The Unsold Orchard: A Forex Fable About Unrealised Profit

When autumn arrived, Elias’s orchard was heavy with golden pears. He had spent one hundred silver coins growing and harvesting the crop, and the baskets now stood ready in his storehouse.

Each morning, a messenger brought prices from the town market. On Monday, buyers were paying enough to value his harvest at one hundred and sixty coins.

Elias wrote a large “60” in his ledger.

“That is my profit,” he told his daughter, Rose. “We can finally replace the kitchen roof.”

Rose looked inside the money box. It held only a few small coins.

“Has someone bought the pears?”

“Not yet,” Elias said. “But that is what they are worth.”

The next morning, the market price rose again. Elias crossed out sixty and wrote seventy. He chose tiles for the roof and asked the carpenter when work could begin.

“Shall I send a cart to collect the payment?” the carpenter asked.

“Come back after market day,” Elias replied.

Before Elias took his pears to town, wagons arrived from the valley beyond the hills. Their baskets were full, and the market stalls soon had more fruit than buyers wanted.

The messenger’s next price valued Elias’s harvest at one hundred and twenty coins.

Elias stared at his ledger.

“Fifty coins gone overnight,” he murmured.

Rose lifted the lid of the money box.

“But no coins have left here.”

On Friday, Elias took the harvest to market. He agreed to sell the whole crop for one hundred and twenty coins. After paying five coins for transport and the market stall, he brought home one hundred and fifteen.

He set aside the hundred coins he had spent on the crop. Fifteen remained.

That evening, he opened his ledger again. Beside the changing figures, he wrote two new headings: “Estimated Gain” and “Gain After Sale and Costs.”

Then he visited the carpenter.

“I have fifteen coins available from this harvest,” he said. “Please tell me what repairs that will cover.”

What the Story Means for Forex Traders

Unrealised profit or loss is the changing gain or loss on an open position, calculated using current market prices. It affects account equity, but the amount can change while the position remains open.

Realised profit or loss results when all or part of that position is closed. The execution price determines the result for the portion closed; commissions, financing charges and other applicable costs must also be accounted for.

Closing a position and withdrawing money are separate events. A realised gain is not necessarily the same as the amount immediately available to withdraw.

One Investor Check

Open your account statement and reconcile balance, equity, open-position profit or loss, and available withdrawal funds. Check the platform’s definitions and included charges so you can distinguish a changing valuation from a realised result and from money available for withdrawal.

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