Unrealised and realised return

Gylder splits your gains into two columns, because a gain on paper and a gain in the bank are not the same thing.

Unrealised is what a position you still hold has gained or lost against its cost basis. It moves every day with the price and it is not yours until you sell.

Realised is what you actually locked in when you sold. It is fixed. Nothing that happens to the price afterwards changes it.

How they are calculated

unrealised = current value − cost basis
realised   = proceeds from sales − the cost basis those sales consumed

The return column is the percentage version, and it means different things on either side of the table. For a position you still hold it shows unrealised return as a percentage of cost. For a closed position it shows the realised return over the life of the position, because there is nothing unrealised left.

That is also why the closed positions table below the main one has its own column selection. An unrealised figure on a position that no longer exists would read as a dash on every row.

What trips people up

Selling part of a position moves value between the two. Sell half and half your unrealised gain becomes realised. Your total gain has not changed, but the two columns both move, and the position's remaining unrealised figure drops in a way that can look like a loss if you only glance at one column.

Realised return says nothing about time. Locking in 40% over eight years and 40% over eight months are the same number in this column. See holding period.

Neither includes dividends. Cash paid out to you is not part of either figure. It shows up in the dividend columns instead. A high yielding position can therefore look flat here while having paid you throughout. See dividend yield.

Neither is a tax figure. Gylder does not model your tax position, and the Dutch treatment of investment gains does not map onto these columns. Realised return is an accounting of what happened, not a taxable amount.