Free forex and gold profit and loss calculator

Work out the profit or loss of a trade from lots, entry and exit price, with the move in pips for forex. No sign-up.

Instrument

Direction

Lots

Entry price

Exit price

-Profit or loss (quote currency)

-Price move

-Per 1.0 lot

Enter the lots, entry and exit price. The result is in the instrument's quote currency, so for pairs quoted in USD it is in dollars. For forex it also shows the move in pips.

How the calculation works

Profit or loss = (exit price - entry price) x direction x lots x contract size. A standard forex lot is 100,000 units, so a 40-pip move on EURUSD (0.0040) with 0.10 lots is 0.0040 x 0.10 x 100,000 = 40.00. Gold is usually 100 ounces per lot, so a $5 move on 1.0 lot is $500.

Limits

JPY pairs and crosses are quoted in a currency other than USD, so convert the result to your account currency.
Contract sizes vary by broker; check the symbol Specification in MT5.
Spread, swap and commission are not included. MT5 shows your real profit in the History tab.

Check the other side of the trade with the risk to reward calculator and size it with the position size calculator. Your real results belong in a journal; see the forex trading journal guide.

This calculator is for education. It is not trading or investment advice.

What a pip is worth (forex pairs quoted in USD)

For a pair quoted in USD such as EURUSD, one pip is 0.0001 and one standard lot is 100,000 units, so one pip on one lot is $10. The value scales with lot size:

Lot size	Units	Value of one pip	Value of a 40-pip move
0.01 (micro)	1,000	$0.10	$4.00
0.10 (mini)	10,000	$1.00	$40.00
1.00 (standard)	100,000	$10.00	$400.00
2.50	250,000	$25.00	$1,000.00

Worked examples (hypothetical prices)

Forex buy. Buy 0.50 lots EURUSD at 1.0850 and close at 1.0910. Move = 0.0060 (60 pips). Profit = 0.0060 x 0.50 x 100,000 = $300.
Forex sell. Sell 0.20 lots GBPUSD at 1.2700 and close at 1.2740. The price rose 0.0040 against a short, so the result is -(0.0040 x 0.20 x 100,000) = -$80.
Gold buy. Buy 0.10 lots XAUUSD at 2,400.00 and close at 2,412.50. Move = $12.50. With 100 ounces per lot, profit = 12.50 x 0.10 x 100 = $125.
Gold sell. Sell 0.30 lots at 2,420.00 and close at 2,414.00. A $6 fall in a short is a gain: 6 x 0.30 x 100 = $180.

JPY pairs and crosses

On a pair like USDJPY, a pip is 0.01 (two decimal places), and profit comes out in yen. One standard lot moving one pip is 1,000 yen. At a hypothetical rate of 150 yen to the dollar, that is about $6.67. Convert the yen result to your account currency at the rate when the trade closed. The same idea applies to crosses such as EURGBP, where the result is in pounds. The calculator shows the result in the quote currency, so a conversion step is needed for anything not quoted in USD.

Why your MT5 number can differ

If the calculator and MetaTrader 5 disagree, the difference is almost always one of these:

Commission. Many accounts charge per lot, shown in its own column in the MT5 history.
Swap. Positions held past the daily rollover accrue swap, which can be positive or negative.
Spread. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so the close prices you read from a chart may not match the fill prices.
Partial closes. If you closed a position in stages, the history lists several deals; the total is their sum. See hedging versus netting in MT5 history.
Currency conversion. A non-USD quote or account converts at the time of the close.
Contract size. Some symbols, especially indices and metals at certain brokers, use a different contract size. Check the Specification in Market Watch.

Using it to check a journal

When a journal's totals look wrong, recalculate two or three trades by hand with this tool. If your logged profit matches the calculator after commission and swap are added, the entries are sound. If it does not, the usual cause is a wrong contract size or an entry that was typed rather than imported. Automatic imports avoid typing errors, but a spot-check is still a sensible habit. For the full list of fields worth recording, see what an MT5 trading journal should record.

Common slip-ups when working out a trade result

Mixing up the sign on a sell. A short makes money when price falls. If you enter the exit price above the entry on a sell, the result should be negative; the Direction option handles this for you.
Counting pips on gold. Brokers quote gold with different decimals, so a gold pip is not the same everywhere. Work in dollars of price movement and multiply by the ounces per lot instead.
Forgetting the lot size has a decimal. 0.05 lots is 5,000 units, not 50,000. A misplaced decimal is the most common reason a typed journal entry is ten times too big or too small.
Using the planned exit instead of the actual one. The fill price is what counts. Slippage and a partial close both change the result.

Once you can do this arithmetic by hand, you will notice that most of the numbers in a trading journal are simple products of lots, price move and contract size. That is also why they are safe to import automatically: there is nothing subjective in them, and the effort is better spent on the fields only you can write, such as why you took the trade. See the position size calculator for the same arithmetic run in the other direction.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate profit on a forex trade?

Multiply the price move by the lot size and the contract size, and flip the sign for a sell.

How much is one pip worth?

On a USD-quoted pair with 1.0 standard lot (100,000 units) one pip (0.0001) is worth $10. It scales with lot size.

Why does MT5 show a different number?

MT5 includes spread, commission and swap, and converts non-USD profits to your account currency.

Related guides

Want every real trade logged for you?

Free for 7 days, no card required. After that, a one-time $19.99 purchase. No subscription. Also on the Microsoft Store.

One-time $19.99, no monthly fee · your MT5 login never leaves your PC · trades go into your own journal on your PC, not through our servers.

Start free 7-day trial