PnL Calculation Complete Guide: Futures PnL & Total Account Equity

MC Markets uses Mark Price as the sole standard for calculating PnL, ensuring that PnL reflects the fair market value rather than the last traded price of a single transaction.

Introduction

Every trader watches the same number on their screen — the green or red figure next to their open position. But surprisingly few traders can explain exactly how that number is calculated, where it comes from, or why it sometimes disagrees with the price they see in the order book.

This guide fixes that. We'll start with the one formula at the heart of everything, then walk through it with real numbers — long and short, profit and loss — until you can compute your own PnL without opening a calculator. After that we'll cover how individual position PnL rolls up into your total account equity, and finish with the small handful of details (funding fees, fees, mark vs. last price) that confuse most newcomers.

1. Two Kinds of PnL: Unrealized vs Realized

Before any formula, get this distinction clear:

• Unrealized PnL is the profit or loss on a position that is still open. It moves up and down every second as the market moves. Nothing has been "locked in" yet — if the market reverses, your unrealized profit can shrink, disappear, or turn into a loss.
• Realized PnL is the profit or loss on a position that has been closed. The number is final. It moves from "floating" into your wallet balance.

The number you see flashing on your position card is unrealized PnL. The moment you close the position, that same number is recorded as realized PnL — and your wallet balance updates accordingly.

2. The Core Formula

For a futures contract, your unrealized PnL is calculated as:

Unrealized PnL = (Mark Price − Entry Price) × Position Size (for a long position)

Unrealized PnL = (Entry Price − Mark Price) × Position Size (for a short position)

Three variables. Let's take them one at a time.

Entry Price

This is the average price at which your current position was opened. If you opened your full position in a single fill at $50,000, your entry price is $50,000. If you scaled in across multiple fills, your entry price is the weighted average of those fills.

Important: when you partially close a position, the entry price of the remaining portion does not change. It's still the same average you started with.

Mark Price

This is not the last traded price. It is a fair-value reference price the platform calculates from a basket of major spot exchanges, designed to prevent manipulation on a single venue from triggering unfair liquidations.

This matters because PnL and liquidation are calculated against Mark Price, not Last Price. Sometimes you'll see the order book quoting a price that's slightly different from the mark — that gap is normal, especially in volatile moments, and it explains why your PnL number sometimes "lags" what you see on the chart.

Position Size

The quantity of the underlying asset your position represents. If you're long 0.5 BTC, your position size is 0.5. The unit depends on the contract type:

MC Markets perpetuals are priced and settled in USDC. Position size is expressed in units of the underlying asset (e.g. 0.5 BTC), and PnL is settled in USDC.

Always check what unit the platform shows your size in — it's the most common source of "wait, why is my PnL so much bigger / smaller than I expected?" mistakes.

3. A Worked Example: Long Position

Let's make it concrete.

You go long 0.5 BTC at an entry price of $50,000. A few hours later, the mark price is $52,000. Your position is still open.

Plug into the formula:

Unrealized PnL = ($52,000 − $50,000) × 0.5 = +$1,000

That's your floating profit. If you closed the position right now, $1,000 would move from "unrealized" to "realized" and land in your wallet (minus trading fees).

Now say the market reverses and the mark price drops to $49,000:

Unrealized PnL = ($49,000 − $50,000) × 0.5 = −$500

Same position, same entry, just a different mark price — and now you're floating a $500 loss.

4. A Worked Example: Short Position

Shorts work in reverse. You short 1 ETH at an entry price of $3,000. The mark price drops to $2,800.

Unrealized PnL = ($3,000 − $2,800) × 1 = +$200

You profit when price falls because, in effect, you sold high and will buy back low to close.

If the mark price instead rises to $3,100:

Unrealized PnL = ($3,000 − $3,100) × 1 = −$100

Notice the formula simply flips the order of (Mark − Entry) to (Entry − Mark) for shorts. The intuition is the same: PnL is positive when the market moved in your favor, and negative when it moved against you, regardless of direction.

5. PnL vs ROI: Don't Confuse Them

These are two different numbers and beginners mix them up constantly.

• PnL is the dollar amount you've made or lost.
• ROI (Return on Investment) is PnL expressed as a percentage of the margin you put up, not as a percentage of the position's notional value.

Going back to the long BTC example: you made $1,000 of unrealized PnL on a $26,000 notional position. If you opened that position at 10x leverage, you only put up $2,600 of margin. Your ROI is therefore:

ROI = $1,000 / $2,600 ≈ +38%

The same $1,000 PnL looks completely different depending on the leverage. A 4% move in price became a 38% move on your margin — which is precisely what leverage does. PnL describes the trade. ROI describes what the trade did to your capital.

6. Total Account Equity

Total Account Value = Deposited Assets USD Value + Unrealized PnL + Realized PnL + Funding Rates - Fees. Updates instantly for a true fund overview.

Your individual position PnL is one piece of a bigger number. Your total account equity is what the platform considers the real, current value of your account — and it's what gets compared against the maintenance margin requirement when calculating liquidation risk.

Conceptually:

Total Equity = Wallet Balance + Sum of All Unrealized PnL

Wallet balance is the cash you've deposited plus any realized PnL from past closed trades. Add to that the floating profit (or subtract the floating loss) on every open position, and you get your total equity.

A second number that matters in practice:

Available Balance = Total Equity − Margin Used by Open Positions − Margin Reserved for Open Orders

Available balance is what you can use to open new positions or withdraw. As your unrealized PnL changes, so does your available balance — that's why your "buying power" can shrink during a drawdown even when no new trades have happened.

7. Two Details That Trip People Up

Funding fees (perpetual futures only)

Perpetual futures don't expire, so they use a funding mechanism to keep contract prices anchored to spot prices. Every hour, on the hour, longs and shorts exchange a small payment based on the funding rate.

• If the funding rate is positive, longs pay shorts.
• If the funding rate is negative, shorts pay longs.

Funding payments are separate from your PnL formula above but they hit your account at each funding interval, so they affect your total equity. On a long-held position with persistently positive funding, the cumulative funding cost can be significant — sometimes more than the price move itself. Always check the funding rate before holding a perp overnight.

Fees

Trading fees are charged when you open and when you close the position — usually a small percentage of the notional value. They reduce your realized PnL when the trade closes. The formula in this guide gives you gross unrealized PnL; net PnL after closing will be slightly lower because of fees.

8. Putting It All Together

Here's the mental model worth keeping:

• The PnL number on your screen is unrealized until you close the position.
• For longs, PnL = (Mark − Entry) × Size. For shorts, PnL = (Entry − Mark) × Size. Same logic, opposite sign.
• PnL is calculated against the Mark Price, not the last traded price. That's intentional — it protects you from manipulation.
• PnL is dollars; ROI is percentage of margin. With leverage, the same PnL can look very different as a percentage.
• Your total equity = deposited asset value + unrealized PnL + realized PnL + funding rate − trading fees. This is the number that determines your available balance and your distance from liquidation.
• For perpetuals, funding fees and trading fees reduce your real returns. The formula gives you the gross number; reality is slightly lower.

Once these pieces click, the green and red number on your screen stops being magic and starts being math — which is exactly what you want when real money is involved.

In spot trading, the system records the user's average cost basis: Unrealised PnL = Current total asset value - Total historical purchase cost. ROE% = (Unrealised PnL / Total historical purchase cost) x 100%. This data is displayed in real time under the Balance tab at the bottom of the trading page.

9. Spot PnL Calculation

Spot trading PnL is simpler. The platform tracks your average cost basis and calculates gains or losses from there in real time.

Unrealized PnL: Unrealized PnL = Current total asset value − Total historical purchase cost

ROE%: ROE% = (Unrealized PnL ÷ Total historical purchase cost) × 100%

Both figures display in real time on the Balance tab at the bottom of the trading page. Note: spot PnL has no leverage — a 1% asset price move equals a 1% ROE.

Realized PnL: Final PnL from closed positions, net of fees and funding, upon manual or auto-closure by stop-loss or take-profit orders. The system immediately converts unrealized PnL to realized PnL upon position closure.

10. Quick Recap

The four ideas worth taking away:

• Unrealized PnL = (Mark − Entry) × Size for longs; flip the subtraction for shorts.
• Mark Price ≠ Last Price. PnL and liquidation use Mark Price by design.
• PnL is a dollar amount. ROI is PnL ÷ margin. With leverage, ROI is much larger than the underlying price move.
• Total Equity = Wallet Balance + Total Unrealized PnL. This is the real value of your account at any moment, and what the system uses to decide if you're safe or at risk.

Risk Disclosure

Derivatives trading carries substantial risk and can result in losses exceeding your initial deposit. The formulas in this guide describe how PnL is calculated; they do not predict whether a trade will be profitable. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always trade with capital you can afford to lose, and consult a qualified financial advisor if you are unsure whether leveraged products are appropriate for your situation.