P&L
P&L shows the profit or loss on each position in an account, calculated from your actual trades, so you can see which investments have made you money and which have lost it.
Knowing what a holding is worth is not the same as knowing whether it has been a good investment. P&L, profit and loss, compares each position's current value with what you actually paid for it, taking account of every buy and sell along the way, and shows the gain or loss in money and percent. It covers positions still open and positions you have closed, so the full record of what worked and what did not is in one place.
You can open the trades in each position to see how the figure was reached. The calculation uses the entries in your account and current or sale prices; it is not the live bid or offer, and it is not a broker's official statement or a tax computation, though it is a useful check against both. Holdings shows what you own now; transactions are the entries the profit is worked out from.
Related pages
| Portfolio | The portfolio lists your accounts. P&L is the result on each position in one account. |
|---|---|
| Holdings | Holdings is the quantity and current value of each open position. P&L is whether that position is up or down against what you paid. |
| Transactions | Transactions are the buys and sells each position's profit is calculated from. A mistake there shows up as a wrong profit here. |