Mark to market accounting – What is mark to market accounting, significance and how to calculate?

Do you want to learn about the mark to market accounting method? In this post, we deep dive into the basics of mark to market accounting.

Mark to market accounting

Mark to market accounting is an accounting method that involves measuring the fair value of an asset or a liability that can fluctuate over time. The fair value can be assessed on the basis of current market conditions. In this article, we’ll learn more about mark to market accounting.

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What is mark to market accounting? 

Mark to market accounting means can be defined as recording the value of the balance sheet assets and liabilities at current market value. The reason behind mark to market accounting is to provide the real picture and the value is more relevant as compared to its past value. The aim is to provide a fair appraisal of the company’s financials.

The mark to market principle was largely adopted in the 20th century. Mark-to-market is a tool that can affect values on either side of the balance sheet depending on the market conditions. For example, the stocks held in an individual’s demat account are marked to market every day.

Why is mark to market accounting needed? 

The need for a method like mark to market accounting is to prevent market manipulations from happening. It ensures maximum transparency by fairly estimating the real value of an asset, a company’s financial situation, or an account at any given point of time.

Mark to market accounting was an alternative to the popular historical cost accounting methodology, where an asset’s cost was evaluated based on its original price. This method failed to provide the actual value of the asset in the current times as the information used was outdated and irrelevant to the current market scenario.

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How is marked-to-market calculated?

Mark to market profit and loss calculations help you understand how much profit or loss you incurred during a given period, regardless of whether the positions were open or closed. Marked to market calculations assume that all open positions and transactions are settled at the end of the day and new positions are opened the next day.

For the purpose of simplification, Marked to market calculations are split into:

1. Calculations for transactions during the statement period, referred to as tranaction MTM on the statement
2. Calculations for positions open at the beginning of any day, referred to as prior period MTM on the statement

• Marked to market Profit/Loss= Position MTM + Transaction MTM – Commissions
• Position Marked to market = (Current Closing Price – Prior Closing Price) x Prior Quantity x Multiplier
• Transaction Marked to market = (Current Closing Price – Trade Price) x Current Quantity x Multiplier

Advantages of mark to market accounting 

Mark to market accounting methodology has several advantages as compared to the previous historical cost accounting method,

• Reflects the actual value of an asset

The calculated asset value is genuine and informative as it is calculated based on the current market scenario. It doesn’t rely on historical or outdated data in any form.

• Reduces risk level

Mark to market accounting can alert a company whether its current state is good enough to justify investments or predict future performance.

• Beneficial for both the parties

Mark to market accounting brings benefits on both macro and micro level.

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Disadvantages of mark-to-market accounting

Like any other metric or methodology in the financial world, mark to market has its own flaws. While it successfully overcomes a lot of issues, it also falls short on some.

• Might produce inaccurate results during volatile periods

The higher the market fluctuation, the more distorted and unstable portfolio or asset value estimations are produced.

• Fails to contextualize information

This is not a major disadvantage but mark to market accounting cannot tell how the price at the closing bell was formed.

• Momentum dependency

Momentum dependency can harm valuations during economic distress such as low liquidity, economic downturns, etc.

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Mark to market example

Let us look at some of the mark to market accounting examples to understand it better,

1. Let’s assume there are two parties who are agreeing to enter a contract over 30 bales of cotton at $150 per bale with a 6-month maturity period. It takes the value of security to $4500 ($150 * 30). At the end of the next trading day, the prices per bale increases to $155. The trader in a long position will collect $150 from a trader in a short position [$155 – $150]. If the situation is reversed, the trader in the short position will collect from the trader in the long position.
2. Another example is of a farmer who is anticipating the increase in price of apples. The farmer considers taking a long position in 20 apple contracts on a particular day. Assuming each contract represents 10 bushels, the farmer is heading against a price of 200 bushels of apples. Let’s say the price of one contract is $5 on that day, the account of the farmer will be credited with $10,000. Now the farmer will either make profit or loss depending on the change in price everyday.
3. Available for sale is the most common example of mark to market accounting. Such an asset can either be in the form of debt or equity purchased to sell the securities before it reaches its maturity. In cases of securities which do not have maturity, these securities will be sold before a long period for which these securities are generally held.

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Mark to market accounting Enron collapse

During the 1990s, Enron exploited a loophole in the mark to market accounting method to skyrocket its natural gas business profits. The Enron mark to market method misled investors and allowed Enron to continue operating its business on a non-existent budget. Enron accounting method enabled deception that let Enron book more revenue than they were actually earning. It also helped them keep losses and debt out of their balance sheets.

All this structure became so twisted that no one pieced together the dependencies between Enron’s deals. The mark to market accounting method distortions by Enron hid the true nature of the problems brewing underneath. And once the stock prices fell, Enron began to crumble.

In order to minimize losses, banks asked for return of collateral but Enron didn’t have it. Ultimately Enron had to file for bankruptcy and the Enron mark to market accounting strategy had failed.

Mark to market losses

Mark to market losses are the losses generated due to an accounting entry error rather than the actual sale of a security. Mark to market losses can occur when the assets are valued at the current market value. Several assets are revalued at the new market price after they experience a price decline from their original cost leading to mark to market loss.

A mark to market accounting loss is similar to a paper loss, the holder doesn’t experience any capital loss in both the cases, as the assets have not been actually sold.

A real example of mark to market losses was during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The equity and real estate market went into a free fall. All the banks had to revalue their books to reflect the current prices of their assets at that time, resulting in a significant mark to market loss.

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What is fair value adjustment journal entry?

An accounting adjustment is required in case of any increase or decrease in the fair value of held-for-trading security. An accountant achieves this by debiting an increase or crediting a decrease in the fair-value change to an account called ‘securities fair value adjustment’, which is a sub-account of the asset account for trading securities. Journal entries are made to record the increase in the fair value of a financial asset, or the decrease in the fair value of a financial liability. Another entry is made to recognize the tax implications caused due to the fair value gain or loss.

What is the mark to market futures?

In securities trading, the price or value of security, account, or portfolio is recorded as part of the mark to marketing accounting to reflect the current market value instead of the book value. This record is generally maintained in a futures account to ensure that margin requirements are being met satisfactorily. Daily marketing to market reduces counterparty risk for the investors in Futures contracts.

Mark to market futures indirectly reduce credit risk by ensuring that at the end of any trading day, after the daily settlements are made, there will not be any outstanding obligations.

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Differentiate futures vs fair value 

Futures indicate where the market will be heading towards over the next few sessions, whereas fair value is the futures rate before the market opening adjusts for purchasing shares at the opening. Fair value is the cost of buying shares based on the value of the stock market futures that expire at the next expiry date.

Investors expect the market to rise, when futures are higher than the fair value, whereas if the futures value is lower compared to fair value, the market is likely to fall on opening. Futures rate changes as soon as trading commences.

Megha Goel

Megha is a content writer with sharp technical skills, owing to her past experience in networking and telecom domains. She focuses on various topics including productivity, remote work, people management, technology, market trends, and workspace collaboration.