Performance and P&L

P&L means "profit and loss". MyTraderDash shows two kinds, and keeps them apart:

• Realized P&L: the result of positions you have closed. It is final and doesn't move with the market.
• Open P&L (also called unrealized): the gain or loss on positions you still hold, at the latest known price. It changes with every price update and becomes realized only when you close.

Both are measured against your cost basis: what you paid for the position. For 100 shares bought at $10, the cost basis is $1,000.

The result of one position

Each position in the Trade Log gets its own result in RETURN $ and RETURN %.

For a closed position:

Example. You buy 100 shares at $10 and sell them at $12. While you held them they paid $15 in dividends. RETURN $ is $1,200 − $1,000 + $15 = +$215. RETURN % is $215 ÷ $1,000 = 21.5%.

Things to know:

• Before fees. Results compare prices only. Fees and commissions are shown separately (the FEES column, Avg Fees/Group, COMMISSIONS). They are not subtracted.
• $0 counts as a win. A closed position with a result of $0 or more is WIN; below $0 is LOSS. Dividends can turn a small loss into a win.
• Partial sales. Selling part of a position closes that part as its own group with its own result; the rest stays open. See Trades and positions.

For an open position, RETURN $ shows the open P&L instead:

For a detected wheel or covered call, the cost per share is the adjusted cost (the share cost minus the premiums collected) shown in ENTRY, so the row shows the whole strategy at a glance. Totals don't add these rows up: they count the premiums once, as realized, and measure open P&L against what you paid (see The same numbers everywhere).

If no current price is available yet, RETURN $ shows - and the status shows plain OPEN instead of OPEN (WINNING) or OPEN (LOSING). See Prices and market data.

When a result counts

A closed result belongs to the close date: the date of the trade that closed the position. Shares bought in November and sold in February count in February.

One exception: the premium you receive for selling an option is realized the day you receive it, while the position is still open. Closing or expiring it later only adjusts that result.

Dividends are counted on their own, by payment date. The Trade Log and the reports split every total into two parts:

So a stock bought in 2024, paying dividends in 2024 and 2025, and sold in 2026 shows its dividends in 2024 and 2025 and its trading result in 2026.

Strategies count per leg

A detected strategy (a wheel, a covered call…) is made of legs: each option and the shares. The strategy as a whole can stay open for months, but each leg counts as soon as that leg closes.

Example, a wheel:

The shares' result counts when you sell them. See Strategy detection.

Short positions

You are short when you sell first and buy back later, for example when you sell a put or a call to open. The result is the other way around:

Example. You sell one put for $1.50 ($150 per contract) and buy it back for $0.40 ($40): +$110. If it expires worthless, the app closes it at $0 and you keep the whole $150.

An open short position gains when the price falls: a put sold at $1.50 now quoted at $1.00 is +$50 open. A wheel is the exception: once it holds shares, its open P&L follows the shares like any stock you own.

Unknown cost basis

When the app can't tell what you paid (a sale with no earlier buy in your history, or shares transferred in without a cost), the position's cost basis is unknown. The position has no result: the Trade Log shows CLOSED (UNKNOWN) or OPEN (UNKNOWN) and a dash instead of a result, and doesn't guess. The Win and Loss filters never match it.

These positions are left out of Win %, the averages and the counts. Dividends they collected still count as dividends. Importing the missing history usually fixes it, and then they count normally. See Data issues.

The Trade Log cards

The six cards above the Trade Log follow your filters:

A fee paid on a trade that is split between two positions is shared between them by quantity.

How filters change the dividends

• No position filter (only ticker, account, broker or date range): Div is every dividend paid, unallocated ones included. It matches your tax report.
• With a position filter (status, tags, side, open or close dates, or a range such as Return $): Div is only the dividends that belong to the matching positions. With status Open, for example, you see the dividends your open positions have collected.

The date range

The Trade Log's date range picks the positions that had a trade in that range. Their results are counted at their close dates, even if they closed after the range ends. Dividends count only if they were paid inside the range.

Performance Reports

The Reports tab of the Trade Log shows Performance Reports: one row per year, and per month when you open a year. A row counts the positions closed in that period and the dividends paid in it. The same filters as the cards apply.

Clicking a month row takes you back to the table, filtered to that month.

Today's P&L

The Dashboard's Today view and the Watchlists' Day column count what today's session did to each position, the way a broker counts its day: a position held since before today against the previous close, one opened today against the price you paid, one closed today at the price you sold against the previous close. It isn't realized or unrealized P&L: it's the day's part of both. Fees aren't included, and US and Canadian dollar amounts are converted at today's rate on both sides. A position is left out, and counted as left out, when its figure can't be right: no price, a quote that isn't this session's, a split this session. See Today's P&L.

The same numbers everywhere

Every page counts with the rules on this page, so the same thing gives the same number wherever you see it:

• Realized P&L — the Trade Log cards, Performance Reports, the Dashboard's Realized P&L and Total P&L, Performance Rankings, the Ticker Report and its Compare chart, and the Strategies page all add up closed results and dividends the way described above. The Dashboard's Realized P&L equals the Trade Log's for the same dates.
• Open P&L — the Dashboard, the Holdings table, the Ticker Report and the Strategies page measure it the same way: today's price against what you paid. An option premium you already earned (say, the put of a wheel that was assigned) counts once, as realized when that option closed — it doesn't also lower the cost the open P&L is measured against.
• Total P&L = all realized P&L + the open P&L of what you hold now. Its % compares that with all the money you ever put in (what you paid for every position, open and closed).

A position with no market price yet has no open P&L and no value — it is never counted at what you paid. The cards say how many such positions there are.

Related

• Dividends: how a dividend is split between positions.
• Currencies: which currency these numbers are in.
• Trade Log: the page, its filters and buttons.
• How the tax report calculates: realized results for your tax report, which follow tax rules instead.