[kshacker]

Capital gain and losses are when you need to pay taxes. If you sold 100K of SPY that you bought for 10K actually, and bought it back (It is a gain so there is no wash sale) immediately, you need to pay taxes for $90K. This is just an exchange based on the comments I am reading.

[tensor]

No, capital gains are simply the amount you earn when selling capital for profit. They may be taxed, or may not be taxed, depending on the country or location they occurred in.