FX Spot Revaluation Types

Balance Sheet Reval nets out entirely, which is why it is sometimes referred to as "Non-FX Reval": its purpose is to true up the balance sheet's own currency translation rather than to recognise any gain or loss on an open FX position. It sits apart from the other two types precisely because it produces no Realised or Unrealised Gain/Loss entry of its own.

Position Account Reval applies to settled FX – cash that has already moved – and posts its revaluation result to Realised Gain/Loss. Once FX has settled, any further movement in the underlying rate before the position is next revalued is a genuine, crystallised gain or loss rather than a mark-to-market estimate, which is why this type posts to the realised rather than the unrealised side of the ledger.

Forward Position Reval applies to unsettled FX – a forward position that has not yet reached its settlement date – and posts to Unrealised Gain/Loss using a reverse-replace posting of the mark-to-market value in transactional currency. Because the underlying FX has not settled, its revaluation result is still an estimate rather than a realised outcome, and the reverse-replace mechanic ensures each day's posting supersedes the previous day's rather than accumulating alongside it.

Settled and unsettled FX read, from a trader's perspective, as the same thing – exposure to a currency pair that needs revaluing – but they carry genuinely different accounting treatment: a settled position's revaluation is a realised fact, an unsettled position's is still an estimate subject to further change before settlement. The three-way split lets the ledger apply the correct treatment automatically as a position moves from unsettled (Forward Position Reval) to settled (Position Account Reval), without requiring any manual reclassification at the moment settlement actually occurs.