Most brokerage statements get the same treatment as a utility bill. You glance at the total, see whether it went up or down, and file it. That’s a shame, because the statement is the one document that shows what your broker is actually doing with your money and what it’s charging you for the privilege.

I was a licensed stock broker in the 1990s and I still trade every week. Most of what matters on a statement sits past the first page. Here is how to read yours, section by section, and the handful of lines where money tends to leak out.

The account summary

The first page is the account summary. It shows your beginning value and ending value for the period, deposits and withdrawals, and the change in value. The useful habit here is to separate the money you added from the money the account made. If your account rose by $10,000 but you deposited $8,000 that month, the investments contributed $2,000. Plenty of people mistake new deposits for performance, especially in accounts with automatic contributions.

Compare this period against the same period last year if your broker shows it. A summary that only ever goes up while you keep adding money can hide a portfolio that isn’t doing much.

Holdings, cost basis and unrealized gains

The holdings section lists each position with its quantity, current value, cost basis and unrealized gain or loss. Cost basis is what you paid, and it’s the number your tax bill depends on when you sell. Check that it’s filled in for every position. After a transfer between brokers, confirm the cost basis came across.

Unrealized gains and losses are paper results on positions you still hold. In a taxable account, they are worth reviewing before year end. A position sitting at a loss may be a candidate for tax-loss harvesting, subject to the 30-day wash-sale rule. For positions near the one-year mark, the holding period matters, since long-term rates are lower than short-term rates; a tax adviser can weigh it for your situation.

Activity and income

The activity section records every buy, sell, dividend and interest payment during the period. Read it against your own memory. Every trade should be one you placed or authorized. In an advised account, a long list of trades you didn’t ask for is a red flag: high turnover can generate costs without any clear benefit to you.

The income summary totals dividends and interest for the period and year to date. It’s a quick way to see what your portfolio pays you in cash, and to notice when a holding cuts its dividend.

The cash sweep: where idle money goes

This is the line I’d check first. Any cash you haven’t invested gets swept somewhere, and the statement shows where and what it earns. At some brokers the default is a bank sweep paying close to nothing. Schwab’s standard bank sweep has been reported at about 0.01%. Money market funds have been paying around 3.5%; Fidelity’s SPAXX showed a 3.49% seven-day yield on October 8, 2026.

The difference adds up fast. Leave $50,000 in cash for a year at 0.01% and you earn about $5. At 3.5% you earn about $1,750. If your statement shows a sweep rate measured in hundredths of a percent, look for a money market option. At most brokers, moving cash into one takes a few clicks. BrokerNimble’s margin and cash yield table shows what each broker pays on idle cash.

Margin balance and interest charged

If you have a margin account and have borrowed, the statement shows a debit balance and the margin interest charged for the period. Interest is charged daily, so it can build quietly if you don’t check.

Many statements don’t show the rate itself, but you can work it out. Divide the margin interest by your average debit balance. If you paid $3,050 in interest over a year on an average debit of $25,000, $3,050 divided by $25,000 is 12.2%. That’s E*TRADE’s published rate at that size. At Public, which publishes 5.15% for a $25,000 balance, the same loan would cost about $1,290 for the year. I covered this gap at length in Your Broker May Be Charging You Double to Borrow.

Sometimes a debit shows up that you didn’t intend, because a purchase settled before the cash arrived. In a margin account that’s a loan, and it accrues interest from the first day.

Fees, the visible ones and the invisible ones

The fee lines show what your broker charged directly. Look for margin interest, advisory or management fees, and smaller charges such as transfer, inactivity and paper statement fees. Any fee you can’t explain deserves a phone call, and it’s always worth asking whether a fee can be waived.

Some costs never appear as a line item. Fund expense ratios are taken inside the fund, so they reduce your returns without showing up on the statement. Payment for order flow, which some brokers receive for routing your orders, isn’t on the statement either. To see those costs, check each fund’s expense ratio and your broker’s order-routing disclosures.

Tax forms

Your statement feeds your tax forms. Brokers send 1099s early in the year, and corrected 1099s are common. If you like to file early, check your account for a corrected form before you send your return, and reconcile the totals against your year-end statement.

A quick red-flag checklist

  • A sweep rate near zero while money market funds pay several percent.
  • Margin interest you didn’t expect, or a rate well above what other brokers publish.
  • Fees you can’t identify, including inactivity or paper charges.
  • Heavy trading in an advised account that you didn’t request.
  • Missing cost basis on any position, especially after a transfer.

If you recently moved accounts, compare your first statement at the new firm against your last one at the old firm. Every position, every share count and every cost basis figure should match. My guide to moving a brokerage account covers what to do if something is missing.

When the statement says it’s time to move

If your statement shows a near-zero sweep and a double-digit margin rate, you have two options. Call your broker and ask for a better rate, with a competitor’s number in hand. Or start comparing. The seven questions I use to choose a broker are a good place to begin, and my full guide to choosing and using a broker covers everything else that changed this year.

Disclosure: Peter Agro runs BrokerNimble.com, an independent broker comparison site that plans to join broker affiliate programs and may earn referral fees in the future. Figures were checked in October 2026 and change often; confirm current terms with the provider. This article is for information only and is not investment, tax or legal advice.