Your practice account shows a ₹300 gain. You sell part of the position, glance back and see two smaller numbers. Did some of the profit disappear?
Realised P&L is the profit or loss associated with the part of a position you have closed. Unrealised P&L is the changing gain or loss on the part still open, calculated using a reference price. The distinction matters because a displayed price is not a confirmed exit price, and charges can change the final result.
Let’s follow one hypothetical purchase of 20 virtual shares at ₹100 each. This is an educational arithmetic example for a simple long share position. It excludes corporate actions and uses invented costs; it is not a recommendation to buy or sell a security.
Start with the quantity and the entry price
Twenty shares at ₹100 each give an entry value of ₹2,000 before charges. If the reference market price becomes ₹115, the displayed value of those shares is ₹2,300.
The difference is ₹300. Because none of the shares has been sold, that amount is unrealised. You still own the position, and its value can change with the next price update.
For this simple example, the formula is: unrealised P&L equals reference price minus entry price, multiplied by the open quantity. That gives (₹115 − ₹100) × 20 = ₹300.
Fidelity’s definition of unrealised gain or loss describes it as a hypothetical result at the indicated price. That word matters. It doesn’t confirm what your order would receive if you tried to exit at that moment.
Watch what happens when the price changes
Suppose you do nothing and the reference price falls to ₹108. The unrealised gain becomes (₹108 − ₹100) × 20 = ₹160. Your share count and entry price haven’t changed. The valuation has.
The earlier ₹300 wasn’t a separate cash payment that the platform later took back. It was a calculation based on a price that no longer applies. This is why saving a screenshot of an open gain does not establish the result of a completed trade.
The same arithmetic works for a loss. At ₹95, the position shows (₹95 − ₹100) × 20 = −₹100 before costs. Leaving it open does not remove the decline in value. It leaves the eventual exit result undecided.
During practice, note the price and time beside the number. “Unrealised +₹160 at ₹108” is more useful than writing “Profit ₹160” without saying whether the trade is still open.
Now sell only part of the position
Return to our hypothetical trade and suppose a sale of eight shares actually executes at ₹115. The gross realised gain on those eight shares is (₹115 − ₹100) × 8 = ₹120.
You have 12 shares left. If their reference price is still ₹115, their unrealised gain is (₹115 − ₹100) × 12 = ₹180. The two amounts add to ₹300 at that moment, before charges.
Here’s the position in three lines:
- Closed quantity: eight shares, with ₹120 gross realised gain.
- Open quantity: 12 shares, with ₹180 unrealised gain at ₹115.
- Combined result at that reference price: ₹300 before charges.
Don’t calculate the open gain using all 20 shares after eight have been sold. That would count the sold quantity twice. And don’t replace the executed sale price with the current chart price when reviewing the closed part.
Finish the example with a different exit price
Suppose the remaining 12 shares later sell at ₹108. Their gross realised gain is (₹108 − ₹100) × 12 = ₹96. Add the earlier ₹120 and the completed trade’s gross gain is ₹216.
The cash arithmetic agrees: eight shares sold at ₹115 bring ₹920; 12 sold at ₹108 bring ₹1,296. Total sale proceeds are ₹2,216 against the original ₹2,000 purchase value, before costs.
There is now no open quantity in this example, so there is no remaining unrealised P&L for it. The earlier ₹300 snapshot and the final ₹216 result describe different stages of the same position.
Keep both figures if you are reviewing your decisions. One records what the open position showed; the other records what the two exits achieved. Neither number alone explains why you chose to exit when you did.
Separate realised from net
“Realised” tells you that the relevant quantity has been closed. It does not automatically tell you whether every charge has been deducted from the displayed figure.
Assume total purchase and sale costs for our example are ₹16. This is an invented amount for arithmetic, not a broker quote or tax rate. The net result would be ₹216 − ₹16 = ₹200.
If a report already includes these costs, subtracting them again would understate the result. If it excludes them, treating gross P&L as the amount kept would overstate it. Check the report’s definitions before comparing two screens.
For the separate question of what trading costs include, read Neostox’s guide to how intraday trading charges work. This article’s task is narrower: identify which quantity is open, which is closed and which costs a number includes.
Read the date range before judging a mismatch
A daily change figure may use the previous closing price. A total gain figure may use the purchase price. Those are different starting points, so the numbers don’t have to match.
Imagine you bought at ₹100, yesterday’s close was ₹110 and today’s reference price is ₹108. For 20 still-open shares, the change since yesterday is −₹40, while the change since purchase is +₹160, before costs. Both calculations can be correct.
Check the selected account, instrument, quantity, date range and price basis. If you bought shares at multiple prices, also check the report’s cost-basis method rather than assuming every screen uses your own simple average.
This example does not cover futures settlement, options expiry or tax reporting. Their mechanics can differ. Use the relevant report documentation for those instruments instead of applying the share example unchanged.
Try a reconciliation exercise with virtual money
Neostox’s trading reports provide simulated P&L, costs and trading history. Use a completed practice trade to write down the entry quantity, executed prices, closed quantity and any remaining position. Compare your calculation with the relevant report period.
Check the price timestamp too. The Neostox platform currently states that market prices are delayed by 30 days. A current live quote elsewhere is therefore not a like-for-like check of the simulator’s displayed price.
End the exercise with one complete sentence: “I closed eight shares at ₹115, still held 12, and later closed those at ₹108, producing ₹216 before example costs.” If you can explain the number that clearly, the green figure on the screen has become something you understand.