Calculating Pip Gain

I was wondering how you would caculate gain on the following set of trades.

You open a trade with 3 lots and you close them with the following P/L:

Lot 1 +100
Lot 2 +115
Lot 3 -25

Would you have an overall gain on the trade of:

a. +90
b. +115
c. +190
d. something else

Please expalin your answer. I have seen traders calculate gains in various methods. Which one is correct?

Does anyone have an opinion/answer on this?

Pete

It would be a total of 190 pips since it would in essence be three different trades as you are closing different portions for different targets.

As long as you don't start doing the dumbass thing of thinking that three lots at 70 pips is 210 pips. NO IT ISN'T FOR CHRIS' SAKE! It's one, ONE, trade that is 3 lots in volume. So it's...70! Yes, 70! pips. Not 210! Sorry, but that is one of my hugest pet peeves.

Jedi,

I don't quite understand you answer. Are you saying 70 or 190?

Pete

I think the answer is 190/3 = 63.3 pips....

Maybe the answer is none of the above. You would calculate rate of return.

Yes, that would be the actual pip profit for the overall trade.

How did you find that number ?

But with scaled lots like that pip gain is meaningless since the dollar per pip is changing with every lot change.

If you open 3 lots, to get the numbers mentioned, you'd have gone up a ways, then back down and reversed past your entry At 100 you closed 1 lot, it went up another 15 pips to 115 and you closed the 2nd, then you closed the last lot at a small loss after a reversal. Is that right?

You can't really add up the pips for the first 2 lots since they were, at one point, the same trade. In a case like that I don't think pip count alone amounts to anything, I think you have to calculate dollar returns to get anything meaningful.


Total gains divided by the number of lots. (100+115-25)/3 = 63.3. That would be the average pip gain per lot in terms of the original 3 lots.