What Basis promises, and how its numbers work.
First, the things we’ll never do. Then, for anyone who wants to check our math, how the main numbers are worked out.
Our promises
- No trade ideas.Basis tracks the rules you set. It never tells you what to buy or sell, and it has no opinion of its own to sell you.
- No made-up numbers.If we don't know something, you'll see a dash and the reason why. Never a zero, never a guess.
- No hiding bad trades.Your history comes straight from your broker and can't be edited or deleted, so the trades you'd rather forget stay in.
- Closed and open stay separate.Money you've locked in and gains still on paper are different things, so we show them apart and never add them up.
- Deposits aren't gains.Money you add is taken out before we show any result or return.
- Every stat shows how many trades it's based on.A 90% win rate on 3 trades isn't the same as on 300, so the count is always there, with any caveat that comes with it.
- Your intentions come from you.Your Books, categories, targets and notes are yours. Basis saves them; it never guesses what you meant.
- Breaking your own rule still counts, even if it paid.If a trade broke one of your rules, Basis says so, whatever it made.
How the numbers work the three you see first
What everything in the accounts you picked is worth right now: your shares, plus options you bought, minus what it would cost to close options you sold, plus cash. Cash set aside for a put you sold still counts as cash, once.
Prices come from your broker's latest sync, with the time it ran. If something has no price, or the price is past its expiry, we say so next to the number instead of filling one in. Today's change only shows when all accounts are selected, so you're never comparing two different sets of accounts.
For each closed option trade, we take the money it tied up (the cash behind a put you sold, the shares behind a covered call, or what you paid for an option) and how many days it was tied up. Capital pace is your total profit divided by all that money-times-days, shown as a percent per month.
Because it adds everything up first, a two-day trade can't outweigh a two-month trade that used the same money. We never annualize a single trade. You'll always see how many trades it's based on, it isn't adjusted for risk, and it only shows once there are at least five closed trades and sixty capital-days.
Your result is how much your accounts grew between two dates, after taking out any money you added, withdrew or moved. We need a saved account value within a week of each date; if there isn't one, you'll see a dash and why.
It always splits into four parts that add up: closed options, stocks and open positions, dividends, and fees net of interest. Each part opens into the dated trades behind it. Anything based on an assumption is flagged and kept apart from the confirmed numbers.
Basis shows you what happened in your accounts. It’s not investment advice and never recommends a trade.