Notion Formulas for Portfolio TrackingP&L, Total Value, Allocation & More
A complete reference for the Notion Formula properties that make an investment or crypto tracker actually useful. All formulas below work with Pulsn keeping your prices current — just copy, paste, and adapt to your property names.
What you’ll need
- ✓A Notion database set up as a portfolio tracker (see the setup guide if you haven't done this yet)
- ✓Pulsn connected and syncing live prices into your Current Price property
- ✓Number properties for: Current Price, Units Held, and Avg Buy Price
Haven’t set up your database yet? Start with the investment tracker setup guide →
Recommended database schema
Here’s the full property set that supports all the formulas in this guide. The first three Number properties are your inputs — everything else is calculated.
| Property | Type | Role | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Title | Input | Name of the coin or asset |
| Current Price | Number | Input (Pulsn) | Auto-filled by Pulsn from CoinGecko |
| Units Held | Number | Input (manual) | How many coins or tokens you own |
| Avg Buy Price | Number | Input (manual) | Your average purchase price |
| Total Value | Formula | Calculated | Current Price × Units Held |
| Cost Basis | Formula | Calculated | Avg Buy Price × Units Held |
| P&L | Formula | Calculated | Unrealized gain/loss in dollars |
| P&L % | Formula | Calculated | Gain/loss as % of cost basis |
| Direction | Formula | Calculated | ▲ Gain / ▼ Loss indicator |
The formulas
In Notion, add a Formula property, then paste the formula below into the formula editor. Property names are case-sensitive — make sure they match exactly.
Total Value
Current market value of your position.
Formula
Requires
Note: Format as currency in Notion property settings.
Cost Basis
Total amount you originally invested in this position.
Formula
Requires
Note: Useful for seeing how much capital is tied up per position.
P&L
Unrealized profit or loss in absolute terms.
Formula
Requires
Note: Negative values mean you're currently at a loss.
P&L %
Unrealized profit or loss as a percentage of your cost basis.
Formula
Requires
Note: Format as Number with 2 decimal places, add a "%" suffix in Notion.
Direction
Visual indicator of whether your position is up or down.
Formula
Requires
Note: Useful for sorting or filtering by performance at a glance.
Break-Even Price
The price at which your position would be exactly break-even (same as Avg Buy Price — useful as an explicit reference column).
Formula
Requires
Note: Optional — some people like having this as an explicit reference column.
Portfolio allocation %
Calculating what percentage of your total portfolio each asset represents requires knowing the sum of all Total Values — which Notion formulas can’t do across rows directly. The workaround uses a Rollup.
Create a Portfolio summary database
Create a second, single-row Notion database called "Portfolio Summary". Add a Relation property that links to your main investment database, then add a Rollup that sums the Total Value property across all linked rows. This gives you your total portfolio value.
Relate your assets to the summary
In your main investment database, add a Relation property pointing to the Portfolio Summary database and link every asset row to the single summary row.
Pull the total back via Rollup
Add a Rollup property in your main database that pulls the Total Portfolio Value from the Summary row. Now each asset row has access to the portfolio total.
Calculate allocation with a formula
This is more complex to set up, but it’s the most accurate way to get allocation percentages in Notion. An alternative is to manually enter your total portfolio value into a Number property and use that as the divisor — simpler, but requires updating it manually.
Tips for working with Notion formulas
Property names are case-sensitive
If your property is named "current price" (lowercase), the formula must use prop("current price") — not "Current Price". Notion will show an error if names don't match exactly.
Format your Number properties
In Notion, click a Number property's settings and set the format to Currency (for Total Value, Cost Basis, P&L) or Percent (for allocation). This makes the dashboard much more readable.
Handle empty values to avoid formula errors
If Units Held or Avg Buy Price are empty on a row, formulas may return 0 or show an error. Wrap with a guard if needed: if(prop("Units Held") == 0, 0, prop("Current Price") * prop("Units Held"))
Sort by P&L to see your best performers
In Notion table view, click the P&L column header and sort descending. Your most profitable positions will appear at the top — a quick daily check.
Live prices make formulas actually useful
A P&L formula is only as useful as the Current Price behind it. Pulsn keeps that property updated automatically — so your Total Value and P&L numbers reflect reality, not yesterday's prices.
Get live prices into your formulas
These formulas only work well when Current Price updates automatically. Connect Pulsn for free — no credit card required.
Connect Notion for free →