Mark-to-Market
a.k.a. MTM, Mark To Market
Valuing a position at today's market price instead of the price you paid, so your account shows what it is really worth right now.
Mark-to-market means re-pricing everything you hold at the current market price. Your broker does it constantly: every tick, your open trades are revalued and your equity goes up or down with them. That is why you can watch an unrealized loss grow in real time, even though you have not closed anything.
It is brutally honest accounting. You cannot pretend a trade is fine because "it will come back"; the screen shows what you would get if you closed it this second. Futures exchanges do the same thing at the end of every day and move cash between winners and losers.
Keep this word for good
Your free Private Swap Lounge saves the terms you’ve learned and quizzes you on them. Portal under construction. Expected delivery date is December 01, 2026.