Forex Gain & Loss Calculator
Turn entry price, exit price, and lot size into pip gain or loss and cash profit or loss for long and short trades, with return on notional.
Gain & Loss — interactive calculator, computed instantly in your browser.
Forex Gain and Loss: From Raw Price Move to Cash P&L
Which Direction Prints the Profit?
Key Takeaway: Direction flips the sign, not the math. Convert the price delta to pips first, then to cash — both numbers must agree before you trust either.
Forex gain and loss converts a price difference into two answers traders actually need: pips gained or lost, and cash profit or loss in account currency. The two views serve different jobs — pips measure trade quality against your plan, cash measures what happened to the balance.
1. The Cash P&L Formula
- Direction: +1 for a long (buy low, sell high), -1 for a short (sell high, buy low).
- Contract size: 100,000 units per standard lot — the default for major pairs.
- Quote currency: the raw result lands in the pair’s quote currency; multiply or divide by the rate to reach your account currency.
- Costs: spreads and commissions sit outside this formula — subtract them for realized net P&L.
2. Pips vs Cash: Two Views of One Trade
Pips = price difference divided by pip size: a 40-pip gain on EUR/USD is 0.0040 / 0.0001 regardless of lot size. Cash multiplies that by lot exposure — the same 40 pips earn $40 on 0.10 lots, $200 on 1.00 lot, $2,000 on 10 lots. Reviewing performance in pips strips out sizing noise; reviewing in cash keeps the account honest.
3. Short Trades Flip the Sign
A short sells first and buys back later, so falling prices produce positive P&L: entry 1.1050, exit 1.1010 = +40 pips. The identical price move against a long is -40 pips. Return on notional (P&L divided by traded notional) also reveals when a profitable trade was still underwhelming for the margin it occupied — always weigh cash results against position risk.
🔗 Trade Outcome Cross-References
Every exit writes a number into the account — compare it against the 💰 Financial Hub view of how those numbers repeat across many trades.
A single gain means little without the losses beside it: risk per trade, compounded growth, and drawdown tolerance decide whether the equity curve survives variance.
Frequently Asked Questions (Gain & Loss)
Multiply the price rise (exit minus entry) by the contract size and your lots: buying EUR/USD at 1.0950 and selling at 1.1000 moves 50 pips, which earns $500 per standard lot, $50 per mini lot, and $5 per micro lot before spread and commission costs.
Divide the price difference by the pair’s pip size: 0.0001 for most pairs and 0.01 for JPY pairs. A move from 151.20 to 151.55 on USD/JPY is 0.35 / 0.01 = 35 pips — independent of how many lots you traded.
Yes — shorts profit in reverse: you sell high first and buy back lower, so a price drop produces positive P&L. The formula’s direction multiplier (-1) flips the sign automatically, and a price rise against a short produces a loss of the mirrored size.
Because raw P&L is denominated in the pair’s quote currency. If your account is USD and the pair pays in GBP, JPY, or CAD, convert the result at the current exchange rate — multiply when the quote currency is the base of the rate you have, divide when it is the quote side.