# Cryptocurrency Portfolios

## Picking the Right Portfolio Type

There are two types of portfolios available on Live Coin Watch - **Quick Portfolios** and **Advanced Portfolios**. You can create _as many_ **Advanced Portfolios** as you like, but only one **Quick Portfolio** per user (for now...).

### But which one is right for you?

#### Quick Portfolios

If you're only interested in seeing the total value of your portfolio, then a **Quick Portfolio** is a simple solution to begin tracking your coins in just a few minutes. All you have to do is enter the coins you hold and how many - that's it! With just a few clicks you can begin tracking your portfolio value, complete with historical charts and a handy treemap to visualize your portfolio.

#### Advanced Portfolios

If you want to mimic your activity on exchanges as closely as possible, then **Advanced Portfolios** are for you. Log each individual transaction and we'll aggregate them in real-time to calculate profit, plot your trade history, and more! **Advanced Portfolios** offer all the functionality of **Quick Portfolios** _plus_ you can track transaction fees, dates, and P&L.

And don't forget there's no reason you have to choose just one! You can create a new portfolio at any time. Simply navigate to the portfolio page, click the dropdown on the top left, and select **Create New Portfolio**.

## The rest of this guide refers to **Advanced Portfolios**

## Transaction Types

Before creating an **Advanced Portfolio** we have to first understand the different transactions that are available. There are six types of transactions, broken down into three groups:

### **Deposit** and **Withdraw** Transactions

Use these transactions to add and remove coins to and from your portfolio. **Deposit** transactions should be used to track your investments, while **Withdraw** transactions should be used when cashing out gains. When you create a new **Advanced Portfolio**, you will be prompted to enter your initial holdings. The currencies you enter here will serve as your first deposit transactions, but you can always add more later.

### **Buy** and **Sell** Transactions

These transactions should be used for all trades. **Buy** and **Sell** transactions will deduct the currency you sold from your portfolio and add to the currency you purchased. In addition to quantity and market rate, you may also include an optional fee that will be deducted. Fees can either be **fixed** (such as **2.50 USD**) or a **percentage** (such as **0.5%**).

### **Reward** Transactions

Use these transactions any time you receive coins for free. For each **Reward** transaction, you may enter a source. This can be as specific as "Uniswap Airdrop" or as general as "Staking". These transactions are similar to **Deposit** transactions with one major distinction. That is, while **Deposit** transactions are counted as _investments_, these transactions are counted as pure _profit_.

It helps to imagine these transactions directly reflecting your activity on an exchange. First, you **deposit** funds onto the exchange of your choice. Next, you use these funds to **buy** another coin. Then once you have enough to buy that lambo, you **withdraw** funds to make the purchase.

## Buy / Sell Input Types

There are two ways to record your **Buy** and **Sell** transactions - **Rate** and **Quantity**. Unless you're an experienced trader and know exactly how these rates are calculated, it is recommended that you select **Quantity**.

### Using **Quantity**

When **Quantity** is selected, you enter the number of coins you sold and the number of coins you received from a trade. Our system will then automatically calculate the market rate for you.

### Using **Rate**

When **Rate** is selected, you enter the quantity of coins either purchased or sold (depending on whether this is a **Buy** or **Sell** transaction), and the market rate of the trade. The market rate is the price ratio of the **base** currency (the first in the pair) to the **quote** currency (the last in the pair). That is to say, the market rate is the number of **quote** coins needed to equal one **base** coin. You can follow this simple formula to help visualize their relationship:

Base Quantity

x

Rate

=

Quote Quantity

## Total Profit Calculations

**Advanced Portfolios** calculate profit by taking the current value of your portfolio and subtracting your initial investment. In other words, profit is your portfolio value **minus** the sum of all **deposit** transactions. Note that tokens that have been **withdrawn** from your portfolio will no longer be factored into your profit, and **rewards** are counted as pure profit.

Profit

=

Total Value

—

Σ

Deposits

## Individual Profit Calculations

**Advanced Portfolios** can also track the individual profits and losses of each token you hold. Click the **Profit** button above the **Holdings** table to bring up your profit manager. The are three columns you can toggle from this menu - **Average Buy**, **Unrealized Profit**, and **Total Profit**.

### **Avg Buy**

This is the cost basis for the tokens you _currently_ hold. Once tokens are sold, the prices you paid for them are no longer considered when calculating this value. You may select one of the following alogrithms to customize which tokens are sold off first.

### **FIFO** \- First In First Out

Using this method, the first tokens you purchased (according to the dates in your transactions), are the first to be sold. This is the most common approach and the most widely accepted internationally.

### **FILO** \- First In Last Out

This technique is the exact opposite of **FIFO** \- the first tokens you purchased are the last to be sold.

### **HIFO** \- Highest In First Out

Finally, using this option will sell off the most expensive tokens you purchased first. This method typically leads to the _highest_ unrealized profits but the _lowest_ taxes.

### **Unrealized Profit**

These are your **current** profits, omitting any tokens that have already been sold. This field is calculated by taking your current holdings and subtracting the **Avg Buy** value previously explained.

### **Total Profit**

This is the lifetime profit of all the tokens you have traded in this portfolio. This value represents the **sum** of your **realized** and **unrealized** profit.

## Fees

When creating **Buy** and **Sell** transactions you can choose to include an optional fee. Fees are applied _in addition_ to the inputs above. After selecting a fee, the calculated **base** and **quote** quantities (after the fee is applied) will be displayed beneath. Not all exchanges handle fees the same way, so we give you the ability to select both fee type (either a **percentage** or a **fixed** rate) in addition to a fee currency. This allows you to deduct the fees from either the currency being purchased or the currency being sold.

## Since Trade Column

Directly to the right of the **Price** column in the **Transactions Table** is a column titled **Since Trade**. This column shows the difference between the market rate you logged in this transaction and the current rate of the market pair. Note that in this column the values will be colored 🟢 **green** if the transaction was beneficial to you, and 🔴 **red** if it was detrimental. For example, if you sold **1 BTC** and the price has since dropped by 20% (not a bear, just an example!) this column will show 🟢20%▼. The same goes for **Withdraw** transactions.

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and we'll be happy to help!