How Profit/Loss is calculated in MT4? And mysterious message "Off quote".

[Guest Dang87]

Hi everyone,

 

I am not quite sure how P/L is calculated in MT4 when I traded recently.

I bought 0.01 of GER30.s at 12028.5, closed the trade at 12070.9. The profit was 17.25, which didn't seem related to the amount (12070.9 - 12028.5 = 42.4).

Nonetheless, I realize the ratio 17.25 / 42.4 = 0.4 is always held when calculated the P/L for this GER30.s, but still don't understand where this ratio comes from.

One disadvantage of this MT4 platform on mobile is it doesn't show the margin required, expected profit or loss while placing a trade. I have to work out this information on my own.

 

Another obscure message is "Off quote" when placing trades, without any additional information to explain what's wrong.

 

Thank you very much.

[Caseynotes]

Hi , can't really comment on your figures as I'm not sure where they come from or what your base currency is but will say 2 important points. Beware demo, it is a construct simulation built for use by developers who swap values as per their own requirements. Demo is not supposed to be actual and never has been, that's the same for all brokers. And beware trading off a mobile, a mobile can never convey the same amount of information as a computer screen so only use it once you are sure.

 

The inputs have changed recently, my last trade on MT4 dax was on Thursday afternoon (see pic). Not very confidant so it was at £1 per point and the auto trailing stop took the trade off at around break even. The point is that your live account history should look like this. Size 1.00, gain 6.8 points (=  £6.80). Available size is still as low as 0.10 which is 10 pence per point but 0.01 wont work on live. Forget the numbers on demo, the construct was not built for us, instead use it to see if your system over time is plus or minus.

 

IMO use demo to learn the functions but get onto minimal size live as soon as possible and that goes for all the platforms, IG, MT4 and Prorealtime.