Hi,I’m new in the platform. Can someone explain to me what this means? am losing money or making money?
@Manolo Welcome to Alpaca!
It looks like you lost a little bit of money today (or on the day the screenshot was taken). $86.46 to be exact, or as a percent of the portfolio equity, .09%. That is what the number shown by the arrow means. It’s the current days gain or loss. If the account would have made money the values would be positive and in green.
If you haven’t bought or sold anything today, that gain or loss is only on paper. It simply reflects the last traded price of the securities you hold. The “Equity” value is the cash value of the account if one were to close all positions. The “Buying Power” is how much you have to spend on opening new positions. This is typically more than the equity because all accounts with over $2000 in equity are margin accounts. Alpaca will lend you money to buy more stock, up to the Buying Power. The “Cash” value can be misleading at times. I’d recommend not looking at it.
Note that the Profit/Loss is just the current gain from the previous market close (ie todays gain). To see how the equity value has changed over a longer period, click on the 1W, 1M, 1Y, or MAX buttons. One can see the equity value at any time in the past. The gain however isn’t calculated. Just the value at different times.
Does that help?
Hi Dan,
Really appreciate your help.
Initially, my numbers for equity, buying power and cash were $100,000.00. That’s why I’m wondering what the new numbers mean.
p.s. So that means, if one day I decide not to sell or buy, the dashboard would display a negative percentage for profit/loss?
@Manolo The dashboard would show negative values for profit/loss if you didn’t buy or sell AND if the value (ie prices) for any holdings went down.