Futures PnL & ROE Calculator
Profit, fees and return on margin for any leveraged trade.
How it works
Gross profit on a linear contract is simply the price difference times the quantity — leverage does not change it. What leverage changes is the margin you posted, and therefore the return on that margin.
Fees are charged on the full notional twice, once entering and once exiting, which is why high leverage plus a small target is such a poor combination: the move is small, the notional is large, and the round-trip fee can exceed the edge you were trading.
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How the Futures PnL & ROE Calculator works
A futures PnL calculator shows what a leveraged trade actually returns after fees — gross profit, round-trip costs, net profit, and the return on the margin you posted. The last number is the one that makes leveraged results comparable to anything else.
Gross profit ignores leverage entirely
On a linear (USDT-margined) contract, profit is the price difference times the quantity. Leverage does not appear. A 0.5 BTC position gains the same dollars on a $3,000 move whether you opened it at 2× or at 50×.
What leverage changes is the margin you had to post. At 2× that position ties up far more capital than at 50×, so the same dollar profit represents a very different return on capital. This is why ROE and PnL are different questions, and why quoting one without the other is close to meaningless.
Fees are charged twice on the full notional
The fee applies to the whole position value, both entering and exiting — not to your margin. At 0.055% taker each way, a $30,000 notional costs about $33 to open and close. That is trivial against a $3,000 target and ruinous against a $60 one.
This is the arithmetic that quietly kills high-leverage scalping. Large notional plus small target means the round trip can consume most of the edge. If fees exceed roughly a quarter of gross profit, the calculator flags it — that is usually a sign the trade needs a bigger move or a smaller size, and that funding cost is worth checking too if you plan to hold.
FAQ
What is ROE in futures trading?expand_more
Return on equity: net profit divided by the margin you posted, as a percentage. It is the number exchanges display on shareable position cards, and it is inflated by leverage — a +500% ROE at 50× is a 10% price move, not a spectacular trade.
Why does my exchange show a different PnL?expand_more
Usually funding. If you held a perpetual across a funding interval, that payment sits outside the entry/exit arithmetic. Partial fills at different prices and maker rather than taker fees also account for small differences.
Should I use the maker or taker fee?expand_more
Taker if you cross the spread with a market order, maker if your limit order rests and gets filled. Most exchanges charge noticeably less for maker orders, which is why patient entries are cheaper than impatient ones. If in doubt, use the taker rate — it is the conservative assumption.