Your P&L statement

It is the last Friday of the month, 16:15 ET (04:15 ICT Saturday, winter). Your journal shows 60 trades on micro Nasdaq futures adding up to +6R. A good month, you think. The account statement shows a loss of $165. No number is wrong: the journal counted what price did between entry and exit; the statement also counted what you paid to be there. This lesson builds the second view, your own profit and loss statement, so the gap never surprises you again.

Key terms

P&L statement (báo cáo lãi lỗ): a list of what you earned minus everything you paid, over a period such as a month Definition.

R (đơn vị rủi ro): the dollar amount you lose if your stop is hit, so one full loss is −1R Definition. Two MNQ (micro E-mini Nasdaq-100, $2 a point) with a 12.5-point stop risk 12.5 × $2 × 2 = $50, so 1R = $50.

Fixed cost (chi phí cố định): a cost you pay each month however much you trade: market data, platform, evaluation fees. Variable cost (chi phí biến đổi): a cost you pay on every trade: commissions, exchange fees and slippage Definition.

Slippage (trượt giá): the gap between the price you planned and the price you got, counted in ticks Definition. One tick is 0.25 point: $0.50 on MNQ, $5 on NQ.

Terms you need: Expectancy is the average result per trade in R, after costs (RSK1.01 owns the formula): a small average per trade, times many trades, is your monthly gross. A round trip is entering and exiting a trade once; a market order fills immediately at the best available price while a limit order waits at your chosen price or better; stop and target are your loss and profit exits. A prop-firm evaluation is a paid test account with a maximum loss limit.

Chart first: from gross to net

How it works

Two kinds of cost, two different behaviours

Variable costs grow with the number of trades. Fixed costs do not care how many trades you take, but they care a lot about how large your R is.

The month in the chart uses these assumptions (illustrative; put your own in):

The fee assumption sits inside our lab’s survey of public fee pages (2026-11): roughly $1–2 per micro and $3–5 per E-mini round trip, all in, before slippage Definition. Estimates only; your own statement is the number that counts.

Why costs in R depend on the contract, not the count

Fees on 2 MNQ are $3 against a $50 risk: 0.06R. Trade 4 MNQ with the same stop and both double: still 0.06R. The contract count cancels out; the stop size and the contract do not. On NQ ($20 a point) the same 12.5-point stop risks $250 per contract, and a $4 round trip is only 0.016R. Slippage is different: 2 ticks is 0.5 point on either contract, so it costs 0.04R on both. Micros carry a heavier fee load per point, about three to seven times NQ’s in our lab’s survey Definition.

That is why the 2 NQ set in the chart ends positive. It is not a reason to size up: 1R becomes $500, and a normal losing streak can end the account. Sizing belongs to RSK1.05, and this academy’s house rule is micro-only sim through Practitioner House rule.

The break-even line

Add the variable cost per trade (0.06R + 0.04R = 0.10R) times the number of trades, then the fixed costs divided by your R:

Gross R needed per month = trades × variable cost per trade + fixed costs ÷ 1R Definition

For the month above: 60 × 0.10R + $165 ÷ $50 = 6R + 3.3R = 9.3R, or +0.155R per trade before you earn a cent. The trader in the hook made +0.10R a trade gross, a real edge on paper, and still lost money.

Is that easy? A working paper tested 14 families of price-and-volume signals on 947 regular-session days of MNQ; none passed its tests, one of which was staying positive after a 2-point round-trip cost PlausibleNQ. One unreviewed study, so Plausible at most, but it agrees with the arithmetic: small edges die in costs.

Your data status: one line people get wrong

Real-time CME data is sold to non-professional and professional subscribers Definition. Broadly, a non-professional is an individual trading their own money, not for a firm and not registered as a professional with a regulator or exchange. Professional data costs much more, and a wrong self-certification can be back-billed at that rate. You declare it when your data feed is switched on (PLAT2.01); read CME’s current definition and fees that day, because both change.

What the data says: the early warning

The “free option” of a funded account is real but too small to pay for fees plus commissions. With no measured edge, each evaluation is a cost line, not a good-odds lottery ticket. PROP3.06 walks through the model.

Worked example: one long trade, both endings

Illustrative prices, not a real session. You buy 2 MNQ at market at 25,012.50, stop 25,000.00 (12.5 points), target 25,037.50 (2R). 1R = $50.

• Entry: the market order fills 1 tick worse, at 25,012.75.
• Target hit: the limit order fills at 25,037.50. Price gain 24.75 points × $2 × 2 = $99.00. Fees $3.00. Net $96.00 = +1.92R, not the +2R you planned.
• Stop hit instead: the stop becomes a market order and fills 2 ticks through, at 24,999.50. Loss 13.25 points × $4 = $53.00, plus $3.00 fees. Net −$56.00 = −1.12R, not −1R.

The plan was +2R or −1R. The statement says +1.92R or −1.12R. Over 60 trades that gap is the 6R of variable costs in the chart.

The mirror and the failure

Short side. Sell 2 MNQ at 25,012.50 with the stop at 25,025.00. The entry fills a tick lower (25,012.25), a stop-out fills 2 ticks higher (25,025.50): the loss is again 13.25 points, $53 plus $3 fees. Costs never take a side; they charge long and short the same.

Where it fails. A backtest or simulator that charges no fees and fills at the planned price shows only the journal view. +0.08R a trade there is −0.02R on 2 MNQ with this lesson’s variable costs, before fixed costs. The 2 ticks of slippage is itself an assumption: simulated and live fills differ by an amount not yet measured, so log your own planned and filled prices (MKT2.03).

Do it on the platform

Prop-firm note

Evaluation fees are a fixed cost on this statement, and firm commissions come out of net P&L. Read current prices in the firm’s help center on the day you buy; this lesson uses placeholders on purpose. Firm rules live in the Prop Firm course, from PROP1.01.

Common mistake: treating the journal’s gross R as your result. A +0.10R gross edge is real and can still lose money every month at micro size. Read the net line, in R and in dollars.

Drill: write your own statement

Use your own numbers, or these if you have none yet: 4 MNQ, a 10-point stop, 40 trades a month, $1.50 fees per contract round trip, 2 ticks of slippage per contract round trip, $165 of fixed costs.

1. Compute 1R in dollars.
2. Compute the variable cost per trade in R.
3. Compute the gross R per month you need to break even, and the gross R per trade.

Recap

• Costs come in two kinds: variable per trade (commissions, fees, slippage) and fixed per month (data, platform, evaluations).
• Put every cost in R: for the same stop, the contract count cancels out, and a smaller stop makes every cost larger.
• Gross R needed per month = trades × variable cost per trade + fixed costs ÷ 1R.
• In our lab’s evaluation model, a zero-edge trader loses money per attempt once costs are charged; size does not change that.

Further reading

• M10.02: costs and slippage in ticks.
• Working paper on MNQ signals and a 2-point round-trip cost: arXiv 2605.04004 (unreviewed).
• CME Group market-data policy and non-professional self-certification.
• Our lab: a survey of public fee pages (2026-11); a prop-firm evaluation model with matched zero-edge placebos.

Prerequisites: EV2.01 for the base rates and M0.05 for contract sizes and tick values. Next: EV2.03 adds the costs that are not on any statement, the hours you trade from Vietnam and the sleep they cost.

Trading futures carries a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. This lesson is education, not financial advice or a trade recommendation. Prices in examples are illustrative. Not affiliated with any prop firm; rules and prices change, so check the firm’s help center.