To calculate profit on a forex or gold trade, multiply the pips the trade gained by the pip value of one lot and by your lot size. On EUR/USD, and on gold with a pip counted as $0.10, one lot is worth $10 a pip to a dollar account, so 40 pips on 0.20 lots is 40 × $10 × 0.20 = $80. When the pips are negative, the same sum gives you the loss.
The formula
Profit = pips gained × pip value per lot × lots
Pips gained depends on the direction. For a buy it is (exit minus entry) ÷ pip size, because a buy makes money when the price rises; for a sell it is (entry minus exit) ÷ pip size. The pip size is 0.0001 on EUR/USD and the other pairs not quoted in yen, 0.01 on yen pairs, and $0.10 on gold in the convention used here.
Pip values per lot are in how much a pip is worth on EUR/USD, including the pairs where the dollar comes first. Profit per pip is the last two terms together: at 0.20 lots of EUR/USD, $10 × 0.20 = $2 a pip.
A EUR/USD buy, worked through
Example prices: you buy 0.20 lots of EUR/USD at 1.08500 and close at 1.08900. Pips gained = (1.08900 minus 1.08500) ÷ 0.0001 = 0.00400 ÷ 0.0001 = 40 pips. Profit = 40 × $10 × 0.20 = $80.
Now the same trade, stopped out at 1.08250. Pips gained = (1.08250 minus 1.08500) ÷ 0.0001 = minus 25 pips, and minus 25 × $10 × 0.20 = minus $50. A loss is the same sum with a minus sign in front.
A gold sell, worked two ways
Example prices: you sell 0.05 lots of gold at 4,120.50 and close at 4,108.00. For a sell, entry minus exit is 4,120.50 minus 4,108.00 = 12.50 of price, which at $0.10 a pip is 125 pips. Profit = 125 × $10 × 0.05 = $62.50.
Gold can also be worked in ounces, which makes a good check. On a 100-ounce contract, 0.05 lots is 5 ounces, so each dollar of price is worth $5, and 12.50 × 5 = $62.50. If the two routes disagree, the pip size or the contract size is wrong; your broker's contract size is in MT5 under Market Watch, right-click the gold symbol, Specification.
Three targets: each part, then the sum
If you split a position across TP1, TP2 and TP3, each part's profit is its own pips × the pip value × its own lots, and the trade's result is the parts added together. Example numbers: 0.03 lots of EUR/USD split into three parts of 0.01, with TP1 20 pips from the entry, TP2 40, TP3 60 and the stop 30.
| Part | Lots | Closed at | Pips | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.01 | TP1 | +20 | $2 |
| 2 | 0.01 | TP2 | +40 | $4 |
| 3 | 0.01 | TP3 | +60 | $6 |
| All three | 0.03 | $12 |
If price turns before TP3 and the last part is closed at the entry price, it adds nothing: $2 + $4 + $0 = $6. Left to the original 30-pip stop instead, the last part loses 30 × $10 × 0.01 = $3, and the trade makes $2 + $4 minus $3, which is $3. The take profit guide compares the exit rules for the three targets.
The costs that come off
The formula gives the price move in money. Three costs come off it before anything reaches your balance.
- Spread. A buy opens at the ask and closes at the bid, a sell the other way round, so every trade starts negative by the spread. MT5 charts draw the bid by default: buy at market while the chart shows the example 1.08500, with an example spread of 1 pip, and you fill at 1.08510, so the move to 1.08900 is 39 pips, $78 rather than $80.
- Commission. Some accounts charge it per lot, on both the open and the close. At an example $3 a lot each side, 0.20 lots pays $0.60 twice, which takes the $78 to $76.80.
- Swap. A position still open at the daily rollover, 22:00 UK most of the year (17:00 New York), is charged or paid swap for every night it stays open; swap on gold shows how to turn your broker's rate into money.
In MT5 the Toolbox, Trade tab shows Swap and Profit in separate columns, and commission shows in the History tab. Add them together, keeping their signs, for what the trade did to your balance. If you work from your own fill prices, the spread is already inside them; if you work from a signal's posted levels, allow for it on top.
Profit in your account currency
EUR/USD and gold pay their pips in dollars, so every example above is in dollars. On a pound account the dollar profit is divided by GBP/USD at the time: at an example rate of 1.3000, the $80 EUR/USD trade is $80 ÷ 1.3000 = £61.54 and the $62.50 gold trade is £48.08. A euro account divides by EUR/USD in the same way.
Compare trades in R, not money
R is the pips gained divided by the pips risked: a +60 pip result on a 30-pip stop is +2R, and a full stop is minus 1R. Worked in money, the lot size and the pip value sit on both sides of the division and cancel, so R is the same at 0.01 lots as at 1.00, which makes it the fair way to compare trades on different pairs or sizes. The EUR/USD buy above, 40 pips on a 25-pip stop, is +1.6R.
R belongs to one trade. What a run of trades does to an account also depends on the size of each one, which is why a record in pips is not a record in money.
The short version
- Count the pips: exit minus entry for a buy, entry minus exit for a sell, divided by the pip size.
- Multiply by the pip value of one lot ($10 on EUR/USD, and on gold at $0.10 a pip, for a dollar account) and by your lots.
- For a split position, work out each part, then add.
- Allow for the spread if you started from a signal's levels, then take off commission and swap.
- If your account is in pounds or euros, divide by GBP/USD or EUR/USD at the time.
- Compare trades in R.
The Forexero profit calculator
The profit calculator runs this formula for a signal's stop, each of its three targets and a close of your own, converted into your account currency, and shows each figure before spread, commission and swap. Our results page records each closed signal in pips from the entry: the first number in the formula, not a sum of money.
Every closed signal is on the record
The results page lists each closed VIP signal with its entry, stop, targets and outcome, stops included.
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