---
title: "P&L breakdown"
description: "The P&L breakdown splits a strategy's total profit and loss into its separate gain and cost components, stacked, so you see where the money came from."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/p-l-breakdown"
last_updated: "2026-10-06"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/p-l-breakdown.md"
---

# P&L breakdown

The P&L breakdown is a stacked view that splits a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s total profit and loss into the gains and costs that produced it. On the [capital chart](/glossary/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](/glossary/reinvest-profits) [simulation assumptions](/glossary/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](/glossary/negative-dividends) and [Interest paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid) appear only when a strategy uses short positions or borrows to fund [leverage](/glossary/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.

$$
{\text{Portfolio}} = {\text{gains}} - {\text{costs and losses}}
$$

where:

- 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](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l)). The **Costs** band is the same charge that separates gross from net on a position — trading fees plus [slippage](/glossary/slippage); see [gross vs net](/glossary/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.

Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)