Futures Contract Calculator: P&L, Ticks & Margin
What a futures trade makes per tick, its leverage and where margin runs out.
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P&L at each exit price
P&L by ticks
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For education only, not investment advice: no tool here tells you what to buy, sell or hold. Results use only the figures you enter, the files you load (read in your browser, never uploaded) and the published rules each page names. Check them against your broker's or exchange's own figures, and consider a licensed or registered adviser for advice on your situation.
About the Futures Contract Calculator: P&L, Ticks & Margin
A futures contract moves in ticks, and every tick is worth a fixed amount of money: the tick times the contract’s multiplier. This calculator turns the prices you type into the trade’s profit or loss after commission and fees, its points and ticks, the tick value, the notional value you control, the leverage your margin gives, the margin-call price where your equity falls to the maintenance margin, the loss at your stop and the move that covers your costs.
Pick one of the preset contracts — CME’s E-mini and micro index futures, crude oil, natural gas, gold, silver, the 10-year T-note and euro FX; Eurex’s DAX, EURO STOXX 50 and Bund; ICE’s FTSE 100 and Brent; Euronext’s CAC 40; Osaka’s Nikkei 225 and TOPIX; ASX’s SPI 200; Montréal’s S&P/TSX 60; NSE’s Nifty contracts and MCX’s gold and crude — each filled from the exchange’s own contract specification and linked to it, or choose Custom and type any contract’s multiplier and tick. Every figure stays editable.
Margins are not preset: brokers and exchanges change them often, so you type the initial and maintenance margin you are quoted. Account figures can be shown in another currency with a rate you type, or the European Central Bank’s reference rate when you ask for it.
How to use it
- Choose the contract, or Custom: check the multiplier, the tick and the currency against the specification linked under the select.
- Choose long or short, the number of contracts and the entry price, then the exit price or a target in ticks, and a stop if you have one.
- Under Costs, enter the commission and the exchange and clearing fees per contract per side, and any other charges for the round trip.
- Under Margin and account, enter the initial and maintenance margin per contract from your broker and your account equity for the margin-call price; pick your account currency and its exchange rate if it differs.
- Read the net P&L, the tick value, the leverage, the margin-call price and the break-even; then copy the summary or download the P&L table as CSV — with a pass, or after unlocking this result.
Examples
Entry 5,000.00, exit 5,012.50; $50 a point, tick 0.25; commission $2.25 per contract per side; initial margin $12,000 a contract
12.5 points = 50 ticks · $1,250.00 gross · $9.00 costs · +$1,241.00 net · notional $500,000 · leverage 20.8× · break-even 1 tick
Sell at 38,000, buy back at 37,850; ¥100 a point, tick 5
150 points = 30 ticks in your favour · +¥45,000
Long 1 at 5,000; account equity $15,000; maintenance margin $11,000
Margin-call price 4,920: the equity falls to $11,000 after an 80-point fall ($4,000 ÷ $50 a point)
Common uses
- Check what a tick is worth before choosing between an E-mini and a micro contract.
- See how far the price can move against you before a margin call, for the equity you hold.
- Work out how many ticks a trade must make to cover its commission and fees.
- Compare a futures trade’s leverage with the margin your broker asks for.
The formulas
- P&L = side × (exit − entry) × multiplier × contracts − costs, where side is +1 for long and −1 for short.
- Ticks = (exit − entry) ÷ tick, and the tick value = tick × multiplier.
- Notional = entry × multiplier × contracts; leverage = notional ÷ initial margin.
- Margin-call price (long) = entry − (equity − maintenance margin × contracts) ÷ (multiplier × contracts); for a short the same amount is added.
- Break-even = ⌈costs ÷ (tick value × contracts)⌉ ticks in your favour.
Multipliers and ticks come from the exchanges’ contract specifications (each preset links its page). Margin and daily settlement follow the standard description in Hull, Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives, chapter 2: gains and losses are paid into and out of the margin account every day, and when the balance falls below the maintenance margin the broker asks for more.
Reading the results
- Profit or loss is after the commission, fees and charges you entered, in the contract’s currency (and in your account currency when you give a rate).
- Leverage compares what the contracts are worth with the margin you put up: at 20× a 1% move against you costs 20% of the margin.
- Margin-call price is where your equity, falling with the price, reaches the maintenance margin of your contracts. It leaves out costs and assumes no other positions or deposits.
- Break-even counts the whole ticks the price must move in your favour before the trade covers its costs.
What it leaves out
Taxes, slippage (fills worse than the price you typed), gaps (the price jumping past your stop), the bid–ask spread, daily settlement between now and your exit, and changes your broker makes to margins. Indian contracts’ statutory charges (STT, exchange charges, GST, stamp duty) are worked out by the brokerage calculator; enter its total as other charges. Each of these can make the real result worse than the one shown.
Limitations
- Margins are not preset: enter your broker’s or the exchange’s current figures.
- Lot sizes of Indian contracts and BSE’s ticks are typed by you, because the exchanges revise them; NSE’s index ticks follow the price level as its specification sets them.
- The margin-call price ignores costs, other positions, deposits and withdrawals, and any intraday margin your broker sets.
- Prices in 32nds (US Treasury futures) are entered as decimals: 110-16 is 110.5.
- It calculates from your numbers and uses no market data: it says nothing about where any price is going.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Downloads the ECB’s daily reference exchange rates when you ask for them; the amounts you enter are never sent.
Frequently asked questions
What do I get without a pass?
Without a pass, Futures Contract Calculator: P&L, Ticks & Margin shows the profit or loss of the trade in full, with the first rows of each table (up to 3) and a watermarked chart; every other figure is hidden. Until you unlock it, the result can’t be downloaded or copied. A Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass, a one-time payment that never renews, unlocks the full result. The pricing page lists the passes and their prices.
How do I work out the value of a futures tick?
Multiply the tick by the contract’s multiplier. The E-mini S&P 500’s tick is 0.25 index points and its multiplier $50 a point, so a tick is worth $12.50 a contract; the Micro E-mini’s $5 multiplier makes its tick $1.25.
What leverage does a futures contract give?
Divide the notional value (price × multiplier × contracts) by the margin you put up. Two E-minis at 5,000 control $500,000; with $12,000 of margin each, that is about 20.8 times the money in the account.
When does a margin call happen?
When your account equity falls to the maintenance margin of your open contracts. With one E-mini bought at 5,000, $15,000 of equity and an $11,000 maintenance margin, $4,000 of losses — 80 points at $50 a point — bring it there, at 4,920.
Does it work for Nifty, crude oil or gold futures?
Yes. NSE’s Nifty and Nifty Bank, BSE’s SENSEX and MCX’s gold, gold mini and crude oil are among the presets; for the Indian index contracts you type the current lot size from the exchange’s list, which the exchange revises. Any other contract works through Custom with its multiplier and tick.
Where do the contract figures come from?
From each exchange’s own contract specification, linked under the contract select. Exchanges can change a contract, so check the linked page; every figure is editable.
Can I see the result in my own currency?
Yes. Pick your account currency and type the exchange rate, or ask for the European Central Bank’s reference rate. The amounts you type are never sent anywhere.