Calculator

Forex compounding calculator

Drop in your starting equity and a realistic monthly return. See how the math compounds over 12 or 36 months — with or without monthly contributions. Free, no email gate.

Final equity
Total gain
Total return
Equivalent annualised

The compounding formula

Final equity = Principal × (1 + r)^n, with optional monthly contribution rolled in before each period's return. Compounding is multiplicative: a 4%/month return becomes not 48%/year but 60.1%/year, because each month grows the base for the next.

Realistic monthly returns for EA traders

  • Conservative EA — 1 to 2% per month, sub-5% max drawdown. Think Goldenfold EA or a well-tuned prop-firm bot.
  • Balanced EA — 3 to 5% per month, 8-12% drawdown. The sweet spot for most live accounts.
  • Aggressive EA — 6 to 10% per month, 15-25% drawdown. Often the realm of scalpers and martingale — high ruin risk.
Reality check: Any vendor claiming 20-40%/month is either cherry-picking months or running a grid/martingale that will eventually blow up. The market doesn't compound that generously — and leverage cuts both ways.

Worked example

$5,000 starting balance, 4%/month, 24 months, no contributions: final equity = $5,000 × (1.04)^24 = $12,815. That's a 156% total return — compelling, but only if drawdown stays inside your pain threshold.

Related

Frequently asked questions

Can I realistically compound at 10% per month?

Over 3-6 months, sure. Over 12+ months on a live account, almost no one does it without taking concentration risk that eventually hands it back. Plan around 2-5% monthly for serious capital.

Does this account for losing months?

No — it assumes a constant monthly return. Real returns have variance. Use this as an upper bound, not a forecast. The Prop Firm calculator does Monte Carlo simulation for realistic path distributions.

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