Börsenlexikon: Profit

In its general use, profit refers to the (positive) success of economic activity. Profit is the difference between income and expenditure and can also be expressed as profit for a period (profit in a specific accounting period) or as unit profit, i.e. profit per unit of output ("marginal profit"). Activities with which one can "earn profit" ( = "lucrate") are called "lucrative". The opposite is loss. The informative value of profit as a ratio is rather low as long as no reference is made to other variables, e.g. the amount of capital that was used to generate the profit. The informative value is also diminished by the fact that the reported profit mostly does not reflect the result of the actual business activity because legal provisions prevent this.