If you are interested in forex trading and don’t know where to start, then you are at the right place to learn about forex trading. In this series of blogs, I will be discussing couple of basic terms to know before diving into forex trading. One of the most commonly used term in forex is “PIP” or known otherwise as “Point in Percentage”. We shall look into detail what exactly is PIP, how can it be calculated and what is its benefits in forex trading.
Defining PIP
In forex, fluctuations of currency prices are quite minor and thus, they are measured in decimal points. A pip is considered as an incremental price movement with specific value dependent on the forex market. This standardized size of pip protects investors with huge losses.
In some cases, a pip consists of the fourth decimal point of a price that is equal to 1/100th of 1%. For example, if EUR / USD moves from 1.07172 to 1.07182 then the difference in the rise in value which is 0.0001 USD equals to 1 pip.
Defining Pipette
Many brokers quote the value of pips in “5 and 3” rather than “2 and 4” which denotes the pip values in a fraction. These fraction values are called pipettes. Each fractional pip equals to “one tenth of a pip”. Each value of the pip or pipette will differ based on the currency that the investor/trader has opened in. In a way, we can say that a pip value enables us to calculate the profit and loss before diving in to forex trading.
Calculation of PIP
PIP values varies based on the currency pairs that you are trading in. It also depends on the base currency and counter currency. The pip value is calculate via the simple formula as shown below:
(size of a pip) x (base currency) = PIP value
Another example of understanding what a pip value is that if GBP/USD moves from 1.30542 to 1.30543, then the 0.00001 USD increase is 1 pip value.
Lets look at another example which denotes the calculation of PIP value in forex trading. We will consider the example of USD/JPY. In this case, the value of PIP depends on the exchange rate of USD/JPY.
Suppose that the buy price for USD/JPY is 106.20 and the lot size is 10,000, using the above mentioned formula, the value of the pip will be 0.94 USD. Likewise, if you buy 10,000 USD at the rate of 106.20 yen and you earn $0.94 for every pip value increase. If you sold that same pip at 106.40 yen, then you gain profit of $18.80 but if you sold at 106.00, then you will lose $18.80.
Now that you have understood what exactly is pip and pipette and how to calculate the value of pip before diving deeper into the world of forex trading, be very careful before investing money into money into currency where fluctuation levels are minimal in order to avoid losing your money.
