of my entire portfolio in Sterling, US dollars, Canadian dollars and Euros.

The US Motley Fool has an excellent Berkshire Hathaway board. Link below; they still use the software that TMF UK used before they closed the boards.

http://boards.fool.com/berkshire-hathaw ... 01158.aspx

I hold a couple of USD denominated stocks.

Since my liabilities are in GBP, and I live in the UK, I track the original cost, dividends received and the current value in GBP, because (for me) the USD value is irrelevant.

If I want to see whether the USD:GBP movements have been a historical help or hindrance I just go to XE.com ( http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from= ... D&view=10Y ).

I have been considering buying foreign shares - My current platform only has LSE shares.

Which is a good platform to use for foreign shares as well as the LSE ?
(I understand HL is one option ?)

Tim R

Just like to highlight the ease of tracking US shares and autoupdating the USD:GBP conversion. The following functions work nicely in Google Sheets to allow the calculation of portfolio components priced in currencies other than GBP. Just add in the appropriate currency and ticker and multiply for the GBP value.

=GOOGLEFINANCE(TICKER,"currency")
=GoogleFinance("CURRENCY:USDGBP")

A full guide can be found here:

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093281?hl=en

BreakoutBoy wrote:...The following functions work nicely in Google Sheets...

A little OT for this board, perhaps?

A Google Sheets guru would be a welcome addition here though. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7574