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You shorted a stock, made money, and the Return % in TraderSync is not the number you worked out. Nothing is wrong with your data: a percentage needs something to divide by, and one setting decides what that is for your short trades. The dollar profit never changes, only the percentage.
Why it happens
A short trade has two sides: the orders you sold to open it, and the orders you bought to close it. Return % on Short (Settings > Trades) picks which side the percentage is measured against:
- Switched off (the default): the return is divided by the cost of your buy orders.
- Switched on: the return is divided by the cost of your sell orders.
Long trades are not affected. When you flip the switch, TraderSync recalculates your trades.
An example
You short 100 shares of XYZ at $50, so your sell orders are $5,000. You buy them back at $40, so your buy orders are $4,000. The trade makes +$1,000 (illustrative, before fees).
| Return % on Short | Divided by | Return % | P&L |
|---|---|---|---|
| Off (default) | Buy orders, $4,000 | +1,000 / 4,000 = +25% | +$1,000 |
| On | Sell orders, $5,000 | +1,000 / 5,000 = +20% | +$1,000 |
Same trade, same +$1,000, two honest percentages. If you expected 20% because you were thinking about what you sold, the switch is off and TraderSync is measuring against what you bought back.
How to make them match
- You want the percentage measured against what you sold: switch Return % on Short on.
- You want it measured against what you bought back: leave it off.
- Some trades keep the sell side either way: a short you have not closed yet (it has no buy orders), crypto shorts, and option trades are measured against the sell side (the opening cost) whatever the switch says.
To change the setting, follow How to change the short trade percentage calculation. It saves as soon as you flip the switch.
