Glossary
Equity
Trading
Equity is an account's balance plus or minus the floating profit and loss of all open positions.
Balance only updates when a position closes; equity updates tick by tick. The gap between them is unrealised profit or loss.
Equity is the figure brokers use for margin level and stop-out calculations, and the figure risk rules should be applied to — sizing off balance while carrying large floating losses systematically oversizes new trades.