---
title: "Gross vs net"
description: "Gross is a position's trading result before costs are deducted; net is the same result after costs, and the gap between them is what the trading cost."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/gross-vs-net"
last_updated: "2026-08-02"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/gross-vs-net.md"
---

# Gross vs net

Gross is a result measured **before** costs are deducted; net is the same result **after** costs are deducted. On a position, gross is the trading profit or loss the position produced on price alone, and net is what is left of it once the trading fees and [slippage](/docs/backtesting/slippage) charged on that position are taken out — so the distance between a gross figure and its net twin is exactly what the trading cost.

**Also seen as:** gross P&L and net P&L; before costs and after costs.

## What is the difference between gross and net?

Gross is the raw result and net is the result you actually kept. Both describe the same trades over the same period; only the treatment of costs differs, and one subtraction turns one into the other.

$$
\text{Net} = \text{Gross} - \text{Costs}
$$

where **Gross** is the trading profit or loss before any cost deduction, **Costs** are the trading fees and slippage charged on those trades, and **Net** is what remains. Because costs can only ever be a deduction, net is never larger than gross.

## What sits inside the Costs figure?

Costs on a position are its trading fees plus its [slippage](/docs/backtesting/slippage) — the two charges that come from the act of trading. Tax and financing are not in this figure: tax on dividends and realized gains, and interest received or paid, are separate results that appear on their own bands of the [P&L breakdown](/docs/analysis/p-l-breakdown) rather than inside a position's Costs.

Slippage is not a fee. It is the gap between the price the strategy targeted and the price it actually got, so it is a cost of *execution* rather than a charge anyone bills you — but it lands in the same Costs figure, because in both cases the money is gone before the result is measured.

## How do you read the sign of the Costs column?

**Costs are shown as a positive deduction** — a cost of 40 appears as 40, not as −40, and you subtract it from Gross to reach Net. The one invariant to read the three columns by is that **Net is never larger than Gross**: costs can only take away, so if the Net cell is above the Gross cell on the same row, you are not reading a cost.

One thing that does look wrong but is not: **each cell rounds independently**, so the three displayed figures need not add up to the last decimal. A true Gross of 500.4, Costs of 40.6 and Net of 459.8 print as 500, 41 and 460 — and 500 − 41 is 459, not the 460 on screen. Nothing was lost; the display simply rounded three times instead of once.

## Defaults in Fincanva

- A backtest reports **Gross**, **Costs** and **Net** next to each other at every level of detail — per symbol, per position, and per individual trade — so the same three-column reading works whether you are looking at a whole instrument or one fill.
- Costs are trading fees plus slippage, in the account's base currency; the figures are money, not percentages.
- Whether costs are charged at all follows the **Costs & interests** [simulation assumption](/docs/backtesting/simulation-assumptions), which is off by default. With it off, modelled costs are zero and gross and net read the same; with it on, they separate.
- Gross and net describe *trading* results, so dividends are counted separately — a position's dividend income is its own column, and net plus that income is what makes up its [Total P&L](/docs/analysis/total-p-l).

## Worked example

A position is closed with a raw trading gain of 500. It paid 12 in trading fees and 28 in slippage over its life — 40 of cost in all, shown as a positive 40 in the Costs column. Net is 500 − 40 = **460**: the position made 500 on price and kept 460 after the cost of trading. Read the three columns together and that 40 is the whole story of the difference. A gross figure that looks strong can still net poorly when a strategy trades often enough for fees and slippage to accumulate.

*These figures describe what a strategy would have done on historical data, not what it will do. Fincanva provides no financial advice — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice).*