A couple of weeks ago I already asked that question, but no one could help me. After some analyzing I came across the Trades section of the statement, which offers a better insight to the problem. So let's try again. For some of my positions I'm having a hard time to understand how the profit/loss is calculated. Here's an example: I've sold 100 shares of BLX via a covered call at the price of $20. The lot sold has a price of $26.6792. So I would assume the loss would be 20 x 100 - 26.6792 x 100 = -667,92 However, according to the Trades table, the loss is only -603.31, which leaves a gap of 64,61. Where does this difference come from? What am I missing?
Options schmoptions beats the hell out of me. Don't trade em. But it looks like you have open profit on other unsold 100 offsetting your loss on trade you closed? Maybe?
Your best bet would be to contact IB and ask them to explain this overview to you. Realized P/L does include commissions paid or received when both opening and closing the position. You can't simply take the transaction price to calculate P/L.
Don't worry, I don't gamble with options. I mainly use them for buying and selling. I wanted to sell BLX anyway so I wrote a covered call, thus getting paid a premium on top of the price I want to sell for. Regarding the unsold shares: I already tried calculating the P/L with the average costs but the numbers just don't add up.
Commissions are minimal: 1$ for buying the shares and 0.05$ for closing the lot. So that (alone) can't be it. But, you're probably right. I'll have to contact IB. I thought many here have a lot more experience reading the activity statements and know how the calculations are done.
Meant I don't trade em. They are fine otherwise. Also don't you have an open trade. If so why are using average costs?
What I meant was, I tried every calculation in hope of getting the P/L that IB came up with. But nothing worked so far.
I think I solved the mystery. After I took a look at the covered call option leading to the sell of the shares, I noticed the premium is $65, which is remarkably close to the $64.61 I was searching for. Considering the fees of $0.34 and the commission for the sale of $0.05 everything sums up: 20 x 100 + 65 - 0.34 -0.05 - 26.6792 x 100 = -603,31 Exactly the figure listed in the Trades table. Thank you very much for your help. Your hints lead me in the right direction.