How to Compute the Yearly Stock Market Percentage Gain or Loss
Stock investors must keep track of their stocks' performance, both to properly manage their investments and for tax purposes. Certain steps are necessary to determine the annual percentage gain or loss of your portfolio.
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Instructions
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1
Determine the beginning and end dates to use for the year; for tax purposes, this will typically be January 1 through December 31, but you can choose any two dates a year apart if you are tracking your stocks to manage your investments.
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2
Create a column of figures with the starting price of your stocks. For stocks you have held for more than a year, use the closing price as of your start date; if you don't have this available, look it up on a personal finance website, such as Yahoo! Finance. For stocks purchased in the past year, use the purchase price.
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3
Multiply each of these prices by the number of shares you hold, then add up this column of figures, to determine the starting value of your portfolio.
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4
Repeat steps 2 and 3, but this time with the closing price of these stocks on your chosen end date. Add up this column of figures.
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5
Divide the result of step 4 by the result of step 3. For example, if your stocks were valued at $8,000 at the beginning of the year, and are now worth $10,000, that is: 10,000 ÷ 8,000 = 1.25, which is a 25 percent gain. Alternately, if $10,000 in stocks are now worth $8,000, that is 8,000 ÷ 10,000 = 0.80, which is a 20 percent loss.
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Tips & Warnings
This procedure doesn't include calculations for stocks sold over the course of the year, as there are varying ways of including that kind of calculation. A personal finance website can be used to track your portfolio automatically, and will incorporate various methods of handling transactions into and out of your portfolio.
