ROI (Open) Explained: How Are Your Current Holdings Actually Doing?
The One-Sentence Definition
ROI (open) is the return on the capital sitting in your currently-held positions, computed as the unrealized gain divided by what you paid for those open positions.
ROI (open) is calculated automatically in Turbobulls, updated with every transaction. See it on your dashboard →
The Intuition: Just Your Open Lots
Person A: Holding $40k → worth $50k
Bought stocks for 40,000. They're now worth 50,000. ROI (open) = 25%. Clean and intuitive - matches what most people expect.Person B: Same numbers, but with closed trades
Also holding 40k worth 50k. But they also closed positions last year for a 10k profit. ROI (open) is still 25% on the open positions. The 10k closed gain is not in this number.ROI (open) is deliberately narrow. It answers one question precisely: how are my open holdings performing? Past trades, locked-in gains, sold winners - all excluded.
(50 − 40) / 40 = 25%. You can verify it with mental math.What the Portfolio Badge Means
Inside Turbobulls, every metric carries a small scope badge that tells you what data feeds it. ROI (open) carries the Portfolio badge.
That means it looks at only your invested positions:
- Open lots at every broker, in every currency
- Market value at today's price, in your project currency
- Cost basis from when you bought (net of taxes and fees on those lots)
It deliberately ignores wallet cash, debt, broker cash, income, and anything else outside your tracked open positions.
How to Read the Number
| ROI (open) | What it typically means |
|---|---|
| Negative | Open positions are down. The market or your picks are working against you right now. |
| 0% - 5% | Modest gain. Either you're early in your holding period or markets have been flat. |
| 5% - 15% | Solid. Around the long-run stock market average per year (if held over a year). |
| 15% - 30% | Strong. Either a good year, lucky timing, or concentrated bets paying off. |
| > 30% | Exceptional. Suspiciously high if you've been holding for less than a year - verify it's not a small-position fluke. |
See Your Open-Position Return at a Glance
ROI (Open) vs Lifetime ROI: The Key Difference
This is the most important caveat. Turbobulls shows two ROI numbers and they answer different questions:
How Turbobulls Calculates ROI (Open)
In plain words: Turbobulls takes the unrealized gain on your open positions and divides it by what you paid for those positions (net of taxes and fees).
ROI (open) = (unrealizedCapitalGain + unrealizedCurrencyGain) / openCostBasis × 100
Find the unrealized capital gain. For each open lot: (current price - buy price) × quantity, converted to project currency.
Find the unrealized currency gain. The FX effect: how much the exchange rate has moved since you bought, applied to your position.
Find the open cost basis. Sum of (cost basis - taxes - fees) for all currently-held lots.
Divide. Total unrealized gain divided by open cost basis, times 100.
When ROI (Open) Matters - and When to Ignore It
- Evaluating current holdings. How are my live positions doing? This is the cleanest answer.
- Reconciling with tile values. Math should match (Market value - Invested) / Invested.
- Comparing across brokers. Each broker's holdings can be filtered to see segment-level ROI.
- Quick mental math. Easy to verify with just two displayed numbers.
- You want a full trading history view. Use Lifetime ROI - it includes closed positions.
- You care about timing. Use MWR instead - ROI ignores when capital was added.
- You want risk-adjusted return. Use Sharpe ratio - ROI ignores volatility.
- Your open positions are tiny. A 100% ROI on a 10 position is just 10 dollars of gain.
The Full Picture: Pair ROI (Open) With These
ROI (open) tells you how current holdings are doing. Pair it with these for the full performance picture:
Stop Guessing How Your Current Bets Are Doing
Turbobulls computes ROI (open) automatically across your portfolio. Reconciles cleanly with your Market value and Invested tiles - no manual math required.
- Automatic ROI (open) on every open position
- Per-broker, per-asset-type, and per-currency breakdowns
- Pairs with Lifetime ROI, MWR, and Sharpe for full performance analysis
- Multi-currency portfolios handled natively with FX gain isolation
- Real-time updates as you log transactions
- Zero manual calculations - no spreadsheets, no formulas
Read more
Cost Efficiency Explained: How Much of Your Gains Actually Survive?
Cost efficiency measures the share of your investment gains that survives fees and taxes. Learn how Turbobulls calculates it, what good values look like, and why high costs quietly destroy long-term wealth.
Currency Gain Explained: How Much of Your Return Came From FX, Not the Asset?
Currency gain isolates the FX-driven portion of your investment returns. Learn how Turbobulls separates it from capital gain, why it matters for multi-currency investors, and what to do with the insight.
Lifetime ROI Explained: How Has All Your Invested Capital Performed?
Lifetime ROI is the return on all capital you've ever deployed - including positions you've since sold. Learn how Turbobulls calculates it, why it differs from ROI (open), and what it tells you about your full trading history.