IN PLAIN ENGLISH
How much something you track by hand — a gilt, a flat, an exchange balance, a car, a watch — is up or down on what you paid.
FULL DEFINITION
The difference between what a bond, crypto balance, vehicle or other asset you typed in is worth today and what you paid for it.
EXAMPLE
You paid £5,000 for a watch you value at £6,200 today: 6,200 − 5,000 = +£1,200, which is +24.0% of what you paid.
HOW IT'S CALCULATED
Gain/Loss = value today − what you paid, where value today is the amount you last typed in on the Portfolio page and what you paid is the price you entered for it. % = Gain/Loss ÷ what you paid × 100. Nothing here is priced live, so the gain only moves when you update the value. An asset with no paid value, or a paid value entered in a different currency (because your portfolio currency has changed since), shows no gain — it is not converted at today's exchange rate. A pension can't carry a paid value and never shows one. A property's is what you paid for it, set against the value you entered (before any mortgage). The totals add up only the assets that have a paid value, so the three figures always describe the same assets. This is the gain on what you still own; for assets you've sold see Asset Sale Gain/Loss. Gains are not part of your net worth, which only counts what things are worth.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.