Total equity is a money balance figure calculated by adding futures open trade equity, also known as OTE, (the gain or loss on open futures positions) to your total cash balance. This can be useful for traders to know how much money they are working with and help them develop and execute their trading strategy going forward. Obviously, a trader with a higher total equity will be able to take more risks, while a trader with a lower total equity may want to be more conservative. However, total equity is not a definitive number as the amount a futures contract is worth can fluctuate throughout the life of the contract.