UK stocks don’t seem to add up.

[Guest ChrisDrain]

I am trying to understand why my positions in UK stocks don’t seem to make sense. For example I have a position in a UK stock of size 140 opened at price 505.7. It has gone up to 515 or 1.8%. Which should show a profit of $1274, however in my trading account I see a profit of $13. I have three other positions in uk stocks that behave the same way. Can someone please explain why this is??

[trade247]

out by a factor of 100.

assume you missed that UK stocks trade in pence rather than pounds?

[Guest DanielaIG]

Hi @ChrisDrain, as @cryptotrader has mentioned, uk shares are traded in pence rather than pounds. Therefore you bought the share at £5.057 and if you had closed out at £5.15, it would have realised a gain of 9 pence per share, which amounts to a profit of £13 for 140 shares.

 

[andysinclair]

It might sound obvious but are you looking at the correct price, i.e. buy or sell price? If you are long then are you looking at the sell price (to close) versus the buy price (to open)?

Can you post a screenshot (with account details etc hidden)?

[Guest ChrisDrain]

Ah I knew it was something simple(and stupid on my behalf). I have increased position sizes by a factor of 100 to account for the pound/pence difference. Would have been nice to lock in the gains I thought I had though!. Thanks guys.