actuals

An accountant's word that only makes sense beside its opposite. Actuals are measured against projections, budgets or forecasts, and the gap between the two is the variance. The word is almost always plural and is often marked by period, as in prior-year actuals or March actuals. The comparison usually carries the sentence: projections run above or below actuals, and actuals come in over or under budget.

A plural that does more work than its singular. The countable noun actual, meaning real receipts as against estimated ones, takes an -s naturally, and that is the ground the accounting sense grows from. The uncountable actual, meaning reality, usually comes with the definite article as the actual and does not pluralize. When you see actuals, read it as figures or things, not as reality.

Traders use the word to separate the thing from the paper. Actuals are the goods or instruments themselves, while futures are contracts written on them, and the same market also calls actuals physicals. A futures position can end with someone taking delivery of the actuals, and the two prices need not match. Do not confuse this with the accounting sense, where actuals are recorded results rather than goods.