IN PLAIN ENGLISH
Your own break-even price per ounce, to set beside the metal's price today. It already includes any premium you paid over the metal's price for a coin or bar, so it is usually a little above the price the metal was at when you bought.
FULL DEFINITION
What you paid for each troy ounce of pure metal in a holding.
EXAMPLE
£5,000 paid for ten sovereigns that hold 2.3543 troy oz of gold: 5,000 ÷ 2.3543 = £2,123.77 an ounce.
HOW IT'S CALCULATED
Cost per fine ounce = what you paid for the holding ÷ its fine weight in troy ounces (see Fine Metal Weight). It needs a paid value entered in your portfolio currency — one typed in another currency is never converted at today's rate, which would move the cost with the exchange rate — and a known fine weight, and is left out otherwise. It is the dashed line on the metal's price chart: with the price line above it, the metal is worth more than you paid per ounce.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.