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Did this US-stock trade actually make money — net P&L and break-even in one shotP&L calculator: buy price + sell price + shares + fees
Reading the floating P&L in your account is easy, but "after the fees for both the buy and the sell, how much did I actually net, and how high does it have to go before I truly break even" takes some math. The illustrative calculator below lets you enter buy price, sell price (put in the current price to see today's paper gain), share count and per-side fee, and gives you net P&L, return, and one number that often gets overlooked — the fee-inclusive break-even price.
Fees are illustrative defaults — change them to your broker's real fees. This tool does arithmetic estimates only; it excludes dividends, withholding tax, FX spread and slippage, and is not investment advice or any judgment about future prices. This tool is offline and pulls no live prices.
01What it breaks a trade down into
Total buy cost = buy price × shares + one buy fee; net sale proceeds = sell price × shares − one sell fee; subtract the two and you get net P&L; divide that by total buy cost and you get the return. Put the current price in the sell field, and what you get is "if I sold now, roughly how much would land after fees".
02Why the break-even price is a bit above your buy price
Many people assume "if it climbs back to my buy price, I'm no longer down" — not quite: you paid a fee when you bought, and you'll pay one again when you sell, so the price has to sit a little above your buy price to earn back both legs of fees before you truly break even. This calculator spreads both fees across each share to give you a fee-inclusive break-even price. The higher the fees and the fewer the shares, the wider that gap — which is why frequent small trades get eaten by fees. To see how fees eat into cost overall, use the US stock cost calculator.
03What this calculator doesn't count
To keep it intuitive, it excludes: any dividends and withholding tax during the holding period, the FX spread on currency conversion, intraday slippage, and any capital-gains tax the sale might trigger (which varies by where you live). It answers "given the price and fees you entered, this trade's net P&L and break-even price", not "should I sell" or "will it keep going up". When you're actually deciding, don't look at this one number alone.
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This tool is for education only; it does arithmetic estimates, excludes dividends, taxes and FX factors, and is not investment advice. Last updated 2026-07-03.