The P&L breakdown is a stacked view that splits a strategy's total profit and loss into the gains and costs that produced it. On the capital chart's P&L breakdown view, gains stack upward, costs and losses downward, and a Portfolio line traces the net total.
Also seen as: profit and loss breakdown, P&L attribution
How does Fincanva handle it?
- Each component is a coloured band; gains stack above the axis and costs and losses below it, so the height on each side shows how much came from each source.
- The breakdown responds to the Costs, Taxes, and Reinvest simulation assumptions: the Costs, Interest paid, and Taxes bands are zero when those assumptions are off, and costs are off by default for every account.
- Negative dividends and Interest paid appear only when a strategy uses short positions or borrows to fund leverage.
What does the P&L breakdown split your result into?
Every unit of profit and loss goes into a named component, on a gains side or a costs-and-losses side.
- Gains (stacked upward): Realized profit, Open profit, Dividends, Interest received.
- Costs and losses (stacked downward): Realized loss, Open loss, Negative dividends, Interest paid, Costs, Taxes.
- the Portfolio line — the strategy's total P&L
- the sum of the bands stacked upward
- the sum of the bands stacked downward
Realized profit and loss come from positions already closed, open profit and loss from positions still held; they are kept apart because only the open side still moves with the market (see realized vs open P&L). The Costs band is the same charge that separates gross from net on a position — trading fees plus slippage; see gross vs net.
What does it look like in practice?
A strategy ends a period with the "Portfolio" line at +4,000, and the breakdown shows line by line how it got there. On the gains side: Realized profit +3,200, Open profit +1,900, Dividends +600, Interest received +50 — a total of +5,750. On the costs-and-losses side: Costs −900, Taxes −500, Realized loss −250, Open loss −80, Interest paid −20 — a total of −1,750. The two sides net to +5,750 − 1,750 = +4,000, which is exactly where the Portfolio line finishes. Reading the bands tells you the 4,000 was earned mostly from realized and still-open gains, and trimmed by roughly 1,750 of costs, taxes, and losing positions.