Forex profit and loss calculator
Enter where you got in, where you got out and how big the position was. This returns the move in pips and what it is worth in your account currency.
Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, stored, or logged.
Profit = pips gained × pip value. A 60-pip winner on 0.5 lots of EUR/USD in a dollar account is 60 × $5 = $300 gross, before commission and swap.
Key takeaways
- For a long, pips = exit − entry. For a short, pips = entry − exit. Getting this backwards is the most common arithmetic error in trade journals.
- The result here is gross. Commission is charged per lot each way and swap accrues nightly on held positions.
- Expressing the result as a percentage of the account is far more useful than the cash figure. It is the only version comparable across account sizes.
- Run the numbers before entering. If the reward at your target does not justify the risk at your stop, the trade is a decision you can skip.
How the calculation works
Two steps. First convert the price move into pips by dividing by the pip size. 0.0001 for most pairs, 0.01 for yen pairs, 0.1 for gold. Then multiply by the pip value for your position size, which depends on the contract size and your account currency.
P&L = ((Exit − Entry) ÷ Pip size) × Pip value × Direction
Direction is +1 for a long and −1 for a short. Everything else is mechanical.
What the arithmetic will not tell you is whether the trade was good. A trade that hit its target for +$300 and a trade that ran to +$300 after you moved the stop three times are the same number and completely different decisions. This is why journals record the plan alongside the outcome.
The costs the gross number hides
Three costs sit between the calculated figure and what reaches your balance:
- Spread. You enter at the unfavourable side of the quote, so a trade starts marginally negative. On a 0.8-pip spread that is $8 per standard lot, charged immediately.
- Commission. Raw-spread accounts charge separately, commonly $3.50 per lot per side, $7 round-trip on a standard lot.
- Swap. Positions held past the broker's rollover accrue an overnight financing charge or credit, depending on the interest differential between the two currencies and the broker's markup. Wednesday is usually charged triple to cover the weekend.
On a scalp these are a large fraction of the result. On a multi-week swing trade the swap alone can exceed the spread many times over. Cashback programmes rebate part of the spread and commission. The cashback calculator shows what that is worth at your volume.
The same calculators are inside the MarketPro app
MarketPro ships position size, pip value, margin, profit, risk-to-reward and compounding calculators alongside the signal feed, so you can size a trade on the same screen you read it on. Download free. Vetted free signals every week, no card needed.
Forex profit and loss calculator: questions
How do I calculate profit on a short trade?
Why is my broker P&L different from this?
What is a good profit per trade?
Size the trade, then take the trade
MarketPro publishes every signal with an explicit entry, stop and take-profit levels, which is what makes these calculations possible before you click. Start with the free weekly signals.
Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.