ROE is the number that matches your wallet
When a position shows +50% on the exchange after the coin moved 5%, that's return on equity: the profit divided by the margin you committed, not by the position size. Leverage is the multiplier — at 10x a 5% price move is a 50% ROE, at 25x it's 125%, and the same maths runs in reverse on the way down. That's why ROE is the honest gauge of a leveraged trade: it's the percentage your collateral actually gained or lost, which is what lands in your wallet. The raw price move tells you what the asset did; ROE tells you what you did.
The catch is that fees scale with leverage too. They're charged on the notional — your margin times leverage — so a 0.11% round-trip fee costs 0.11% of a 10x position, which is 1.1% of your margin before the trade even moves. Crank to 50x and that same fee is 5.5% of margin gone at the door, plus any funding while you hold. This calculator nets opening and closing fees and funding against the gross ROE so the figure you read is the one that survives to your balance. Cross-check the dollar profit with the PnL calculator, see how much the fee alone eats with the fee drag calculator, and work the price you need for a target ROE with the target exit price calculator.
How to use it
1. Choose long or short.
2. Enter entry and exit price, your margin and leverage.
3. Add a round-trip fee (taker round-trips are often ~0.07–0.12%) and any funding you paid.
4. Read your net ROE and profit; the table shows how leverage would have changed the ROE on the same move.
Common mistakes
Confusing ROE with the price move. A 50% ROE doesn't mean the coin rose 50% — it rose 5% at 10x. Ignoring fees at high leverage. At 50x, fees and funding can swallow a meaningful chunk of margin; a winning price move can still be a losing ROE. Reading ROE without the risk. A 125% ROE at 25x came with a liquidation roughly 3–4% away — high ROE and high ruin risk are the same coin. Comparing ROE across different leverage. ROE is only meaningful next to the leverage that produced it; always quote both.
FAQ
Is ROE the same as ROI? Not with leverage. ROI is usually measured on the full position or total invested; ROE is measured on the margin you committed. A 5% move is 5% ROI on notional but 50% ROE at 10x.
Why is my ROE lower than leverage × price move? Fees and funding. Both are charged on the leveraged notional, so they scrape a fixed percentage off the top before and after the move — heavier the higher your leverage.
Can ROE exceed 100%? Easily — any time leverage × price-move beats 100%. A 5% move at 25x is a 125% ROE. The flip side is the liquidation sits just a few percent away, so triple-digit ROE always rides next to ruin risk.