Profit & Loss Calculator
The Profit & Loss Calculator turns your entry price, exit price, quantity, and fees into one net number: your real gain or loss on a trade. It works for reviewing past trades and for checking, before you enter, whether a trade is worth the fees you will pay.
Profit & loss
Find your net profit or loss after fees on any trade.
FAQs
Should I include fees and commissions in my P&L?
Yes, always. Fees reduce every profit and deepen every loss, and ignoring them flatters your results. Enter commissions, spreads, and any platform fees so the net number reflects what actually lands in your account.
How do I calculate P&L as a percentage?
Divide your net profit by your total cost (entry price x quantity) and multiply by 100. A $480 profit on a $5,000 position is 9.6%. Percentages let you compare a $500 trade against a $50,000 trade on equal terms.
How it works
Your profit on a trade is not just exit price minus entry price. Commissions, spreads, and other fees come off the top, and on losing trades they make the loss bigger. This calculator starts with gross profit, subtracts every fee you enter, and shows the net result you actually keep.
Gross profit is (exit price - entry price) multiplied by quantity. Net profit is gross profit minus total fees. Dividing net profit by your total cost gives the percentage return, which lets you compare trades of different sizes fairly.
Worked example: you buy 100 shares at $50 and sell them at $55. Gross profit is $5 x 100 = $500. With a $10 commission on each side, total fees are $20, so your net profit is $480. The percentage return is $480 / $5,000 = 9.6%.
On a losing trade the same math applies: buy 200 shares at $30, sell at $27, and pay $10 in total fees. Gross result is -$3 x 200 = -$600, and the net loss is -$610. Fees quietly add to every loss, which is why including them matters.
The calculator also handles short trades, where you sell first and buy back later. In that case the entry price is the price you sold at and the exit price is the lower price you buy back at.
Gross Profit Is a Story; Net Profit Is the Truth
A trade that looks like a $500 win can really be a $480 win, or a $460 one if the fees are steep. On small accounts the gap between gross and net is the whole game: high fees can turn a break-even strategy into a losing one without you noticing.
Before entering any trade, subtract your round-trip costs from the expected gain. If a setup needs a $200 move to be worth it but costs $40 in fees, one-fifth of the move is already spoken for. Trade ideas that survive the fee check are the ones worth taking.
Using P&L to Review Your Trades
Most traders remember their winners and forget their losers. Logging the net P&L of every trade, fees included, gives you an honest record of what your strategy actually earns. Patterns show up fast: maybe your small positions carry you, or your losses cluster on a certain setup.
Review the log monthly and ask two questions: what is my average net profit per trade, and how many trades do I need for that average to mean something? A strategy with a $30 average net gain per trade needs very different sizing than one with a $300 average.
Why Percentages Beat Dollars for Comparison
A $500 profit sounds good until you learn the position was $100,000. In percentage terms it is 0.5%, barely more than noise. A $100 profit on a $500 position is 20%, a completely different outcome. Dollars describe the effect on your wallet; percentages describe the quality of the trade.
This matters most when comparing strategies or traders. One person making $2,000 a month on a $20,000 account is growing 10% a month; another making the same $2,000 on a $200,000 account is growing 1%. Same dollars, tenfold difference in skill. Always ask: percent of what?