Price move:
P/L per contract:
Total P/L (before commissions and fees):
Estimates only. Actual results are reduced by commissions, exchange and clearing fees, and any slippage on fills.
The P/L formula
Work it in ticks and you will never go wrong. Subtract entry from exit to get the price move. Divide by the tick size to get ticks. Multiply by the tick value to get dollars per contract. Multiply by the number of contracts. If you were short, flip the sign. That is the whole formula, and it works for every contract on the board once you know its tick size and tick value.
Example, short side: you sell two crude oil contracts at 78.00 and buy them back at 76.50. The move is 1.50, or 150 one-cent ticks. At $10 per tick that is $1,500 per contract, $3,000 total, in your favor because you were short. Before costs.
Ticks, points, and price formats
The one place people stumble is price format. Grains quote in cents per bushel, so 450 to 460 is 40 quarter-cent ticks. Treasury notes quote in points and 32nds, where the tick is a fraction of a point. Stock indexes quote in points with quarter-point ticks. Enter the tick size in the same units as your entry and exit prices and the calculator handles the rest.
If you are unsure of a contract's tick, look it up in the contract specifications or use the tick value calculator before you run the P/L. Guessing the tick size is how a winning trade on paper turns into a different number in the account.
What the calculator leaves out
Gross P/L is not what lands in your account. Commissions, exchange fees, and clearing fees come out of every round turn, and slippage - the difference between your intended price and your actual fill - quietly taxes every entry and exit, especially in fast markets. Build a habit of subtracting round-turn costs before you judge whether a trade idea is worth taking.
Futures accounts are marked to market daily: gains are credited and losses debited at each settlement, not when you close the trade. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Clients who want trade ideas with entries and exits spelled out can follow our trade alerts, free for clients, and paper-trade them during the two-week trial.