Finance Tools

Active tool: Finance Tools

Selected option: Stock Profit/Loss Calculator

What It Does

Calculates the bottom-line economics of a single stock trade — what you actually made (or lost) after every fee and dividend, expressed as net dollars, ROI %, and annualized return (CAGR). Also tells you the break-even sell price so you know how far the stock needed to move to cover costs, and (optionally) the sell price required to hit a target ROI. Supports both Long and Short trades, with all sign conventions handled automatically. A built-in 5-row sensitivity table shows what your P&L would have been at sell prices 10 % lower, 5 % lower, exactly your input, 5 % higher, and 10 % higher.

How to Use It

  1. Pick your currency.
  2. Choose Long (you bought, then sold) or Short (you sold-borrowed, then bought to close).
  3. Enter the buy price per share, sell price per share, and the number of shares.
  4. Optionally toggle “Allow fractional shares” if your broker supports them.
  5. Optionally add buy and sell commissions / fees.
  6. If you received dividends during the holding period, set the dividend mode (Per Share or Total Received) and enter the amount. For a Short trade these become a cost paid to the lender.
  7. Choose how to specify the holding period — Exact dates is recommended; Days is faster for hypothetical analysis.
  8. Optionally enter a target ROI to see the sell price required to hit it.
  9. Click “Calculate” to see the full P&L, or “Clear” to reset.
  10. Use “Copy Results” to copy the summary, or “Export CSV” / “Export Excel” to save the trade analysis.

Options Explained

OptionDescription
Trade directionLong = bought first then sold; Short = sold-borrowed first then bought to close. Mirrors all formulas correctly
Buy / Sell pricePer-share execution prices. Used together with share count and fees to compute net P&L
Number of sharesThe size of the position. Integer unless fractional shares are enabled
Allow fractional sharesWhen ON, share count may be a decimal. When OFF, the validator enforces integers
Buy / Sell feesTotal commissions and fees on each side. Buy fees increase cost basis; sell fees reduce proceeds
Dividend modePer Share multiplies your entry by the share count; Total uses the entry as-is. Pick whichever matches how you tracked the dividend
DividendsMoney received during the holding period (Long) or paid to the lender (Short). Always entered as a non-negative number — direction handles the sign
Holding periodUsed to compute the annualized return (CAGR). Exact dates auto-counts days; Days lets you enter the count directly
Target ROIOptional. When set, the calculator returns the sell price you would have needed to achieve this return
CurrencyCurrency for all monetary values — affects the symbol shown on amounts. Does not perform any FX conversion
Example: Bought 100 shares at $100 ($10,000), sold at $150 with $5 buy fee + $5 sell fee, no dividends, held exactly 365 days → net profit $4,990, ROI 49.90 %, CAGR 49.90 %, break-even sell price $100.10. With a $1/share dividend collected during the year → net profit becomes $5,090, ROI 50.90 %, break-even drops to $99.10 (dividends offset costs).
Tip: ROI tells you the percentage gain on this trade in absolute terms; CAGR annualizes it so you can compare trades held for different durations on equal footing. A 10 % gain in one month (≈ 213 % CAGR) is dramatically better than a 10 % gain over five years (≈ 1.92 % CAGR), even though the dollar profit is identical. Always look at both.
Trade Details

About ROI, CAGR, and Break-Even

Three numbers tell you almost everything about a closed trade. Net P&L is the dollar truth — what actually landed (or vanished from) your account after every fee. Return on investment (ROI) turns that number into a percentage so you can compare trades of different sizes. Annualized return (CAGR) standardizes ROI by holding period so you can compare trades held for very different durations on equal footing — a 5 % gain in a month is not the same as a 5 % gain over a year, even though the absolute return is identical.

The break-even sell price is the often-overlooked fourth number: it tells you exactly how much the stock needed to move just to cover commissions, fees, and the cost of any dividends paid (in a short). On low-margin trades this is the difference between a “small win” you celebrate and a “small loss” you didn’t see coming. Together, these four numbers form the foundation of trade post-mortems, performance attribution, and what-if planning.

Disclaimer: This calculator analyzes a single trade and does not model taxes, lot-by-lot accounting, margin interest, or multi-leg strategies. For tax estimation across jurisdictions, see the Capital Gains Tax Calculator.