Realised vs unrealised PnL, and why it matters
Two wallets can show the same profit on a leaderboard and be completely different traders. One sold. The other is holding a number that exists only until someone else sells.
Profit on a leaderboard looks like one number. It is often two, added together: what a wallet has sold at a gain, and what it is holding at a gain right now. The first is a fact. The second is an opinion held by the market, and on memecoins the market changes its mind quickly.
The two numbers
| Realised | Unrealised | |
|---|---|---|
| Comes from | Positions that were sold | Positions still held |
| Can it change? | No | Every second |
| Includes the exit? | Yes | No |
| Can it be inflated? | Hard to | Easily |
Why unrealised is fragile on memecoins
Unrealised profit values a position at the last traded price. That assumes you could sell the whole position at that price. On a pump.fun coin you usually cannot:
- Your own sell moves the price. On a bonding curve or a thin pool, selling a large position pushes the price down as you sell. The displayed value is what the first token would fetch, not all of them.
- Others may sell first. If several large holders want out, the ones who sell first get the price. The rest get what is left.
- Coins die. Most pump.fun coins go to near zero. Unrealised profit on a coin that is fading is a number with an expiry date.
A wallet holding a large bag of a coin it bought early can show a big unrealised profit that it could never actually collect. That is not dishonest. It is just not a record of trading skill.
Why realised is the better signal
Realised profit includes the hardest part of trading memecoins: getting out. A wallet with strong realised profit over many positions has shown that it can sell into strength, repeatedly. That is the skill you want when you copy, because you will be copying its sells too.
How to read a wallet's numbers
- Look at realised first. On the leaderboard, compare wallets on realised profit.
- Check how it was made. Many positions, or one? Realised profit from one coin is still one lucky trade.
- Look at what is still open. A wallet with a huge unrealised figure is carrying risk. If you copy it now, you are not copying the gain it already has.
- Check more than one window. See the leaderboard's three clocks.
Your own PnL works the same way
When you copy, you have both kinds too: gains on coins you sold, and the current value of coins you still hold. Treat your own unrealised figure with the same suspicion. A take profit level that sells part of a position on the way up turns some of it into the kind that cannot disappear. See stop loss and take profit on memecoins.
The short version
Realised is what happened. Unrealised is what might. When you pick a wallet to copy, select on realised profit, spread across many positions, over more than one window. For the rest of the method, see which pump.fun traders are worth copying.
Frequently asked
What is realised PnL?
Profit or loss from positions that were actually closed. You bought, you sold, the difference is realised. It cannot change after the fact.
What is unrealised PnL?
The profit or loss on positions you still hold, valued at the current price. It moves with the market, and on memecoins it can shrink to nothing if the price falls or there is no one to sell to.
Which should I use to pick a wallet to copy?
Realised. It shows what a wallet actually managed to turn into profit, including the hard part, selling. Unrealised figures can be inflated by coins that cannot be sold at the displayed price.
Does the pump.fun leaderboard use realised PnL?
pump.fun's leaderboard can rank on realised profit or on a figure that also counts open positions, depending on the view. When you compare wallets, make sure you are looking at the realised figure.
Stop being the exit. Copytrade the insiders.
Pick a wallet from the public pump.fun leaderboard, set your size and a cap, and every buy and sell they make is copied to your wallet.
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