How to use the forex profit calculator
- Choose the pair and your account currency.
- Choose the direction. Buy (long) profits when the price rises; sell (short) profits when it falls.
- Enter the open and close prices from your trade history, not from the chart, so the spread is included.
- Enter the position size in lots. One lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, the first in the pair.
- Enter the conversion price if asked. For a cross pair such as EUR/GBP in a dollar account, the form asks for GBP/USD. Use the rate at the time the trade closed, because that is when the profit is converted.
- Add commission and swap (optional), in your account currency, as your statement shows them. Swap is negative when you paid it.
- Leverage (optional) adds the return on the margin the trade used.
The chart shows the net result at every close price around your trade, so you can read the profit for a different exit at a glance.
The formula
Profit in quote currency = (Close − Open) × Units
Profit in account currency = Profit in quote currency × Conversion rate
Net profit = Profit in account currency − Commission + SwapThe pip size is 0.0001 for most pairs and 0.01 for yen pairs. Units = lots × 100,000. The conversion rate is 1 if your account is in the quote currency; if your account is in the base currency, divide by the closing price instead.
A worked example
You buy 1 lot of EUR/USD at 1.085 and close at 1.092. The price rose 70.0 pips, worth $10.00 each on 100,000 euros, so the trade made $700.00 before costs.
A $7 commission and $4 of swap paid come to -$11.00 together, so the net profit is $689.00. The price needed to reach 1.08511 just to cover those costs.
At 1:30 the trade used $3,616.67 of margin, a return on margin of +19.05%.
Profit on other pairs
When the account currency is not the quote currency, the profit is converted. The table shows trades of one lot in a dollar account:
| Trade | Pips | Profit in quote currency | Profit in USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy EUR/USD 1.0850 → 1.0920 | 70.0 pips | $700.00 | $700.00 |
| Buy USD/JPY 150.00 → 151.20 | 120.0 pips | ¥120,000 | $793.65 |
| Sell EUR/GBP 0.8500 → 0.8455, GBP/USD 1.27 | 45.0 pips | £450.00 | $571.50 |
The yen trade gains far more pips than the EUR/USD trade, yet only slightly more money, because a yen pip is worth only $6.61 on a standard lot at that price. Pips measure the move; only the converted figure tells you what reached your account.
Small positions and costs
Costs scale with size. On 0.1 lots of the same EUR/USD trade, with a commission of $0.70 and a swap of −$0.40, the net profit is $68.90. The return on margin stays at +19.05%, because both the profit and the margin shrink in proportion.
Return on margin flatters leveraged trades. The 19% in the example came from a 0.65% price move: at 1:30, the same move against you would have cost about the same share of the margin. It is a useful way to compare trades, not a measure of the risk you took.
What this calculator does not include
- Spread on chart prices. Use fill prices; chart prices are usually bids.
- Conversion timing. Brokers convert profit at their own rate, sometimes with a small markup, which can differ slightly from the rate you enter.
- Partial closes. For a trade closed in pieces, calculate each part separately.
- Taxes. How forex gains are taxed depends on your country and, in the US, on the type of account and contract.