Related Terms • Profit • Securities • Stock

Definition: The profit made when a stock is sold.  To find the capital gains, take the price the shares were sold for subtracted by the price that were paid for them, and multiply by the number of shares.

Examples: If you bought 10 shares of a company for $5 a share [you paid $50], and sold those same shares a week later for $20 a share [$200 proceeds from sale], your capital gains were $150.