Skip to content

CFDs are leveraged products. CFD trading may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your deposits, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved. CFDs are leveraged products. CFD trading may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your deposits, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

Capital loss definition

When a trader sells an asset at a lower price than they initially paid for it, they have incurred a capital loss. As such, capital loss is the opposite of capital gain: the profit made when an asset is sold for more than originally paid.

Capital loss occurs when the drop in price of an asset is realised by a trader: in other words, when they sell the asset for less than they bought it. When a financial asset’s price has moved lower than the price initially paid it has not yet incurred a loss, as that only happens when the trader executes the sale.

For example, buying $4000 of Singtel stock then selling after it has dropped to $3000 would incur a capital loss of $1000. If you held onto the stock at $3000 and it returned to $4000, though, no capital loss would be realised and the trade would be even.

Visit our shares section

Find some shares to trade here.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - Y

See all glossary trading terms

Contact us

Support line is available 24hrs a day from 8am GMT Saturday to 10pm GMT Friday

+65 6390 5118

You can also email us helpdesk@ig.com.sg