🧱 Basics·beginner

Pipette

Also called: fractional pip, point

One-tenth of a pip — the fifth decimal place on most forex quotes, shown by brokers that quote fractional pips.

A pipette is one-tenth of a pip. Most brokers now quote prices to five decimal places instead of four (six for yen pairs instead of five), and that extra digit is a pipette. It lets brokers offer tighter spreads — a 0.8-pip spread is really 8 pipettes. Pipettes don't change how you think about trades. Your stop loss, take profit, and risk math all still work in full pips. Pipettes just give brokers a finer pricing grid and slightly better fills. If your chart shows EUR/USD at 1.09551, that last "1" is 1 pipette. When the price ticks to 1.09552, that's +1 pipette, or +0.1 pip.

Real trade example

On EUR/USD during the London open, spreads often tighten to 3–5 pipettes on good brokers but widen to 20+ pipettes during the New York close.

Related terms

Pip

beginner

The smallest standard price move in a currency pair — the building block of every forex profit or loss.

Spread

beginner

The difference between the buy (ask) and sell (bid) price — your cost of entering a trade.

Bid / Ask

beginner

The bid is what the market will pay you to sell; the ask is what the market will charge you to buy.

Lot

beginner

The standard unit of trade size in forex — a standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency.

P&L (Profit and Loss)

beginner

The total profit or loss on your trades — the scorecard for your trading performance.

Leverage

beginner

Borrowed money from your broker that lets you control a large position with a small deposit.

← Back to glossary Ask the desk a follow-up →