Work out profit on a stock trade
Bought at one price, sold at another, commissions on both sides — the net number, the %, and the break-even sell price.
Tools used in this guide
The job
A trade's real profit is (sell − buy) × shares − commissions, and your broker's statement often shows it late or wrapped in fees. Doing the arithmetic first tells you what a sell actually earns.
Four numbers
Buy price, sell price, share count, and the commission on each side (0 for commission-free brokers). The output is net profit, percent return on the buy-side cost, and the break-even sell price — useful for limit orders.
Worked example
200 shares bought at 50, sold at 58, with $5 commissions each way: gross 1,600, net 1,590, return ~15.9 %. Break-even is ~50.05 — the trade needed a nickel of gain per share just to cover the fees.
Where it stops
No taxes, dividends, margin interest, ADR fees, or currency conversion — real broker statements include all of these. Per-share and percentage commission models are approximated by a flat value you enter yourself.