What do these example trades make or lose?
Seven illustrative trades on a USD account, computed with the calculator above.
| Trade | Pips | In quote currency | In USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1.00 EURUSD, 1.1000 → 1.1050 | +50 | +$500.00 | +$500.00 |
| Sell 0.10 EURUSD, 1.1000 → 1.1050 | −50 | −$50.00 | −$50.00 |
| Sell 0.50 USDJPY, 150.00 → 149.20 | +80 | +¥40,000 | +$268.10 |
| Buy 1.00 USDJPY, 150.00 → 151.00 | +100 | +¥100,000 | +$662.25 |
| Buy 1.00 EURGBP, 0.8600 → 0.8650 | +50 | +£500.00 | +$635.00 |
| Buy 0.10 XAUUSD, 4000.00 → 4012.50 | +125 | +$125.00 | +$125.00 |
| Buy 0.10 XAUUSD, 4000.00 → 3985.50, $0.70 commission | −145 | −$145.00 | −$145.70 net |
The conversions behind the table
Prices are illustrative; JPY profits convert at the exit price, EURGBP at a GBPUSD rate of 1.27, and gold uses a 100-ounce contract with 0.10 counted as a pip.
How do you work out profit and loss, step by step?
Move in your favour × contract × lots, converted to your account currency, minus costs.
The four steps, with EURUSD
1. The move in your favour. For a buy it is exit − entry; for a sell, entry − exit. A negative number is a loss. Divide it by the pip size to count pips: (1.1050 − 1.1000) ÷ 0.0001 = 50 pips.
2. Profit in the quote currency. Multiply the move by the contract size and the lots: 0.0050 × 100,000 × 1.00 = 500 USD on EURUSD, because USD is the quote currency.
3. Convert to your account currency. If the account is in the quote currency, you are done. If it is in the base currency, divide by the exit price. Otherwise multiply by the rate from the quote currency to your account currency.
4. Take off costs. Subtract commission and swap. The result equals pips × pip value at the exit price, which is how the pip value calculator and this page agree.
Why is a USDJPY profit divided by the exit price?
The profit is earned in yen and turned into dollars at the close: 100 pips on 1.00 lot is $714.29 at 140, $625.00 at 160.
The yen amount stays, the dollar amount moves
On USDJPY the profit is earned in yen, the quote currency. A USD account turns those yen into dollars when the trade closes, at the price then. A 100-pip gain on 1.00 lot is ¥100,000 whether the price ends at 140 or 160, but it is $714.29 at 140.00 and $625.00 at 160.00. The same applies to EURJPY and GBPJPY on a USD account, using USDJPY as the rate.
Which pip does the calculator count on gold?
0.10: a $12.50 move is 125 pips; the money does not depend on which pip you count.
Pip size, contract size and money
The XAUUSD preset counts 0.10 as a pip, so a $12.50 move is 125 pips. Change the pip size to 0.01 and the same move is 1,250 pips: the pip count changes, the money does not. With a 100-ounce contract, every $1.00 move is worth $100 on 1.00 lot, $10 on 0.10 lot and $1 on 0.01 lot. Check the contract size in your platform; some brokers use 1 or 10 ounces.
Where do spread, commission and swap go?
Fill prices already include the spread; chart prices do not, so add it to the costs.
Each cost, and where to enter it
The spread is the gap between the buy and sell price. A buy fills at the ask and closes at the bid, so if you enter the prices you were actually filled at, the spread is already counted. If you enter chart prices (usually bid), the spread is missing: add its money value to the costs. Commission is charged per lot by some account types, often on both opening and closing. Swap is the overnight financing charge or credit; enter a charge as a cost.
What can one trade's profit tell you?
Very little on its own: what matters is the average result over many trades, after costs.
Where to look instead
A profitable trade can come from a losing set of rules, and a loss can come from a good one. What matters is the average result over many trades after costs. The risk reward calculator shows the win rate a payoff needs to break even, and the expectancy calculator turns a record of wins and losses into an average per trade.