Income recognition date
The moment income counts as received for tax: it is fixed by trade settlement and by the crediting of a payment, not by the date of your decision or of your order.
How to read the number
It decides which year the result lands in: a trade in the last days of December can settle in the following tax period.
When the metric lies
A plan to sell this year in order to offset a loss breaks against the settlement cycle. The rules assigning income to a period are set by the tax code and change with the law.
Also known as: date income is recognised