paper profit
1
5.1
- noun
- /ˈpeɪpər ˈprɒfɪt/
- Specialized
:
ganancia no realizada
- The SEC and the Justice Department story is that he bought a lot of stock to make the stock go up, so we'd have paper profits to plow into buying more of the same stock.
- paper profit of several million
- big paper profit
Examples
-
I did not vote for a man whose vision of the free market in America rests on spreadsheets and the maximization of "value" for passive investors who make nothing but paper profits.
Blog text (2) -
Bank South's stock closed Friday at $30 on Nasdaq, giving Williams a paper profit of more than $1.7 million on those shares.
-
Mom and Dad lose millions in paper profits they've never had a chance to enjoy.
Fiction book (1995) -
That means investors lucky enough to get in at the offering price were able to book an immediate paper profit of more than 100 percent or "flip" shares and cash in.
Blog text (10) -
"I did not vote for a man whose vision of the free market in America rests on spreadsheets and the maximization of 'value' for passive investors who make nothing but paper profits."
Blog text (20) -
Mr. Buffett's investment in the bank has generated a paper profit of about $13 billion, The Journal calculates.
-
Mundy is advising her clients with paper profits to take some now.
Antonyms
- Specialized
1
6.1
A fall in an investment's value that is only on paper because you have not sold it
How Real
- Specialized
1
6.0
- Specialized
140
5.4
- Specialized
559
2.3
- Specialized
1
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The word 'profit' is transparent but 'paper' here is used metaphorically (as in 'on paper' or 'in accounting records'), so the full sense 'an unrealized gain' requires recognizing that metaphorical use. A B1 learner who only knows the literal meanings of 'paper' and 'profit' would likely get a general sense of a profit related to records but not reliably infer the specific financial meaning of an unrealized gain.
Etymology
The term paper profit comes from the idea of a profit that exists only on paper, written in an account or shown by a price but not turned into real money. So it means 'an increase in value you have not made real by selling'.