How to calculate profit or loss on a futures contract

Video explainer · Trading Basics & Risk · Summary written by UXS November 10, 2026

Video by CME Group on YouTube (2:24, uploaded December 12, 2017). Embedded with the official YouTube player; UXS did not make this video. Watch on YouTube

Our summary

A short worked example from CME Group on turning a futures price move into dollars.

  • What you need: the contract size, the tick size (smallest price step), the price you traded at and the current price.
  • Value of one tick: tick size times contract size. For WTI crude oil, one contract is 1,000 barrels and the tick is 1 cent, so one tick is worth $10.
  • The example: a trader buys one WTI contract at $53.60 and the price rises to $54.00. That is a 40-cent move, or 40 ticks, so the profit is 40 × $10 = $400 per contract. Multiply by the number of contracts for the total.
  • Losses work the same way. The video stresses that contract size has a big multiplying effect on profit and loss.

Our take: do this calculation before entering any trade. Knowing the dollar value of a tick lets you size positions so a stop-loss costs only the amount you planned to risk. See how much to risk per trade.