Formulas & Calculations

Trading formulas, conversion rules, margin calculations, and High Margin Requirements.

Precision rule

Use decimal-safe arithmetic for money, prices, margin, and volume. Do not rely on binary floating-point for critical calculations.

Trading formulas

Equity

Total value of a trader account at any current time.

Formula:

equity = balance + floating_pnl

Where:

balance = realized account balance (reflects the result of all balance operations and result of closed positions)

trade commissions as well as swap fees\admin fees - are applied to the account balance immediately at the moment of charging

floating_pnl = unrealized PnL for currently opened positions

Notes

all values are in account currency

Floating PnL

Floating PnL represents unrealized profit or loss for currently open positions. It does not affect account balance and represents the potential profit or loss that would be realized if a trade were closed at the current market price.

Formula:

floating_pnl = sum of PnL for all opened positions = sum (buy_position_pnl) + sum (sell_position_pnl)

Where:

``buy_position_pnl = volume * (LastBidPrice - OpenPrice) * contractSize * ProfitRate
``sell_position_pnl = volume * (OpenPrice - LastAskPrice) * contractSize * ProfitRate
volume = position volume in lots
contractSize = instrument contract size
OpenPrice = position open price
LastBidPrice/LastAskPrice = last instrument tick
ProfitRate = rate for conversion from instrument quote currency to the account currency (see conversion rules below)

Notes

floating_pnl is in account currency
once a position is closed, realised pnl (Profit) is stored to the closing deal and applied to the account balance

Used margin

Used margin represents the amount of funds currently reserved to maintain open positions. Margin acts as a deposit, not a fee, and is returned after an order is closed, provided losses don't consume it. Margin requirements for fully hedged orders equal 0%. Partially hedged orders margin applied to the unhedged part. No margin is taken for pending orders.

Formula:

if the instrument calculation mode is "Forex" or "ForexNoLeverage" (instrument.calc_mode=1 or instrument.calc_mode=2): used_margin = volume * contractSize * marginRate * marginPercentage
if the instrument calculation mode is "CFD" or "CFDLeverage" (instrument.calc_mode=3 or instrument.calc_mode=4): used_margin = volume * contractSize * openPrice * marginRate * marginPercentage

Where:

volume = position volume in lots
contractSize = instrument contract size
openPrice = position open price
marginRate = rate for conversion from instrument margin currency to the account currency (see conversion rules below)
marginPercentage depends on the instrument calculation mode:

Forex / CFDLeverage:

marginPercentage = 1 / account.leverage

if the account has unlimited leverage => marginPercentage=0

ForexNoLeverage / CFD (fixed margin):

marginPercentage = instrument.margin_percent

Notes:

High Margin Requirements may be applied at some specific period of time for certain instruments.
For the majority of instruments, orders opened up to 15 minutes before and 90 seconds after a high-impact news release are subject to higher margin requirements (HMR). During this time, leverage for affected instruments is capped. Learn more about the leverage requirements for instruments below.
After HMR, margins are recalculated based on the account’s equity and leverage.
HMR is also applied before and after scheduled market breaks, including weekends, public holidays, and daily breaks.
Once the HMR period ends, margin requirements are automatically recalculated based on the account’s equity and selected leverage.

Instruments and their leverage during HMR

Instrument group	Instruments	Leverage during HMR
Forex	All	1:200
Energies	USOIL	1:20
Energies	UKOIL	1:20
Energies	XNGUSD	1:5
Metals	XAU	1:200 – 1:1000
XAG	1:50 – 1:200
XALUSD, XCUUSD, XNIUSD, XPBUSD, XZNUSD	1:50
Metals	XAG	1:50 – 1:200
Metals	XALUSD	1:50
Metals	XCUUSD	1:50
Metals	XNIUSD	1:50
Metals	XPBUSD	1:50
Metals	XZNUSD	1:50
Indices	US30, USTEC, US500	1:50 – 1:100
Indices	USTEC	1:50 – 1:100
Indices	US500	1:50 – 1:100
Indices	All others	1:20 – 1:50
Stocks	All	1:5
Cryptocurrencies	All	1:200

HMR periods before & after weekend market breaks

Instrument group	Before weekend break	After weekend break
All trading instruments except BTC and ETH*	~3 hours	1 hour

HMR periods before & after daily market breaks

Instrument group	Before daily break	After daily break
US Indices (US500, US30, USTEC)	~3 hours	10 minutes
JP225	~1 hour 30 minutes	1 hour 40 minutes
DE30, FR40, UK100	1 hour 35 minutes	9 hours 10 minutes
STOXX50	1 hour 35 minutes	2 hours 25 minutes
HK50	30 minutes Last session: ~4 hours	15 minutes
AUS200	4 hours Last session: ~4 hours	5 minutes
USOIL	30 minutes	5 minutes
UKOIL	~30 minutes	5 minutes
Gold (XAU*)	30 minutes	~10 minutes
Silver (XAG*)	30 minutes	~10 minutes
Stocks	20 minutes	15 minutes
BTCXAG, BTCXAU	~30 minutes	5 minutes

Details: https://get.exness.help/hc/en-us/articles/20618327917596-Higher-Margin-Requirements-HMR

Free margin

While the broker holds a margin for open orders, the free margin is the funds remaining in the trading account that are not held and are free to use for new orders.

Formula:

free_margin = equity - used_margin

Where:

equity = current account equity
used_margin = currently reserved margin for open positions

Margin level

Margin level represents account risk level.

Formula:

margin_level = (equity / used_margin) * 100

If used_margin = 0, margin level is undefined. This is the case when an account has no opened positions.

Margin call conditions

margin_level <= margin_call_level

A margin call is an alert sent by the trading platform, warning that it may be necessary to deposit funds or close a few position(s) to avoid a stop out. This notification is sent once the margin level drops to a certain amount, known as the margin call.

Stop out conditions

margin_level <= stopout_level

Stop out (account liquidation) is triggered when account margin level falls below the configured stop out threshold.

Stop out is the automatic closing of opened positions (even hedged positions) when the margin level drops to the stop out level.

Notes:

At Exness, margin call and stop levels are based on trading account types.

Account	Margin Call	Stop Out
Standard Cent	60%	0%
Standard	60%	0%
Pro	30%	0%
Raw Spread	30%	0%
Zero	30%	0%

For stocks, stop out level can be increased to 100% in case of increased market risk.

Leverage

Leverage is the ratio of equity to the capital provided by the broker, which affects the margin required for an open order.

The minimum leverage setting is 1:2
Leverage cannot be disabled
The leverage requested by the client when opening an account is not a mandatory requirement for execution. Leverage may be recalculated to account for periods of increased margin requirements or other rules.
Leverage may be reduced during High Margin Requirement (HMR)
The current leverage can be tracked through HMR updates on the Server Events stream.

Details: https://get.exness.help/hc/en-us/articles/360014529380-Leverage

Conversion rules

Trading calculations requires currency conversion to account currency. It's needed to define a rate for conversion.

How it works:

if currency_from = currency_to:
    then conversion_rate = 1.0

else:
    try direct conversion (find a currency pair XXXYYY, where XXX=currency_from and YYY=currency_to)
    else try reverse conversion (find a currency pair YYYXXX, where XXX=currency_from and YYY=currency_to)
    else try two-step conversion through USD: currency_from -> USD -> currency_to (note: at each step there may be XXXYYY or YYYXXX conversion cases)

For conversion, it's needed to define a certain price to be applied. To do so, we need to define ConversionDirection (it's not the same as PositionDirection):

ConversionDirection::Sell:

base_currency -> quote_currency : bid

quote_currency → base_currency : 1 / ask
ConversionDirection::Buy:

base_currency → quote_currency : ask

quote_currency → base_currency : 1 / bid

Example for EURUSD (bid = 1.1000 / ask = 1.1002):

If converting EUR → USD:

Sell selection -> rate = bid = 1.1000 Buy selection -> rate = ask = 1.1002

If converting USD→ EUR:

Sell selection -> rate = 1 / ask = 1 / 1.1002 Buy selection -> rate = 1 / bid = 1 / 1.1000

ProfitRate

ProfitRate converts from instrument quote currency to account currency.

ForProfitRate, ConversionDirection depends on the instrument calc_mode:

if the instrument calculation mode is "Forex" or "ForexNoLeverage" (instrument.calc_mode=1 or instrument.calc_mode=2) - depends on position direction: `Buy Position -> ConversionDirection=Buy

Sell Position -> ConversionDirection=Sell`
if the instrument calculation mode is "CFD" or "CFDLeverage" (instrument.calc_mode=3 or instrument.calc_mode=4) - depends on position profitability: `Position is profitable (profit > 0) -> ConversionDirection=Sell

Position is losing (profit < 0) -> ConversionDirection=Buy`

MarginRate

MarginRate converts from instrument margin currency to account currency.

It is calculated on position opening and the stored in "Position.margin_rate" field.

For MarginRate, need to use ConversionDirection the same as Position direction:

Buy position -> ConversionDirection=Buy Sell position -> ConversionDirection=Sell

Precision rule​

Trading formulas​

Equity​

Floating PnL​

Used margin​

Free margin​

Margin level​

Margin call conditions​

Stop out conditions​

Leverage​

Conversion rules​

ProfitRate​

MarginRate​

Precision rule

Trading formulas

Equity

Floating PnL

Used margin

Free margin

Margin level

Margin call conditions

Stop out conditions

Leverage

Conversion rules

ProfitRate

MarginRate