diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Main.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Main.hs
index 3b5b6a6b4..7f7cd201d 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Main.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Main.hs
@@ -88,8 +88,8 @@ main = do
         showModeHelpOr mode f | "help" `in_` (rawopts_ opts) = putStr $ showModeHelp mode
                               | otherwise = f
         matchedaddon = headDef "" $ filter (cmd `isPrefixOf`) addons
-        shellcmd = printf "%s-%s %s" progname matchedaddon (unwords' argswithoutcmd)
-        argswithoutcmd = args1 ++ drop 1 args2 where (args1,args2) = break (== cmd) args
+        shellcmd = printf "%s-%s %s" progname matchedaddon (unwords' subcmdargs)
+        subcmdargs = args1 ++ drop 1 args2 where (args1,args2) = break (== cmd) $ filter (/="--") args
 
 {- tests: