Forex PIP Defined
Forex PIP Defined is the smallest increment in price for a currency pair. The Forex pip is an acronym for Percentage in Point. Unlike dollars and cents which are shown with two decimal places, the Forex market currencies are shown with four decimal places. The smallest increment in price which is .0001 is what is referred to as a PIP. For example in the EURUSD the movement from 1.3894 to 1.3895 is one PIP.
The formula to calculate forex pip value is to take one pip and divide it by the price of the currency pair value and then multiply it by one unit which is 10000. You then need to change it to the USD so you multiply it by the current price. For Example Using the USDCAD
(.0001/1.2148) X 10000 = .8232 X 1.2148 = $1.00
You will always see that with any currency pair the pip value is always $1.00 per 10000 currency units. You may think that this value is very low. However you need to take into account that currencies are traded in lots of $100,000.00 which is $10.00 per pip. When you purchase one lot for $10.00 and the currency increases by 3 pips you have gained $30.00.
It is very important that you understand the Forex PIP Explained above as you will be using pips in calculating your profit and losses. Make sure you read this over and over again as The Forex PIP is the basis for trading in the Forex market