Why does the P&L on the position page not match the unrealised/realised gains on funds page on Kite?

The P&L on Kite shows this (loss of around 8700)

But the unrealized loss on my funds page shows ( loss of around 22000)

Why is this difference?

When trading there are two platforms that you use - the trading platform where you trade (Kite) and the backoffice platform (Console) which maintains your ledger/account balance, which is reported to the exchanges. While the overall P&L will be the same on both the platforms, the daily P&L or credit/debit on the Kite funds might differ, here is why.

Kite position P&L

On Kite, the P&L on positions page for futures and options is shown based on your entry price for the position using the First in First out (FIFO) method.

Qty Average price LTP P&L
Nifty July Fut 150 10020.9 9970.2 -7605

I am guessing you are clear on this (2 lots of Nifty bought on 9th June), as it is extremely straightforward.

Credit/Debit on your ledger (also Kite funds page)

For accounting purposes or for crediting/debiting the ledger there is a set standard exchange process for all futures positions - which is called Marked to market or M2M. Exchanges at end of everyday marks all open futures position to the closing settlement price for the futures for that day and either credits or debits the money to client ledger

  • The reason for doing M2M is because futures have unlimited risk and to ensure the person making losses doesn’t default, for open positions the losses are collected on the same day and credited to the person making profits. The person who made the loss will now have to ensure that there is sufficient margin in the account to continue holding the position and hence ensuring there is no counterparty risk.
  • For short option positions, there is no M2M like futures, but margin required to hold short options keep going up as and when options go in the money (short options start losing money), thus in a way ensuring that the customer losing brings in more money to avoid the default risk

So what this now means is that while the position page shows only one P&L, there will be multiple credits/debits on your backoffice - one entry for every day you held the position. The P&L on funds page will show based on the last settlement price for all open futures and short option positions.

You bought 2 lots of Nifty July futures at 10020.9 on 9th June. This is how MTM would have happened on your account.

Qty Price Settlement price Ledger credit/debit (funds page) Net P&L (shows on kite)
9th June 150 10020.9 10023.4 187.5 187.5
10th June 150 10023.4 10110.15 13012.5 13200
11th June 150 10110.15 9970.2(screenshot time) -20992.5 -7605

So when you took the screenshot of the position page when LTP was 9970.2, the Kite P&L on the position page would show you -7605 based on P&L from your entry price. But your ledger or Kite funds page will show loss of around Rs 21k because your account balance would have already been credited with profits of Rs 187.5 and Rs 13012.5 for the two days you held the futures position(post charges). Please login to console and check your ledger/fund statement.

What this means is that your account balance which shows in your fund’s section would have been up Rs 13200 and settled as per yesterday’s closing of Nifty future. So today’s loss when LTP was 9970.2 on your funds will be based on yesterday’s settlement price of 10110.15 to 9970.2.

This is how futures settlement works. Do make sure to go through the entire F&O module on Varsity before trading in F&O.

Potentially we could show P&L on the kite position based on yesterday’s settlement price (like a lot of brokers do without bothering to store/calculate the entry price) so that it matches what you see as debit/credit on your funds for the day. But this would then mean that you will have to keep a track of actual/overall buy/sell price of your positions and its P&L somewhere else, which would be extremely inconvenient. So by popular request, we introduced the ability to track P&L from entry price on positions page (unlike other platforms which allow only from yesterday settlement price).

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