An unrealized gain or loss is what happens when the value of something you invested in goes up or down, but you haven’t sold it yet.

In investing terms:

• Unrealized gains or losses happen when you still own the investment.
• An unrealized gain means your investment is worth more than what you paid.
• An unrealized loss means your investment is worth less than what you paid.
• These are sometimes called “paper gains/losses” because they only exist on paper until you sell.

Unrealized gains or losses are based on the cost information that our (U.S. Bank) investments team has in our system. This information might be different from what you have, or it might be missing, especially if we don’t know how much you paid for something.

For example, if you buy 100 shares of a company called ABC at $10 each, you can watch how the value changes over time. If the price goes up or down, you’ll see an unrealized gain or loss—but only on paper, because you haven’t sold it yet.

A realized gain or loss happens when you sell an investment and actually make or lose money. That means the deal is finished, and the gain or loss becomes real.

In investing terms:

• A realized gain or loss happens when you sell the investment.
• A realized gain means you sold something for more than you paid.
• A realized loss means you sold something for less than you paid.
• These gains or losses can affect your taxes because they’re considered real money changes.

Realized gains or losses are based on how much you paid for an investment, which is the cost information our investments team keeps on file. This information might be different from your own records or might be missing, especially if we don’t know how much you paid.

For example, if you sell 100 shares of ABC for $12 each, and you bought them for $10 each, you’ve made a realized gain of $2 per share.