[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1172},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-cent-account":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-cent-account-related":248},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":232,"date":233,"description":234,"draft":235,"extension":236,"meta":237,"navigation":235,"path":238,"related":239,"seo":244,"stem":245,"term":246,"updated":233,"__hash__":247},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-cent-account.md","What Is a Cent Account? Balances Shown in Cents",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":224},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,32,67,81,85,88,91,95,123,126,130,133,158,165,169,216],[10,11,12],"p",{},"A cent account is a live trading account whose balance, equity and profit are denominated in hundredths of the base currency, so a screen reading 50,000 holds $500. Nothing is concealed — the money, the fills, the spread and the swap are all real — but every absolute figure on the account is one hundred times larger than the amount sitting at the broker.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,19,20],{},"The conversion is a single division, applied to money and to nothing else.",[22,23,28],"pre",{"className":24,"code":26,"language":27},[25],"language-text","Real money = Displayed amount \u002F 100\n\n50,000 USC = $500\n","text",[29,30,26],"code",{"__ignoreMap":31},"",[10,33,34,35,39,40,39,43,39,46,39,49,39,52,39,55,58,59,62,63,66],{},"The currency code is the tell. Brokers report cent denomination as ",[36,37,38],"strong",{},"USC",", ",[36,41,42],{},"EUC",[36,44,45],{},"GBC",[36,47,48],{},"JPC",[36,50,51],{},"CHC",[36,53,54],{},"AUC",[36,56,57],{},"CAC"," or ",[36,60,61],{},"NZC",", with ",[36,64,65],{},"CNT"," appearing at a few brokers for US cents. It is a reliable signal rather than an exhaustive one: some brokers run cent-style accounts on ordinary USD or EUR denomination, and there only the account type or the server name gives it away.",[10,68,69,70,75,76,80],{},"The half that gets skipped is the contract size. On most cent accounts one ",[71,72,74],"a",{"href":73},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-lot-in-forex","lot"," is 1,000 units of base currency instead of 100,000, scaled by the same factor. Put both halves together and a cent account holding $100 behaves, in percentage terms, exactly like a standard account holding $10,000: same lot numbers, same risk per trade, same drawdown curve, one hundredth of the money. One ",[71,77,79],{"href":78},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-pip","pip"," on one lot is 10.00 USC — ten cents — which is still 0.10% of a 10,000 USC balance.",[14,82,84],{"id":83},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,86,87],{},"Because ratios survive the denomination and currency amounts do not. Gain, drawdown, profit factor, win rate, Sharpe and anything quoted in pips are quotients of two quantities carried in the same unit: multiply both by one hundred and nothing moves. Total profit, commissions and swap read in cents and mean one hundredth of what they appear to say.",[10,89,90],{},"That is the reporting trap in full. A screenshot showing \"50,000 profit\" with no mention of the unit is technically true and practically worthless, and it is why cent screenshots travel. The trap only catches absolute figures. Everything expressed as a percentage is immune by construction.",[14,92,94],{"id":93},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,96,97,98,102,103,106,107,110,111,114,115,102,119,122],{},"Across the accounts published on ShowMyTrades that have trading history (August 2026), median ",[71,99,101],{"href":100},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-time-weighted-return","time-weighted return"," is ",[36,104,105],{},"+3.2%",", median deepest drawdown is ",[36,108,109],{},"9.7%",", median profit factor is ",[36,112,113],{},"1.28"," and median ",[71,116,118],{"href":117},"\u002Fguides\u002Fwin-rate-is-not-an-edge","win rate",[36,120,121],{},"68.8%",". Those last two are net figures: swap and commission are folded into each trade before any statistic is computed. All four are directly comparable to a cent account's own four, and none of them care what the balance column says.",[10,124,125],{},"The platform holds 10,000+ connected accounts across 703 distinct broker servers, so cent accounts are certainly among them. We publish no count and cannot compute an honest one, precisely because the currency code misses the brokers running cent-style accounts on standard denomination.",[14,127,129],{"id":128},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,131,132],{},"Nothing on the page converts for you. The account header prints the broker's currency code next to the platform, the broker and the leverage, and every monetary figure is formatted in that unit — the currency rows of the stats panel, Balance, Equity, Highest $, Profit, Deposits and Withdrawals, all carry the code, because a broker's figures are never relabelled as dollars.",[10,134,135,136,140,141,39,144,39,147,39,150,153,154,157],{},"The percentage modules are unaffected: Gain, ",[71,137,139],{"href":138},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-absolute-gain","Abs. Gain",", Drawdown, DD on Balance, the Monthly Returns table and the ratios inside Advanced Statistics. The absolute rows in that same panel do read in cents — ",[36,142,143],{},"Total Commissions",[36,145,146],{},"Total Swap Paid",[36,148,149],{},"Avg. Win",[36,151,152],{},"Avg. Loss"," and ",[36,155,156],{},"Expectancy",". Note that the last three print a pip figure beside the currency figure, and only the currency half is denominated in cents.",[10,159,160,161,164],{},"One flag exists but never reaches the page. The account record carries an ",[29,162,163],{},"is_cent"," column, added so the backend could divide balance and equity by 100 before statistics are computed. The switch that would set it is commented out of account settings, so nobody can turn it on, and no public endpoint reads it. Where the platform genuinely needs to know an account is centesimal — the internal broker-cost analysis — it derives that server-side from the currency code, and that result is not surfaced on the account page. In practice the currency code is the whole story.",[14,166,168],{"id":167},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[170,171,172,187,193,199,205],"ul",{},[173,174,175,178,179,186],"li",{},[36,176,177],{},"\"A cent account is a demo account.\""," It is not. Real money, real execution, real costs — and the header shows the same green ",[71,180,182,185],{"href":181},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account",[36,183,184],{},"Real Account"," badge"," as any other live account.",[173,188,189,192],{},[36,190,191],{},"\"I have to flag it for my statistics to be correct.\""," You do not. Every percentage on the page is a ratio, and ratios ignore the unit.",[173,194,195,198],{},[36,196,197],{},"\"50,000 profit is a serious result.\""," It is $500. Check the currency code before the number.",[173,200,201,204],{},[36,202,203],{},"\"My lot sizes carry over to a standard account.\""," They do not. Typing the same 0.5 on a standard account is one hundred times the exposure you are used to.",[173,206,207,210,211,215],{},[36,208,209],{},"\"I can drop one into a portfolio.\""," Not safely. A ",[71,212,214],{"href":213},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-trading-portfolio","portfolio"," sums balances as reported and normalises USC to USD for the label, so the totals come out a hundred times too large with nothing flagging it.",[10,217,218,219,223],{},"The contract-size arithmetic, position sizing in either unit, and the graduation trap are covered in ",[71,220,222],{"href":221},"\u002Fguides\u002Fcent-accounts-explained","cent accounts explained",".",{"title":31,"searchDepth":225,"depth":225,"links":226},2,[227,228,229,230,231],{"id":16,"depth":225,"text":17},{"id":83,"depth":225,"text":84},{"id":93,"depth":225,"text":94},{"id":128,"depth":225,"text":129},{"id":167,"depth":225,"text":168},"Brokers","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","A cent account denominates every monetary figure in hundredths of the base currency, so a balance reading 50,000 is really $500. Percentages are unaffected.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-cent-account",[240,241,242,243],"what-is-a-lot-in-forex","what-is-leverage","what-is-a-pip","what-is-a-demo-vs-live-account",{"title":5,"description":234},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-cent-account","Cent Account","k4dR91oMs_VLN_4UYTpRuBcb21z9qAT2ylLnGyWG5RM",[249,504,700,946],{"id":250,"title":251,"body":252,"category":232,"date":233,"description":493,"draft":235,"extension":236,"meta":494,"navigation":235,"path":181,"related":495,"seo":500,"stem":501,"term":502,"updated":233,"__hash__":503},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account.md","What Is a Demo Account? Demo vs Live Explained",{"type":7,"value":253,"toc":486},[254,257,259,262,309,315,318,320,323,331,339,341,360,363,374,376,379,445,447,479],[10,255,256],{},"A demo account trades simulated money against a broker's price feed. A live account trades real money against real liquidity. The charts look identical, which is exactly why the gap between them is underestimated: what changes is not the price you see but the fill you get, the costs you are charged and the consequence of being wrong.",[14,258,17],{"id":16},[10,260,261],{},"A demo server accepts your order and confirms it against the quoted price. There is no counterparty, no position in a book and no capital at risk, so several constraints that shape a live fill simply do not exist.",[170,263,264,275,281,292,303],{},[173,265,266,269,270,274],{},[36,267,268],{},"No depth, no queue."," Demo fills the whole order at the quoted price whatever the size. Live, an order works through available depth and the remainder ",[71,271,273],{"href":272},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","fills worse",", or partially.",[173,276,277,280],{},[36,278,279],{},"No requotes, no rejections."," Demo servers rarely refuse an order. Live servers do, most often in the seconds when the trade mattered most.",[173,282,283,286,287,291],{},[36,284,285],{},"Idealised spread."," Demo feeds frequently carry typical rather than instantaneous ",[71,288,290],{"href":289},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread",", so the widening around releases and the daily rollover is muted or absent.",[173,293,294,297,298,302],{},[36,295,296],{},"Costs are modelled, not billed."," ",[71,299,301],{"href":300},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-swap-in-forex","Swap"," on demo may follow a stale schedule or none at all. Live swap is set per instrument, changes, and is charged triple on the rollover day.",[173,304,305,308],{},[36,306,307],{},"Unlimited resets."," A blown demo is refilled in one click and leaves no mark on the curve. A blown live account is the curve.",[22,310,313],{"className":311,"code":312,"language":27},[25],"Live result = demo result\n            - slippage on entries and exits\n            - entries that were rejected or requoted away\n            - real spread widening and real swap\n            - the trades you did not take because it was your money\n",[29,314,312],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,316,317],{},"The last line is not a joke. Position sizing, holding through a drawdown and following the plan are different activities when the money is real.",[14,319,84],{"id":83},[10,321,322],{},"Every difference above runs the same direction. Demo does not add random noise to a result, it removes friction, and it removes it precisely where friction is expensive: at the entry, at the stop, and at the rollover. A demo track record is therefore an upper bound, not an estimate.",[10,324,325,326,330],{},"The effect scales with trade frequency and shrinks with target size, the same arithmetic that governs ",[71,327,329],{"href":328},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtesting",". On this platform the median trade lasts 2.4 hours — short enough that execution cost is a real share of the outcome, not a rounding error.",[10,332,333,334,338],{},"None of which makes demo useless. It is the correct place to check that an EA runs, that ",[71,335,337],{"href":336},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-magic-number","magic numbers"," are set and that lot calculations are right. It tests whether the system works. It does not test whether it earns.",[14,340,94],{"id":93},[10,342,343,344,347,348,351,352,355,356,359],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the median account is up ",[36,345,346],{},"+3.2% time-weighted",", with a ",[36,349,350],{},"9.7% deepest drawdown"," and a ",[36,353,354],{},"median profit factor of 1.28",". ",[36,357,358],{},"63.0%"," are positive over time.",[10,361,362],{},"Those numbers include live accounts, and they are what real friction looks like at scale. A frictionless version of the same population would read better on every one of them, because none of the costs that produce them are fully charged on a demo server.",[10,364,365,366,369,370,373],{},"The largest of those costs are billed rather than modelled: ",[36,367,368],{},"$4,782,670"," in commission and ",[36,371,372],{},"$862,547"," in swap across that set. A demo server can display both figures and never has to collect either.",[14,375,129],{"id":128},[10,377,378],{},"The point worth making is that this one is not self-declared.",[170,380,381,394,409,416],{},[173,382,383,384,387,388,58,390,393],{},"Every published account page shows a ",[36,385,386],{},"Certifications"," row in the header. The first badge reads ",[36,389,184],{},[36,391,392],{},"Demo Account",", and it is derived from the trade mode reported by the broker's server, not from a field the owner fills in. A server whose name contains \"demo\" resolves to Demo regardless of what else is reported. Hovering the badge explains what the status means for the numbers underneath.",[173,395,396,397,153,400,403,404,408],{},"Beside it sit ",[36,398,399],{},"Track Record",[36,401,402],{},"Trading Privileges",", marking whether history and ownership have been ",[71,405,407],{"href":406},"\u002Fguides\u002Fthird-party-verification-explained","independently corroborated",". Each shows a warning icon when they have not.",[173,410,411,412,415],{},"The ",[36,413,414],{},"Info"," row carries platform, broker with the trade server name in its tooltip, account currency and leverage — the environment the result was produced in.",[173,417,411,418,421,422,425,426,39,429,39,432,39,435,39,438,153,441,444],{},[36,419,420],{},"Terminal"," panel (",[36,423,424],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5) reports ",[36,427,428],{},"Ping",[36,430,431],{},"Retransmission",[36,433,434],{},"Terminal build",[36,436,437],{},"Memory",[36,439,440],{},"Auto trading",[36,442,443],{},"DLL imports",": the live connection profile behind the fills.",[14,446,168],{"id":167},[448,449,450,456,462,468],"ol",{},[173,451,452,455],{},[36,453,454],{},"\"Six months on demo means I'm ready.\""," It means the process works. Neither the fills nor the behaviour under a real drawdown have been tested.",[173,457,458,461],{},[36,459,460],{},"\"Demo prices are fake.\""," The feed is usually the real one. The simulation is in the fill, not the quote.",[173,463,464,467],{},[36,465,466],{},"\"A small live account is the same as demo.\""," It is far better, but very small accounts carry their own distortions — minimum lot sizes, cent-account scaling and commission that dwarfs a tiny balance.",[173,469,470,473,474,478],{},[36,471,472],{},"\"A demo record is still a record.\""," It is a record of code that runs. ",[71,475,477],{"href":476},"\u002Fguides\u002Ffinding-real-trading-accounts","Anyone reading a published result"," should check the account-type badge first, before the return.",[10,480,481,482,223],{},"For the patterns that separate a real result from a polished one, read ",[71,483,485],{"href":484},"\u002Fguides\u002Fspotting-fake-ea-results","spotting fake EA results",{"title":31,"searchDepth":225,"depth":225,"links":487},[488,489,490,491,492],{"id":16,"depth":225,"text":17},{"id":83,"depth":225,"text":84},{"id":93,"depth":225,"text":94},{"id":128,"depth":225,"text":129},{"id":167,"depth":225,"text":168},"A demo account trades simulated money on real prices. Why demo fills flatter a strategy, and how ShowMyTrades reads Real or Demo status from the broker.",{},[496,497,498,499],"what-is-backtesting","what-is-slippage","what-is-order-execution","what-is-a-verified-track-record",{"title":251,"description":493},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account","Demo vs Live Account","k47nyJkeiVE77BgYlrP3uoOnoHLeksfWxEFL_2at1lI",{"id":505,"title":506,"body":507,"category":688,"date":233,"description":689,"draft":235,"extension":236,"meta":690,"navigation":235,"path":73,"related":691,"seo":696,"stem":697,"term":698,"updated":233,"__hash__":699},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-lot-in-forex.md","What Is a Lot in Forex? Standard, Mini and Micro",{"type":7,"value":508,"toc":681},[509,512,514,517,523,526,532,539,541,544,551,568,570,584,601,603,623,638,644,652,654,674],[10,510,511],{},"A lot is the unit in which trade size is measured. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency of the pair, a mini lot is 10,000 and a micro lot is 1,000, so a position of 0.10 lots on EUR\u002FUSD controls 10,000 euro. Every volume figure on a track record — and almost every cost a broker charges — is denominated in lots.",[14,513,17],{"id":16},[10,515,516],{},"The lot is a multiplier applied to a contract size that the broker defines per symbol.",[22,518,521],{"className":519,"code":520,"language":27},[25],"Units traded = Lots × Contract size\n\nStandard lot   1.00  = 100,000 units\nMini lot       0.10  =  10,000 units\nMicro lot      0.01  =   1,000 units\n",[29,522,520],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,524,525],{},"Contract size is what converts a price movement into money. One pip is 0.0001 on a five-digit forex pair and 0.01 on a yen pair, so the value of a pip follows directly:",[22,527,530],{"className":528,"code":529,"language":27},[25],"Pip value = Lots × Contract size × pip size, converted into account currency\n          = 1.00 × 100,000 × 0.0001 = $10 per pip on EUR\u002FUSD\n",[29,531,529],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,533,534,535,538],{},"The 100,000 figure is a forex convention, not a rule. Gold, indices, energies and crypto CFDs each carry their own contract size, set by the broker and visible in the symbol specification, so \"one lot\" on XAUUSD is not \"one lot\" on EUR\u002FUSD. On a ",[71,536,537],{"href":238},"cent account"," the account currency is scaled instead, which shrinks the effective size of the same nominal lot again.",[14,540,84],{"id":83},[10,542,543],{},"Lots are the unit brokers bill in. Commission is quoted per lot, per side or round turn. Swap is quoted per lot, per night. Spread cost is the spread in pips multiplied by the pip value, which is itself a function of contract size. Nothing in that list scales with the number of trades — it all scales with volume.",[10,545,546,547,223],{},"That makes total volume the denominator that makes two accounts comparable: cost in dollars says nothing on its own, because a large account trading big size should pay more. Cost per lot divides the account size out, and it is the only form in which ",[71,548,550],{"href":549},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","one broker's charges can be held against another's",[10,552,553,554,557,558,562,563,567],{},"Volume is also the one number a trader chooses outright. ",[71,555,556],{"href":117},"Win rate",", drawdown and ",[71,559,561],{"href":560},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","profit factor"," are outcomes; lot size is an instruction, given before the market has any say, which is why a volume column read on its own reveals ",[71,564,566],{"href":565},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","position sizing"," discipline faster than any performance metric.",[14,569,94],{"id":93},[10,571,572,573,576,577,580,581,223],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. The public accounts here have traded ",[36,574,575],{},"1,724,575 lots"," (August 2026) — roughly ",[36,578,579],{},"770 lots per published account with history"," — across ",[36,582,583],{},"703 distinct broker servers",[10,585,586,587,153,590,596,597,600],{},"The cost side of that volume comes to ",[36,588,589],{},"$4,782,670 in commissions",[36,591,592,593],{},"$862,547 in ",[71,594,595],{"href":300},"swap"," on the trades synchronised here, with ",[36,598,599],{},"86.3% of accounts that pay any swap net negative on it",". Resist dividing one by the other for a headline rate: the totals cover different populations, and the mix underneath contains symbols with unequal contract sizes, brokers quoting per side against round turn, and spread-only accounts paying no commission at all. Cost per lot is the right comparison — it is simply one to run on a single account, where both numbers come from the same trades.",[14,602,129],{"id":128},[10,604,605,608,609,613,614,617,618,153,620,622],{},[36,606,607],{},"Total Lots"," sits in the ",[610,611,612],"em",{},"Trades"," column of ",[36,615,616],{},"Advanced Statistics",", shown to two decimals, directly above ",[36,619,143],{},[36,621,146],{},". All three are sums over the account's closed buy and sell trades, calculated on our servers, with deposits and withdrawals excluded. Both cost rows keep the sign the broker recorded, so commission normally reads as a negative number and swap turns red when the account paid more than it earned. Reading the three rows together gives the cost-per-lot arithmetic above for one account, on real broker records rather than a published price list.",[10,624,625,626,629,630,633,634,637],{},"Per trade, the ",[36,627,628],{},"Volume"," column in ",[36,631,632],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries the size of every ticket, to two decimals. Account owners can remove it from public pages and widgets with the ",[36,635,636],{},"Lots"," toggle in the account's privacy settings, so a public account page without a volume column is a deliberate choice rather than missing data.",[10,639,411,640,643],{},[36,641,642],{},"Duration"," view in the same Advanced Statistics panel encodes volume as bubble size — over the most recent 200 closed trades — which is where an escalating lot progression becomes visible as growing circles rather than a column of numbers.",[10,645,646,647,651],{},"To size a position before placing it, the ",[71,648,650],{"href":649},"\u002Ftools\u002Fposition-size-calculator","position size calculator"," takes account balance, risk and stop distance and returns the lot size, with the contract size selectable as Micro Lot (1,000), Mini Lot (10,000) or Standard Lot (100,000).",[14,653,168],{"id":167},[170,655,656,662,668],{},[173,657,658,661],{},[36,659,660],{},"\"0.01 lots is a small position.\""," Relative to what. A micro lot on EUR\u002FUSD risks about $0.10 per pip; on a $200 account with a 50-pip stop that is 2.5% of equity.",[173,663,664,667],{},[36,665,666],{},"\"Total Lots shows the size I trade.\""," It is a sum. The same total can come from ten thousand micro trades or one hundred standard ones — the trade table is where the distribution lives.",[173,669,670,673],{},[36,671,672],{},"\"More volume means a better trader.\""," Volume measures activity and cost. It carries no information about whether any of it was profitable.",[10,675,676,677,223],{},"For reading a volume column as a risk fingerprint, see the ",[71,678,680],{"href":679},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-volume-analysis","trading volume analysis guide",{"title":31,"searchDepth":225,"depth":225,"links":682},[683,684,685,686,687],{"id":16,"depth":225,"text":17},{"id":83,"depth":225,"text":84},{"id":93,"depth":225,"text":94},{"id":128,"depth":225,"text":129},{"id":167,"depth":225,"text":168},"Costs","A lot is the unit trade size is measured in: 100,000 units of base currency for one standard lot. The contract size arithmetic, and 1.7 million real lots.",{},[692,693,694,695],"what-is-position-sizing","what-is-a-spread","what-is-a-swap-in-forex","what-is-average-trade-length",{"title":506,"description":689},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-lot-in-forex","Lot","JciCfYjJ3q1fyMdS6We0M0PVmIiJgVcO0mug9Dlj2AE",{"id":701,"title":702,"body":703,"category":936,"date":233,"description":937,"draft":235,"extension":236,"meta":938,"navigation":235,"path":78,"related":939,"seo":942,"stem":943,"term":944,"updated":233,"__hash__":945},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-pip.md","What Is a Pip in Forex? Pip vs Point vs Pipette",{"type":7,"value":704,"toc":929},[705,708,710,716,726,729,731,737,743,750,752,762,778,788,790,894,896,922],[10,706,707],{},"A pip is the standard unit of price movement in a currency pair: 0.0001 for most pairs, 0.01 for pairs quoted in Japanese yen. It measures distance, not money. What a pip is worth depends on the contract size, the number of lots and the currency the account is denominated in, which is why two accounts can both report +3,000 pips and be a thousandfold apart in cash.",[14,709,17],{"id":16},[22,711,714],{"className":712,"code":713,"language":27},[25],"Pip size  = 0.0001            most pairs\n          = 0.01              JPY pairs\nPipette   = 0.1 pip           the 5th (or 3rd) decimal\n\nPip value = Pip size x Contract size x Lots     -> in the quote currency\n            then converted into the account currency at the current rate\n\nEUR\u002FUSD, USD account, 1.00 lot:  0.0001 x 100,000 x 1.00 = $10.00 per pip\nEUR\u002FUSD, USD account, 0.01 lot:  0.0001 x 100,000 x 0.01 = $0.10 per pip\n",[29,715,713],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,717,718,721,722,725],{},[36,719,720],{},"Pip, point and pipette."," Most brokers quote fractional pips, so EUR\u002FUSD prints five decimals — 1.08432 — and that final digit is a pipette, one tenth of a pip. MetaTrader counts in ",[36,723,724],{},"points",", where a point is the smallest quotable increment. On a 5-digit feed, 10 points = 1 pip. An Expert Advisor configured with a 200-point stop has a 20-pip stop, and the same input on a 4-digit server would give it a 200-pip stop. Misreading that single conversion is one of the more expensive configuration errors in retail trading.",[10,727,728],{},"Outside forex the word travels badly. Gold, indices and crypto CFDs each carry a broker-defined contract size and tick size, and \"pip\" is used loosely for whatever the platform displays. The only safe reading there is the contract specification for that symbol on that server.",[14,730,84],{"id":83},[10,732,733,734,736],{},"Pip value is the bridge between a stop distance and a risk amount, which makes it the core input of ",[71,735,566],{"href":565},": risk in money equals stop distance in pips, times pip value, times lots. Get that conversion right and lot size becomes arithmetic instead of habit.",[10,738,739,740,742],{},"As a comparison metric between accounts, though, pips fail completely. The same pip total means a different amount of money at every lot size, in every quote currency, on every instrument, and on a ",[71,741,537],{"href":238}," it means a hundredth of what it appears to. Pips also say nothing about the capital that was exposed to earn them, which is the only thing that makes one result comparable to another.",[10,744,745,746,749],{},"Percentages do not have this problem. ",[71,747,748],{"href":100},"Time-weighted return"," is comparable across account sizes by construction. Pips never are.",[14,751,94],{"id":93},[10,753,754,755,757,758,761],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), ",[36,756,575],{}," have been traded and ",[36,759,760],{},"15,436,464 trades"," synchronised. Position sizes in that population span several orders of magnitude, which is precisely why one account's pip total cannot be set beside another's and read as a ranking.",[10,763,764,765,39,768,39,771,39,774,777],{},"The figures that survive the comparison are the normalised ones: ",[36,766,767],{},"median TWR +3.2%",[36,769,770],{},"63.0% of accounts positive over time",[36,772,773],{},"median deepest drawdown 9.7%",[36,775,776],{},"median 171 closed trades",". Those hold their meaning whether the account holds $500 or $500,000.",[10,779,780,781,783,784,787],{},"Cost shows the same trick applied in the other direction. Those accounts have paid ",[36,782,589],{}," across 1,724,575 lots — roughly ",[36,785,786],{},"$2.77 per lot",". That number is comparable because it is divided by volume. The raw total is not.",[14,789,129],{"id":128},[170,791,792,844,854,874,887],{},[173,793,794,796,797,800,801,39,804,153,807,809,810,39,813,153,816,819,820,825,826,39,830,39,833,39,836,39,839,153,841,843],{},[36,795,616],{}," (the ",[610,798,799],{},"Table"," view; the same panel also switches to ",[610,802,803],{},"Weekday",[610,805,806],{},"Hourly",[610,808,642],{},") reports ",[36,811,812],{},"Total Pips",[36,814,815],{},"Best Trade (Pips)",[36,817,818],{},"Worst Trade (Pips)",", plus ",[71,821,823],{"href":822},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-expectancy",[36,824,156],{},", which is printed in pips and in account currency side by side. Beside them sit ",[71,827,828],{"href":73},[36,829,607],{},[36,831,832],{},"Total Trades",[36,834,835],{},"Win Rate",[36,837,838],{},"Avg. Trade Length",[36,840,143],{},[36,842,146],{},". Read pips next to lots or they mean nothing.",[173,845,846,849,850,853],{},[36,847,848],{},"Breakdown Statistics",", on the ",[610,851,852],{},"By Symbol"," tab, splits pips into long, short and total per instrument, so you can see which pairs actually produced the movement.",[173,855,411,856,859,860,862,863,866,867,153,870,873],{},[36,857,858],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[36,861,632],{}," has a ",[36,864,865],{},"Pips"," column per ticket, computed from ",[36,868,869],{},"Open Price",[36,871,872],{},"Close Price"," using the correct digit convention for that symbol.",[173,875,411,876,879,880,883,884,886],{},[36,877,878],{},"Account Stats"," panel opens with ",[36,881,882],{},"Gain",", the time-weighted return, and prints ",[36,885,139],{}," on the row directly below it. Those are the figures to quote when comparing yourself to anyone else.",[173,888,411,889,893],{},[71,890,892],{"href":891},"\u002Ftools\u002Fpip-calculator","pip calculator"," converts a pip into money for a specific pair, lot size and account currency.",[14,895,168],{"id":167},[448,897,898,904,910,916],{},[173,899,900,903],{},[36,901,902],{},"\"A pip is $10.\""," Only for one standard lot of a USD-quoted pair on a USD account. Change any of the three and the number changes.",[173,905,906,909],{},[36,907,908],{},"\"Points and pips are the same.\""," On 5-digit and 3-digit feeds, 10 points make 1 pip. Stop and take-profit inputs are usually in points.",[173,911,912,915],{},[36,913,914],{},"\"More pips means a better trader.\""," A thousand pips at 0.01 lots is $100. A hundred pips at 5.00 lots is $5,000.",[173,917,918,921],{},[36,919,920],{},"\"Pips measure risk.\""," Pips measure distance. Risk is that distance converted into money and then divided by equity.",[10,923,924,925,223],{},"To convert pips, lots and margin into figures for your own account, see the ",[71,926,928],{"href":927},"\u002Fguides\u002Fforex-calculators-guide","guide to forex calculators",{"title":31,"searchDepth":225,"depth":225,"links":930},[931,932,933,934,935],{"id":16,"depth":225,"text":17},{"id":83,"depth":225,"text":84},{"id":93,"depth":225,"text":94},{"id":128,"depth":225,"text":129},{"id":167,"depth":225,"text":168},"Metrics","A pip is the standard unit of price movement in forex, usually 0.0001. How pip value depends on lot size and quote currency, and why pip totals mislead.",{},[692,693,940,941],"what-is-expectancy","what-is-time-weighted-return",{"title":702,"description":937},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-pip","Pip","3wEqyqDEVMgiEOyCpuz7tb7ySe1STFyTd5GsXjrhYFc",{"id":947,"title":948,"body":949,"category":1160,"date":233,"description":1161,"draft":1162,"extension":236,"meta":1163,"navigation":235,"path":1164,"related":1165,"seo":1168,"stem":1169,"term":1170,"updated":233,"__hash__":1171},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-leverage.md","What Is Leverage in Forex? Formula and Real Numbers",{"type":7,"value":950,"toc":1153},[951,954,956,959,965,968,1022,1025,1028,1040,1042,1045,1048,1064,1066,1069,1077,1080,1082,1085,1118,1120,1146],[10,952,953],{},"Leverage is the ratio between the size of a position and the capital required to hold it. A broker offering 1:100 lets you control $100,000 of currency with $1,000 of your own money set aside as margin. It is a borrowing facility, not a strategy: it changes how much capital a trade ties up, and nothing else about the trade.",[14,955,17],{"id":16},[10,957,958],{},"Margin is the deposit the broker freezes while a position is open. The arithmetic is short.",[22,960,963],{"className":961,"code":962,"language":27},[25],"Position value  = Contract size × Lots × Price\nRequired margin = Position value ÷ Leverage\n\nEffective leverage = Total open position value ÷ Account equity\n",[29,964,962],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,966,967],{},"One standard lot of EUR\u002FUSD is 100,000 units. At 1.0850 the position is worth $108,500.",[969,970,971,987],"table",{},[972,973,974],"thead",{},[975,976,977,981,984],"tr",{},[978,979,980],"th",{},"Account leverage",[978,982,983],{},"Margin frozen",[978,985,986],{},"Cost of a 50-pip adverse move",[988,989,990,1002,1012],"tbody",{},[975,991,992,996,999],{},[993,994,995],"td",{},"1:30",[993,997,998],{},"$3,616.67",[993,1000,1001],{},"$500",[975,1003,1004,1007,1010],{},[993,1005,1006],{},"1:100",[993,1008,1009],{},"$1,085.00",[993,1011,1001],{},[975,1013,1014,1017,1020],{},[993,1015,1016],{},"1:500",[993,1018,1019],{},"$217.00",[993,1021,1001],{},[10,1023,1024],{},"The position is identical in all three rows. Leverage moved the margin, never the risk.",[10,1026,1027],{},"The number that actually describes exposure is effective leverage: the notional value of everything open divided by equity. A trader on a 1:500 account running 0.05 lots on $10,000 sits at 0.54:1 — less exposed than someone who paid cash for the same currency. A trader on a 1:30 account running 2.5 lots on the same $10,000 sits at 27:1, pressed against the ceiling the regulator set. The tier says nothing about either of them; the position size says everything.",[10,1029,1030,1031,1035,1036,223],{},"Run it on your own instrument with the ",[71,1032,1034],{"href":1033},"\u002Ftools\u002Fleverage-calculator","leverage calculator"," and the ",[71,1037,1039],{"href":1038},"\u002Ftools\u002Fmargin-calculator","margin calculator",[14,1041,84],{"id":83},[10,1043,1044],{},"High leverage does not lose money. It removes the constraint that used to stop you.",[10,1046,1047],{},"On a 1:30 account, $10,000 of equity caps you at about 2.7 standard lots of EUR\u002FUSD before margin runs out — the broker enforces a position-size ceiling on your behalf. On 1:500 the same $10,000 supports 46 lots. Nothing improved; a ceiling was removed.",[10,1049,1050,1051,1055,1056,1058,1059,1063],{},"The chain that empties accounts is always the same. Leverage permits a large position, the large position produces a loss too big to sit through, and the resulting drawdown demands a return arithmetic will not supply — ",[71,1052,1054],{"href":1053},"\u002Fguides\u002Fmaximum-drawdown-explained","a 50% loss needs a 100% gain to get back to flat",". Leverage is where the chain starts, but the link that does the damage is size, which is why ",[71,1057,566],{"href":565}," is the control worth having and the ",[71,1060,1062],{"href":1061},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-margin-call","margin call"," is the symptom rather than the cause.",[14,1065,94],{"id":93},[10,1067,1068],{},"The 10,000+ accounts connected to ShowMyTrades (August 2026) sit across 703 distinct broker servers, on MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradeLocker. Effectively every leverage tier on the market is represented somewhere in that set, from a regulated 1:30 cap to offshore 1:500 and beyond.",[10,1070,1071,1072,1076],{},"The outcomes do not sort by tier. Across the public accounts with trading history, the median ",[71,1073,1075],{"href":1074},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-maximum-drawdown","deepest drawdown"," is 9.7% — but 38.5% of them never went more than 5% underwater, while 38.2% gave back more than a fifth of their peak and 17.6% more than half of it.",[10,1078,1079],{},"Two groups of almost identical size, drawn from the same pool of leverage settings, ending an order of magnitude apart. What separates them is not what the broker permitted. These figures describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general, and within that population the variable that moved was size.",[14,1081,129],{"id":128},[10,1083,1084],{},"The leverage the broker granted appears as a badge in the account page header, next to the broker name and the account currency. It is read from the terminal, not typed in by the owner.",[10,1086,1087,1088,1090,1091,355,1094,153,1097,1103,1104,1110,1111,153,1114,1117],{},"What the trader did with it shows up elsewhere. ",[36,1089,607],{}," in the advanced statistics is the ",[71,1092,1093],{"href":679},"cumulative volume actually traded",[36,1095,1096],{},"Drawdown",[36,1098,1099],{},[71,1100,1102],{"href":1101},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-drawdown-on-balance","DD on Balance"," in the account stats panel show what that volume cost at the worst moment — the first on equity including open positions, the second on closed balance only. The ",[36,1105,1106],{},[71,1107,1109],{"href":1108},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-equity-curve","Equity Curve"," in the charts viewer plots ",[36,1112,1113],{},"Balance",[36,1115,1116],{},"Equity"," together, and the gap between the two lines is where an oversized open position hides until it is closed.",[14,1119,168],{"id":167},[170,1121,1122,1128,1134,1140],{},[173,1123,1124,1127],{},[36,1125,1126],{},"\"1:500 is riskier than 1:30.\""," The account setting is not risk. Two accounts holding identical positions carry identical risk whatever the broker permits. Higher leverage only widens the range of sizes you are allowed to choose badly from.",[173,1129,1130,1133],{},[36,1131,1132],{},"\"More leverage means more profit.\""," It means less capital tied up as margin. Profit and loss are set by position size and price movement, both unchanged by the tier.",[173,1135,1136,1139],{},[36,1137,1138],{},"\"Free margin is spare buying power.\""," Free margin is the distance between you and a stop out. Spending it is how a manageable loss becomes a liquidation.",[173,1141,1142,1145],{},[36,1143,1144],{},"\"My broker caps me at 1:30, so I am safe.\""," A regulatory cap limits maximum total size, not the risk on any single trade. An account can still be lost on one badly sized position well inside a 1:30 limit.",[10,1147,1148,1149,1152],{},"Every number above has a calculator behind it — see ",[71,1150,1151],{"href":927},"the guide to forex calculators"," for how they fit together.",{"title":31,"searchDepth":225,"depth":225,"links":1154},[1155,1156,1157,1158,1159],{"id":16,"depth":225,"text":17},{"id":83,"depth":225,"text":84},{"id":93,"depth":225,"text":94},{"id":128,"depth":225,"text":129},{"id":167,"depth":225,"text":168},"Risk","Leverage is the ratio between position size and the capital backing it. Here is the margin formula, a worked example, and drawdown data from thousands of accounts.",false,{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-leverage",[1166,692,1167],"what-is-a-margin-call","what-is-maximum-drawdown",{"title":948,"description":1161},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-leverage","Leverage","9fzrPGzcUcu5W9wxB-HAiIpCi3gDQHwpcPzkOAH6NtA",1787415691587]