My P&L on Laser platform has not been matching the P&L in their clearing sheets website for the past 2 weeks. Each day the amounts are off, the other day I ended the day thinking I was up about $150, and then the clearing showed I was down -$130 Gross P&L. I asked and they said it is because I carried overnights and that Laser calculates the overnights incorrectly and that the P&L in the clearing sheets, which shows me losing money is the correct one. Everyday now my P&L's don't match up, I don't know which P&L is correct I am worried I am getting screwed. Does anyone else have this problem or know anything about this?
Hi, I ran into this problem several months ago. The sheets posted on the website are correct. Best, Morgan
If this has been a problem for a while why hansn't it been fixed? A problem with my P&L not being correct is number one first and foremost thing I want dealt with and fixed.
Looks like you don't have a clue what you're talking about. To the original poster, the numbers on the website are always the correct numbers.
One thing with Genesis and overnights. They do calculate weird sometimes. They are not screwing you. I will try to give an example of what takes place. Lets say that your p&l on the day is + 100 to make things very easy. Currently you are flat. Now you decide to buy 1000 shares of xyz at $20. Now xyz goes up and you like it so much you decide to buy another 1000 shares at $20.50 Now you own 2000 shares. If you look at your genesis blotter it will say long 2000 at 20.25 Now the stock goes to 21$ so you sell 1000 shares. Your p&l on the day will show you up an additional $750 So your closed p&l is +850 now with + 750 more unrealized. Now say the market closes. On your sheets the system will calculate the 1000 shares you are still long at the actual price you purchased them. NOt the average price. So in the morning when you open laser it will say you are long 1000 xyz at $20.50, not your old average of $20.25, but if you look at your sheets, it will have calculated the profit you are missing. On your intraday blotter it will have calculated the 1000 shares you already sold at the average price, but on your actual sheets it will calculate the gain from your original 1000 share purchase price. SO in this case your sheets would say you made $1100 in total, but your daily blotter said you only made $850. The next morning though remeber you will still have your position, but it will say you are long 1000 at 20.50 and not 20.25, so you will have a pending 500 gain and not a pending 750 gain like it said the day before. So during the trading day your analysis would have said closed net of 850 and you would have had a pending p&l of 750. They add up to 1600. When you look at your sheets at night , it will say you actually had a gain of 1100 but the next morning it will only say you have a pending gain of 500. Add up those two numbers and you get 1600. So it works out identical for the trader, just a little confusing. Hope this helps. P.S - It works the same but in the reverse order if the trade would have went against you, which might have been the case with you.
Hitnruntrader, Thanks for the explanation, it was very helpful. But I never had this problem at other BD's or clearing firms. Why hasn't this been corrected at Genesis by now?
I don't think the Genesis calculation is a mistake. It is just another way of showing the PL. Should the Pl be calculated FIFO of FILO or anything in between? The answer is depends. The question really lies in how do you want the PL be shown: open PL, closed PL, average price, current price, first price, etc. What if you buy 1000 @ 20 and 500@21 and 1000 @ 22 and you sell 2200 @21 and holds overnight 300 shares, then what price do you use for the sell of $21 and what price do you use for the overnight position PL? HitnRun is correct in that the end result is correct. I have no problem with the way Genesis showing the PL. If others have a better and clearer way of showing the PL, I think they should notify Serge of Genesis. If there is no mistake in calculation, what is there for Genesis to to correct?
Hey bud. Genesis is doing nothing wrong. It is just the way they calculate it. It can be confusing if you have alot of overnight positions. I run a group through them and a few of my guys were thinking the calculations were wrong. Now everyone understands how it works. To ensure that everything is correct is simple. At the end of the trading day, look at your analysis and see how much your net is. Then look at your blotter and see how much your net is and add these two numbers up. Then at night when you look at your sheets, write down the number it says you are up. Then make sure you are up before the market opens. Look at your blotter and look at how much it shows you are up. If you add up these numbers it should be the same as it was the at the end of the prior day. It is very simple once you understand it. Hopefully you do not have a million overnight positions. Good luck with your trading!