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

  • Updated on Oct 7, 2026
  • Published on May 14, 2026
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You can choose to decompose total P&L 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 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 gain/loss. These different methodologies are not intended to be mixed in the same valuation report.

Holding currency

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 the following:

  • LUSID classifies P&L from carry activity, amortisation and accrual as Other.

  • Carry activity is only reported if transaction types have explicit Carry or CarryAsPnl movements.

Portfolio currency

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:

  • 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

Note the following:

  • FX rates between holding and portfolio currencies are required for the trade dates of each contributing transaction (to calculate holding cost) and for the valuation date (to calculate PV).

  • Market gain/loss includes cross gain/loss.

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