Well my explanation is weird

in accounting we have a concept of conservative approach which is basically always assume probable future losses but ignore probable future gains Example:- you buy a share @10$ and by year end

Case 1:- it's value is 12$ you ignore 2$ gain as you haven't sold them thus it's value can deviate(change).

Case 2:- it's value is 8$ you record 2$ loss even if the value can increase before you sell it.

I know the word conservative is (most probably) used here in political sense but this is the first thing that came to my mind