Price of 1 Lot | Forex Factory

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Price of 1 Lot

  • #1
  • First Post: Jul 3, 2011 12:26am Jul 3, 2011 12:26am
How come in metatrade it does not show how much a lot costs. It will show profit in dollars but never the $ size of the original investment. For example, how can I determine how much 1 lot or 0.1 lot will cost for any currency?
What is any ocean but a multitude of drops?
  • #2
  • Jul 3, 2011 2:02am Jul 3, 2011 2:02am
Of course it depends on your leverage, the pair you're trading, your base currency and current exchange rate of that pair.
It's usually pretty easy to calculate for base currency pairs, 1 lot is 100,000 units of base currency.
For cross-pairs there's a simple formula but I forgot how it goes, never cared much about it tbh.
Don't get mad, get even!
  • #3
  • Jul 3, 2011 10:06am Jul 3, 2011 10:06am
Quoting Xhale12
How come in metatrade it does not show how much a lot costs. It will show profit in dollars but never the $ size of the original investment. For example, how can I determine how much 1 lot or 0.1 lot will cost for any currency?
I agree with you and this is bad. You have to call broker all the time asking for clarification. Maybe somebody will give this idea to MT5 developers if know how to contact them.
  • #4
  • Jul 3, 2011 10:11am Jul 3, 2011 10:11am
a simple google search would no doubt reveal a million online calculators, and another million examples of how to personally calculate this by hand.

mt4 mt5 mtblah doesn't need to display such inane information. if it's that important then write an indicator to show it... it's not hard.
Congratulations ScalaFX for coming out of the closet!
  • #5
  • Jul 3, 2011 10:24am Jul 3, 2011 10:24am
Can you send me a link to a calc? I have searched and cant find any.

IMO this info is very important. I never want more than 10% of my total capital invested in ONE trade.
What is any ocean but a multitude of drops?
  • #6
  • Jul 3, 2011 10:34am Jul 3, 2011 10:34am
Quoting Xhale12
Can you send me a link to a calc? I have searched and cant find any.

IMO this info is very important. I never want more than 10% of my total capital invested in ONE trade.
One standard lot is roughly equivalent to $100,000, which is 10% of $1M.
One mini lot [0.1 lot] is roughly equivalent to $10,000, which is 10% of $100K.
One micro lot [0.01] is roughly equivalent to $1,000, which is 10% of $10K.
So if you have $50,000 in your account, and want to only use 10% ($5000), you could trade half a mini lot (or 5 1-micro-lot trades) for example.

That's why we use leverage: to use for example, 300% of our capital, not 10%.
  • #7
  • Jul 3, 2011 11:45am Jul 3, 2011 11:45am
I'm guessing you're talking about pip values. I don't have my software up right now, but if I'm remembering right the pip value at the moment for any Yen pair is roughly $1.2, I think GBPCHF is around $0.8, EURGBP is over $1.6... if you need to be more exact I can look at it when I open my platform and reply again. Of course, EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD and NZDUSD are still $1. Also, I'm assuming you're based in US$.

Rob
  • #8
  • Jul 3, 2011 5:21pm Jul 3, 2011 5:21pm
Quoting Rob Mondave
I'm guessing you're talking about pip values. I don't have my software up right now, but if I'm remembering right the pip value at the moment for any Yen pair is roughly $1.2, I think GBPCHF is around $0.8, EURGBP is over $1.6... if you need to be more exact I can look at it when I open my platform and reply again. Of course, EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD and NZDUSD are still $1. Also, I'm assuming you're based in US$.

Rob
What? Value per pip depends again on the amount of lots traded and/or leverage used.
Don't get mad, get even!
  • #9
  • Jul 3, 2011 5:27pm Jul 3, 2011 5:27pm
Quoting stulic
What? Value per pip depends again on the amount of lots traded and/or leverage used.
Yes, both of us are right. What you wrote is what the trader has control over, what I wrote is what he doesn't. The next time you trade EURGBP, notice that you're not getting 1 for 1 return per pip. If you trade $10/pip EURUSD, you'll get $10 gain or loss, per pip. If you trade most other pairs, you'll get something different - any Yen pair will give you roughly $12 gain or loss, and EURGBP will give you roughly $16 gain or loss.

It has to do with the conversion rate to the base currency.
  • #10
  • Jul 3, 2011 5:50pm Jul 3, 2011 5:50pm
Quoting Rob Mondave
Yes, both of us are right. What you wrote is what the trader has control over, what I wrote is what he doesn't. The next time you trade EURGBP, notice that you're not getting 1 for 1 return per pip. If you trade $10/pip EURUSD, you'll get $10 gain or loss, per pip. If you trade most other pairs, you'll get something different - any Yen pair will give you roughly $12 gain or loss, and EURGBP will give you roughly $16 gain or loss.

It has to do with the conversion rate to the base currency.
Well of course because you're exchanging your base currency into second currency of any given pair. Mine is AUD so all your numbers are not applicable to me.
Don't get mad, get even!
  • #11
  • Jul 3, 2011 5:59pm Jul 3, 2011 5:59pm
Quoting stulic
Well of course because you're exchanging your base currency into second currency of any given pair. Mine is AUD so all your numbers are not applicable to me.
So your EURAUD has a pip value of 1 but AUDUSD is probably around 0.9, right?
  • #12
  • Jul 3, 2011 6:32pm Jul 3, 2011 6:32pm
Quoting Rob Mondave
So your EURAUD has a pip value of 1 but AUDUSD is probably around 0.9, right?
Again, depends on the size of a trade and current exchange rate, which is constantly changing.
Don't get mad, get even!
  • #13
  • Jul 3, 2011 6:55pm Jul 3, 2011 6:55pm
Quoting stulic
Again, depends on the size of a trade and current exchange rate, which is constantly changing.
Right, I know that. It doesn't depend on the size of the trade (at least not in the US), but it does depend on the exchange rate. I was asking for a rough figure just out of curiosity. The rates shouldn't change so fast that there isn't a rounded number to be guided by, e.g. Yen pairs in the US are roughly 1.2, so I take that approximation, not the exact number which changes almost by the second, when I'm sizing my positions.
  • #14
  • Jul 4, 2011 7:46am Jul 4, 2011 7:46am
Quoting Rob Mondave
Right, I know that. It doesn't depend on the size of the trade (at least not in the US), but it does depend on the exchange rate. I was asking for a rough figure just out of curiosity. The rates shouldn't change so fast that there isn't a rounded number to be guided by, e.g. Yen pairs in the US are roughly 1.2, so I take that approximation, not the exact number which changes almost by the second, when I'm sizing my positions.
C'mon man, it depends on the size of the trade. If I'm shorting cable with half a lot, at 3PM at some day, with a leverage of 200:1, value per pip could be x amount of my base currency, (we'll call it $26.7 AUD)

I long the same pair, five days later but now with a standard lot and a leverage of 400:1, value per pip could be the same or it could be 36.1, or 17.1, who knows...
I just don't get it why you think value per pip is some sort of a standard price that can be applied anywhere?
If I feel like I wanna long 0.38 lots of a pair, I don't need to get the calculator out to find out how much a pip I'm gonna make or lose, I can guess it roughly and I don't understand the significance behind the whole issue to be honest.
Don't get mad, get even!
  • #15
  • Jul 4, 2011 7:57am Jul 4, 2011 7:57am
Quoting stulic
What? Value per pip depends again on the amount of lots traded and/or leverage used.
what does leverage have to do with it? value per pip depends on lots traded and the current price. period. i notice you mention it like this in your following post... so did you mention it here in error or what?

also, the title of this thread is conflicting with the discussion somewhat... i think some of you are getting confused.

also note that in mql4 you can in fact get access a value that specifies how much a 1 lot trade is going to net you per pip which is more to what the thread is asking.
Congratulations ScalaFX for coming out of the closet!
  • #16
  • Jul 4, 2011 1:28pm Jul 4, 2011 1:28pm
Try this calculator :

http://www.earnforex.com/pip-value-calculator
It never gets easier, you just get better
  • #17
  • Last Post: Jul 4, 2011 6:43pm Jul 4, 2011 6:43pm
Quoting stulic
C'mon man, it depends on the size of the trade. If I'm shorting cable with half a lot, at 3PM at some day, with a leverage of 200:1, value per pip could be x amount of my base currency, (we'll call it $26.7 AUD)

I long the same pair, five days later but now with a standard lot and a leverage of 400:1, value per pip could be the same or it could be 36.1, or 17.1, who knows...
I just don't get it why you think value per pip is some sort of a standard price that can be applied anywhere?
If I feel like I wanna long 0.38 lots of a pair, I don't...
Sorry, you lost me with this post, but I'm wondering if we're just talking about two different things. Pip value, as opposed to position size (they're not the same things), remains fairly stable because exchange rates, most of the time, won't change much in 5 days (per your example). Yes, EURUSD 1.4200 moving to 1.4500 is 300 pips, but it's only 3 cents - not a significant change in the grand scheme of things.

I think part of the confusion is where you refer to base currency as your account currency (you're in Australia, so your account is in Australia dollars). When I refer to base currency it's the second currency listed in the exchange rate. USDCHF, the base currency is CHF; EURJPY, the base currency is JPY, regardless of which currency I have in my account.

All of this has nothing to do with leverage or position size or time of day, it has everything to do with the exchange rate between your account currency and the base currency in the pair being traded.
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