---
title: "Decomposing total P&L into holding and trading gain/loss"
slug: "decomposing-total-pnl-into-holding-and-trading-gain-loss"
updated: 2026-05-20T16:08:59Z
published: 2026-05-20T16:08:59Z
canonical: "support.lusid.com/decomposing-total-pnl-into-holding-and-trading-gain-loss"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.lusid.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Decomposing total P&L into holding and trading gain/loss

You can choose to decompose [total P&L](/v1/docs/how-does-lusid-calculate-pl) for a holding into:

- Holding P&L (“Buy/Hold”), which is gain/loss from a change in value during a window, ignoring any transactions.
- Trading P&L (“Execution”), which is gain/loss attributed to buy/sell transactions during a window.

This methodology distinguishes returns generated by market movements from returns generated by trading decisions, enabling you to evaluate trader skill versus passive exposure.

Note you must use LUSID’s [instrument event framework](/v1/docs/understanding-dedicated-corporate-action-events) to correctly apply transactions representing corporate actions during a window to both holding and trading categories. If you manually book a transaction representing (for example) a dividend, LUSID only applies it to the trading category.

> **Note**: Alternatively, you can decompose total P&L into [realised and delta unrealised](/v1/docs/decomposing-total-pnl-into-realised-and-delta-unrealised) gain/loss. These different methodologies are not intended to be mixed in the same valuation report.

You can decompose total P&L in holding currency using the following metrics:

| `ProfitAndLoss/Total` |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Total/Held` |  |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Held/Market` |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Held/Other` |
| \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Total/Trading` |  |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Trading/Market` |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Trading/Other` |
|  |  |  |

> **Note**: LUSID classifies P&L from carry activity, amortisation and accrual as `Other`. Note carry activity is only reported if transaction types have explicit `Carry` or `CarryAsPnl` [movements](/v1/docs/using-the-carry-movement-types-to-configure-an-a2b-report).

You can decompose total P&L in portfolio currency using the following metrics, to understand the impact of exchange rate fluctuations between holding and portfolio currencies. Note market gain/loss includes [cross gain/loss](/v1/docs/how-does-lusid-calculate-cross-gain-loss):

| `ProfitAndLoss/Total/PortfolioCcy` |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Total/Held/PortfolioCcy` |  |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Held/Market/PortfolioCcy` |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Held/Fx/PortfolioCcy` |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Held/Other/PortfolioCcy` |
| \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Total/Trading/PortfolioCcy` |  |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Trading/Market/PortfolioCcy` |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Trading/Fx/PortfolioCcy` |
|  | \| _ | `ProfitAndLoss/Attribution/Trading/Other/PortfolioCcy` |
|  |  |  |