I'm having a little trouble calculating my short position profits and was wondering if someone can verify if it is correct. The main problem is I didn't sell it evenly but in 1/3rd. The trade log is short 150@235.29, short 100@233.18 I cover 100@230.77, 50@228.7199, 100@ 231.2092 According to my math, I should have been up about $1000? But profits show as only up about ~$400 for the day.
your math is absolutely correct. your profit before considering other things is 150 * 235.29 + 100 * 233.18 - (100 * 230.77 + 50 * 228.7199 + 100 * 231.2092) = 977.585. However, if there was a dividend payout in the period you hold your short, you paid that amount of dividend to longs. That was a surprise to me when it happened once to me. But you can consider that as your investment cost when you file you tax return.
Thank you for verifying the calcuation. I was only short overnight and the ETF was XBI. I also took a ~$40 loss on IBB for the day. Is the broker screwing me out of my money or am I just missing something??
recent XBI dividend payout was around 0.5 per share. that amount did not explain. call your broker. if there is a special payout that sometimes ETF do like SMH made a special payout of $8 per share some year ago, that may explain to you, otherwise it is strange.
Optionshouse/Trademonster and Interactive Brokers Probably gonna switch more $ over to IB now after this issue. They still havent replied back on e-mail since that issue.