US30 Pip Calculator

An index has points, not pips

People search for a "US30 pip calculator", but US30 does not have pips in the sense EURUSD does. On a four-decimal currency pair a pip is a move of 0.0001 in the price, and that convention holds across every major pair. An index is quoted as a level — tens of thousands of points for the Dow — and the unit that moves money is one whole index point, a move of 1.0 in that level.

The word pip survives on indices because traders carry it over from forex, and it is used to mean two different things. Some mean one index point. Some mean the last decimal the broker displays, which is often a tenth of a point. That is the same ambiguity gold carries, and it produces a tenfold difference in the answer depending on which one is meant.

Resolve it the same way: put on a size you know, move the level by exactly 1.0, and read what the platform says the position gained or lost. Whatever the platform calls that distance is the unit it counts in. The point value field on this page takes the money figure directly, so it works whichever convention you are quoted.

One lot of US30 is not the same size at every broker

Forex has a convention that saves everyone the trouble of asking: one standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency. Index CFDs have no equivalent. Each broker decides how much of the index one lot represents, and two brokers can put very different amounts behind the same word "lot" on the same index. That is why a lot size copied from a screenshot or a forum post does not transfer between accounts.

The number that actually determines everything is how much money one index point moves per one lot. Once you have it, the contract size behind it stops mattering: point value, position size and profit all follow from it by multiplication. Every tool on this page is built on that figure rather than on a contract size, which is also why the page does not ask you to pick a broker.

How to get your own value per point

Three ways, in order of how much they can be trusted:

1. Read it off an order ticket. Stage a 1.00 lot with a stop ten points away and read the loss the platform displays. Divide by ten. If 1.00 lot with a ten-point stop shows a loss of 10.00, one point is worth 1.00 per lot. This needs no specification and no assumptions, and it is the method to use if the other two disagree.
2. Open the contract specification. Most platforms expose it from the market watch or symbol list. Look for tick value, point value, or contract size. If a contract size is given in index units, the value of one point per lot is that number of units times one point, in the index quote currency.
3. Work backwards from a closed trade. Take a trade you have already closed, divide the profit or loss by the points travelled and then by the lot size. The result is the money per point per lot your account actually produced.

Whichever route you use, write the number down. It is the single input that turns any index back into money, and it does not change with the index level.

A 100-point stop is not the same trade on US30 and NAS100

Points are an absolute distance, and indices sit at very different levels. If US30 is at 45,000 and NAS100 is at 25,000, a stop of 100 points is 0.22 percent of the first and 0.40 percent of the second. The same number of points is nearly twice as much market movement on the Nasdaq CFD as on the Dow CFD, and it will be hit nearly twice as often by ordinary noise.

The comparison also breaks over time on a single index. An index that has doubled needs twice as many points to deliver the same percentage move, so a stop distance you calibrated years ago is now a much smaller trade than it was. Converting to a percentage — points divided by the index level, times one hundred — is the only stop measure that stays comparable across indices and across years.

The lot size tool above reports that percentage whenever you fill in the index level, alongside the money figure. The money figure is what you risk; the percentage is what you are actually betting on.

Your account currency may not be the index currency

US30, NAS100, US500 and US2000 are quoted in dollars, but GER40 and FRA40 are quoted in euro, UK100 in sterling, JP225 in yen, AUS200 in Australian dollars and HK50 in Hong Kong dollars. When the quote currency differs from the currency of your account, the profit or loss is converted at the rate on the day the position is closed.

The consequence is easy to miss: the index can do exactly what you expected and your account can still end up with a different number than the arithmetic predicted, because the exchange rate moved in between. Position sizing that ignores this is sizing for a currency you do not hold. Holding a stop in points does not protect against it either, since points are measured in the index currency, not yours.

What a stop does when the index gaps

An index CFD tracks a cash market that keeps exchange hours. Outside those hours there is no underlying price, and when trading resumes the CFD can open at a level far from where it closed, with no trades in between to fill an order. A stop is an instruction to close at the market once it is triggered; it is not a guarantee of the price. Sizing a position so that the loss at the stop equals your risk limit assumes the stop fills at the stop level, and overnight and weekend gaps are exactly where that assumption fails on indices.

Dividends add a second component that is not price movement. Index CFDs are adjusted on the ex-dividend dates of the constituent shares: the index drops by the dividend while the CFD holder does not own the shares, so long positions are typically credited and short positions typically debited by the equivalent amount. A trade held across an ex-dividend date can therefore show profit or loss that the chart does not explain.

Both of these are reasons to treat the output above as an upper bound on size rather than a target. Gaps and dividend adjustments push realised losses away from the calculated one, never toward it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a pip on US30?

There is no single answer. Most traders using the word mean one whole index point, a move of 1.0 in the level. Some mean the smallest displayed increment, which is often 0.1. To find out which one a broker or a signal provider means, stage a known size, move the level by 1.0, and read the profit or loss the platform reports.

How much is one point on NAS100 worth?

It depends on the lot size and on the value per point your broker puts behind one lot, which is not standardised across the industry. Enter those two numbers in the point value tool above and it will give you the figure for your account. The page deliberately does not print a single "one NAS100 point is worth X" number, because any such number would be wrong on some brokers.

Why does a lot of US30 differ from one broker to another?

Because index CFDs have no shared contract convention equivalent to the 100,000-unit forex lot. Each broker sets the amount of index behind one lot. The comparable figure across brokers is the value of one point per lot, which you can read off an order ticket without needing the contract specification.

How many lots of US30 should I trade with a 100-point stop?

Divide the money you are willing to lose by the stop distance in points and then by the value of one point per one lot. Risking 100 with a 100-point stop at 1.00 per point per lot gives 100 ÷ 100 ÷ 1 = 1.00 lot. The result is a ceiling, not a recommendation: it assumes the stop fills at the stop level, which gaps can prevent.

Does the index level change my position size?

Not directly, if your stop is measured in points. It changes what those points mean. A 100-point stop is a smaller percentage trade the higher the index sits, so a size calibrated at one level represents a different bet at another. Entering the index level in the lot size tool above shows the stop as a percentage so you can see whether the trade you are sizing is the trade you think it is.

Are index CFDs settled in cash?

Yes. An index cannot be delivered, so an index CFD is cash-settled and the position is closed for the money difference. It also means swap or financing is charged on positions held overnight, and that dividend adjustments are applied in cash rather than in shares.

The lot size calculator sizes a currency-pair position from a stop measured in pips. The pip calculator covers all 30 forex and metals instruments. The XAUUSD pip calculator does the same job for gold, where the pip definition problem looks similar but the contract size is fixed.