If you are in the right asset allocation, you will not panic and sell stocks during a market correction, thus converting unrealized losses into realized ones.
The museum's financial team was forced to reconfigure its $150 million investment portfolio after unrealized losses of $29.6 million in 2008 and $8.7 million in 2009.
Partially offsetting these items were net realized and unrealized losses on certain investments-related derivatives due to the flattening of the yield curve, noted above.
Revenues were down, however, due to an unrealized loss of $476,000 on proprietary investments versus a gain on investments of $62,000 in the prior year.
That is, two similar homeowners experiencing similar housing market conditions will behave differently if one of those homeowners has an unrealized loss on his or her house.