Risk & Money ManagementBalanceCash Balance
Account Balance
The cash value of an account reflecting only completed transactions, before open positions are marked to market.
What Account Balance means
Balance records the outcome of everything that has finished: deposits, withdrawals, realised profits and losses on closed trades, commissions charged, and swap amounts booked when positions were closed. It does not move when open positions gain or lose value. On MetaTrader-style platforms, swap accrued on a still-open position is displayed as a separate line and only merges into the balance figure once the trade is closed, which explains why the two numbers can diverge overnight.
Confusing balance with equity is one of the most common beginner errors, because a balance untouched by a catastrophic run of open losses looks reassuring while the account is in fact approaching a stop out. Balance is also not the same as withdrawable funds: the amount a trader can actually remove is constrained by free margin, by unsettled payment methods, and by the terms attached to any deposit bonus credited to the account.
Worked example
A trader deposits 10,000 dollars, closes one trade for a 420 dollar gain and pays 14 dollars in round-turn commission. The balance becomes 10,406 dollars, irrespective of what any remaining open positions are currently worth.
Related terms
- EquityThe live value of a trading account: balance plus the floating profit or loss of every open position.
- Realised P<he profit or loss locked in when a position is closed, net of spread, commission and financing costs.
- Floating P<he unrealised profit or loss on open positions, marked to the current market price and changing with every tick.
- Free MarginThe portion of equity not tied up as collateral, available to open new positions or absorb losses on existing ones.
- CommissionAn explicit per-trade or per-lot fee charged by the broker in addition to, or instead of, a marked-up spread.
Frequently asked questions
What does Account Balance mean in forex trading?
The cash value of an account reflecting only completed transactions, before open positions are marked to market.
How does Account Balance work in practice?
Confusing balance with equity is one of the most common beginner errors, because a balance untouched by a catastrophic run of open losses looks reassuring while the account is in fact approaching a stop out. Balance is also not the same as withdrawable funds: the amount a trader can actually remove is constrained by free margin, by unsettled payment methods, and by the terms attached to any deposit bonus credited to the account.
What is an example of Account Balance?
A trader deposits 10,000 dollars, closes one trade for a 420 dollar gain and pays 14 dollars in round-turn commission. The balance becomes 10,406 dollars, irrespective of what any remaining open positions are currently worth.
Trade with a regulated broker
Understanding the terminology is the cheap part. The expensive part is choosing a counterparty whose execution, financing and withdrawal behaviour match what the marketing implies. Every broker below has been reviewed with a funded live account, and each review states which legal entity and which regulator applies to the account you would actually open.
Check the licence on the regulator's own register before you deposit — our regulators directory explains what each authority enforces, from leverage caps to compensation limits.