Monday, October 7, 2013

Calculate Profit or Loss in Forex Trading

How do I calculate the profit or loss on my MetaTrader (MT4) trades?

Contract size x market movement.

Examples: 

Long one contract or lot ($100,000) EUR/USD @ 1.42356
Market rises to 1.42556
Therefore 100,000 x 0.00200 = +$200

Short one contract (1,000 barrels) WTI Crude Oil @ $75.06
Market rises to $75.28
Therefore 1,000 x $0.22 = -$220

Short one contract or lot (EUR 100,000) EUR/JPY @ 127.455
Market falls to 127.155
Therefore 100,000 x 0.300 = +JPY 30,000 (USD/JYP = 90.081) = +$333

More Examples:
To illustrate a FX trade, consider the following two examples.

Let's say that the current bid/ask for EUR/USD is 1.4616/19, meaning you can buy 1 euro for 1.4619 or sell 1 euro for 1.4616.

Suppose you decide that the Euro is undervalued against the US dollar. To execute this strategy, you would buy Euros (simultaneously selling dollars), and then wait for the exchange rate to rise.

So you make the trade: to buy 100,000 Euros you pay 146,190 dollars (100,000 x 1.4619). Remember, at 2% margin (50:1 leverage), your initial margin deposit would be approximately $2,923 for this trade.

As you expected, Euro strengthens to 1.4623/26. Now, to realize your profits, you sell 100,000 Euros at the current rate of 1.4623, and receive $146,230.

You bought 100k Euros at 1.4619, paying $146,190. Then you sold 100k Euros at 1.4623, receiving $146,230. That's a difference of 4 pips, or in dollar terms ($146,190 - 146,230 = $40).

Total profit = US $40.

Now in the example, let's say that we once again buy EUR/USD when trading at 1.4616/19. You buy 100,000 Euros you pay 146,190 dollars (100,000 x 1.4619).

However, Euro weakens to 1.4611/14. Now, to minimize your loses to sell 100,000 Euros at 1.4611 and receive $146,110.

You bought 100k Euros at 1.4619, paying $146,190. You sold 100k Euros at 1.4611, receiving $146,110. That's a difference of 8 pips, or in dollar terms ($146,190 - $146,110 = $80).

Total loss = US $80.


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