I need to understand what this account information means. I ordered 1 unit on Oanda which is supposebly the smallest trade possible. I would like someone to please explain to me what this account information means so I understand it. The market has barely moved so why does it say Unrealized P&L? Is that percentage gain? Whats margin alert? 20%? Margin closeout? The other realized profit proft? Margin available? I did the smallest trade possible and it tells me I only have 6% margin available? I am confused could someone please explain this to me?
Balance= total closed trade amount of equity in your account.
Unrealized P&L= The amount your trade is positive or negative at any given moment while it is open.
Unrealized P&L%= The percent your account is positive or negative while open. (You’ll want to pay attention to that if you open more than one trade at a time)
Net Asset Value= The current total of your account, including open trades.
Margin Alert= The amount that your account will need to notify you that you are in the danger zone.
Margin Closeout= Trade closes automatically when your account hits this number.
Realized P&L= The amount you have gained or lost less your initial balance.
Margin Used= The amount you used to put on your trade.
Margin Available= The amount you have above and beyond current trade costs, and unrealized P&L.
Margin Percent= Your available margin in terms of percentage of your account.
Position Value= The total amount of units on margin you currently have open.
You are actually very close to getting a margin call at the moment.
You have one trade open, and noting the $1000 dollar trade value, it’s a micro. You are gaining, or losing 10 cents a pip. With your initial margin needing $20.00 to open, you are risking 5% of your account with every ten pips.
You have $5.84, or 58 pips, and you’ll be hitting that $20 alert.
With a 25 dollar account, and using Oanda, you should easily be able to change your trade size to $100, and only be risking a penny a pip, or 90% less than you are currently risking.
I would highly advise you close this current trade, and regroup.
I am really confused. I just got done talking to someone from Oanda and they told me that what I did was the smallest trade I could possibly do with Oanda account. But others there are saying I can trade even smaller. How do you do this?
did you open this trade on Oanda MT4 if that is the case $1000 is the smallest you can trade only with the java platform can you trade 1 unit.
The pic he posted isn’t MT4. It looks like the old school Oanda platform to me.
But it’s been a while since I’ve looked at my Oanda demo. I have Oanda on my cell, but it’s a completely different setup. But I CAN trade $1.00 units there, so it’s still possible. I think it’s just a matter of where to have him change his amount size.
I can’t see the use of even having a $25.00 dollar account if you can’t trade nanos. Micros just need too much margin for that size of a balance.
Ah I think I did do a trade perviously on MetaTrader for. The guy from Oanda failed to tell me that It had to be from FxTrade. Ok here is a new picture from FX trade which I am still confused about with account information.
I did a 1 Unit Trade.
Margin Used 0.02
Margin Available 26.18
Margin Percent 2,620.63
Position Value $1.00
Why do I only have 26.18 available on margin? I am only trading a Position Value of $1.00
Shouldn’t I be able to have more then 1 trade active at a time? I am only trading 1 unit. And my margin alert is at 0.02. Does that mean when it gets to 100 I get a margin call? Thanks for answering these questions guys =). I am such a newb :13:
Try using $50 unit size.
That will use $1.00 of your margin, and you’ll get a penny for every 2 pips.
As for your current lot size, you’ll have to gain 100 pips to earn a penny.
As for where it would need to get to for you to get a margin call, using $1.00 unit size, you are light years away at $0.0001 a pip.
Here’s a quick rundown for you so you can size your trades better.
$100,000 lot is one standard lot, and with most majors, usually $10.00 a pip in gain or loss. Your margin will be roughly $2,000.00 give or take a bit depending on which currency you are trading.
$10,000 is a mini lot, and you’ll gain or lose $1.00 a pip, and need roughly $200 to enter a trade on the majors.
$1,000 is a micro lot, and as you know from your earlier trade, you’ll need $20.00 or so to enter a trade, and gain or lose $0.10 a pip.
$100 is a nano lot, and you’ll use roughly $2.00 to get in a trade, with the pip gain of $0.01.
$10 unit size will use $0.20 for margin, and you’ll need to gain 10 pips to earn a penny.
The $1.00 trade you put on uses $0.02 to put on a trade, and you’ll need to gain 100 pips for a one cent gain.
With FX Trade on Oanda, you can do any strange combo of units sizes you want. $3.00, $4.67, $351.59, you get it.
It makes sizing your lots for compounding purposes very nice.
Good luck! You’re a bit safer now with lot size. Try to keep that 1 to 2% account risk per trade in mind. Your $25 will last longer 
Thank you so much for that information. That helped me tons man!
Oanda MT4 and the java platform do not work well together. If you use MT4 set up a sub account for it. You can look at that account on the java platform but I would not modify or place any trades with it. I think that is what happened here. the smallest possible trade on Oanda MT4 is .01 that’s a $1000 position. that is what I am seeing on your screenshot.
If you use the Java platform to place trades you can trade 1 “unit” that’s $1.00. With a $25 account you should be using the Java platform that way you can make trades that are a little less risky;)