What is Stock Profit/Loss Calculator?

The Stock Profit/Loss Calculator helps investors quickly determine their gains or losses on stock trades. Enter your buy price, sell price, number of shares, and any fees to see your net profit, return percentage, and break-even price.

Enter the buy price per share, sell price, share count, and the commission paid on each side, either as a flat amount or a percentage of trade value. Flip the Long / Short toggle to handle either direction. A short sells to open and buys to cover, so the return, cost basis, and break-even are all measured against the short entry. The calculator subtracts both legs of fees to give net profit or loss, the percentage return based on amount invested, the break-even sell price needed to recover your full cost, and the all-in cost basis per share. Add any cash dividends you received and they roll into the net result. You can enter a holding period in days, or just type your buy and sell dates and it fills the days for you, flags the gain as short- or long-term, and pre-picks the matching tax preset to show the annualized return (CAGR). Toggle on the capital gains estimator for an after-tax net, set a profit goal in the Target Sell Price panel to learn the exact exit price you'd need, read the what-if table for your P/L at seven exit prices, and scan the payoff chart that plots profit and loss across a whole range of exit prices with the break-even point marked.

How to use

1. Enter the buy price per share, number of shares purchased, and any commission or fees paid when buying.
2. Enter the sell price per share and any selling fees or commissions.
3. View your total profit or loss, percentage return, cost basis, and break-even price per share.

When to use

• Checking whether a tax-lot is still in the green after deducting both buy and sell commissions.
• Working out the minimum sell price you need to break even on a position before placing a limit order.
• Comparing two trades by percentage return, not just dollar amount, before screenshotting for a journal.

Result

You bought 50 shares of a stock at $142.50 with a $9.99 commission, then sold at $168.75 with the same commission. The calculator shows a net profit of $1,292.52 (an 18.1% return).

FAQ

Why is my break-even price higher than the price I paid per share?

Because you have to recover both the buy commission you've already paid and the sell commission you'll pay when exiting. Even a $0 commission broker has slippage and a bid-ask spread, so the break-even is always a touch above purchase price in practice.

Does this calculator account for taxes on the gain?

By default the headline figure is pre-tax. You can flip on the optional Capital Gains Tax estimator and pick a preset (short-term 22%, long-term 15%, long-term 20%) or type your own rate to see an after-tax net beside the gross. The estimator only applies a rate to a positive gain, so it does not handle wash-sale rules, state surcharges, or other jurisdiction quirks — treat the after-tax line as a planning number, not a return.

What about dividends I received while holding the stock?

Yes — there's an optional Dividends Received field. Type the total cash dividends you collected and they're folded straight into your net profit and total return (for a short sale that amount is subtracted instead, since the short seller owes the dividend to the lender). The result then splits out your capital gain and the dividend cash separately. For reinvested dividends your share count should already reflect the extra shares, but the cost basis gets messier because each reinvestment changes your average price.

Can I model a short sale where I sell first and buy back later?

Yes — switch the Long / Short toggle to Short. Put your short-sell (entry) price in the Sell Price field and your buy-to-cover price in the Buy Price field. You profit when you cover below your entry, and in Short mode the return percentage, cost basis and break-even cover price are all measured against your short entry. Margin interest and borrow fees aren't modelled.

Does the return percentage use cost basis or current value as the denominator?

Cost basis (total invested including buy fee). That's the convention brokers and tax-lot summaries use: a $1,000 gain on $10,000 invested is a 10% return. If you used current value instead, the same gain would look smaller, which would understate performance.

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