Position Size Calculator for Forex, Stocks and Crypto

Supported markets

This page works as a forex position size calculator, a stock position size calculator and a crypto position size calculator at the same time. One set of inputs covers every market, because the underlying question is always the same: how many units can I hold so that a stop-out costs me exactly what I decided to risk?

• Forex — majors, minors and crosses, quoted against USD, EUR, GBP, JPY and other currencies.
• Metals, energies and indices — XAU/USD, XAG/USD, WTI, Brent, natural gas and the main index CFDs.
• Stocks and ETFs — enter any ticker, its entry price and its stop price.
• Crypto futures — major USDT perpetuals (BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, SOLUSDT and others).
• Anything else — pick Custom instrument and type your own contract size and unit step.

Contract specification defaults are editable. Brokers differ, so the Unit step and Contract size fields stay under your control rather than being guessed for you.

When the pair and the stop distance in pips are all you have, the forex lot size calculator that works from a stop distance in pips takes those two directly, and reports which increment — the unit step or the lot step — decided the final size.

Whether you call it a position sizing calculator or a risk management calculator, it is this one panel: how much you can hold, given the money you are willing to lose and the distance to your stop.

How position size is calculated

Every result on this page comes from four inputs: risk budget, stop distance, spread and commission.

1. Risk budget = account balance × risk %, or the fixed amount you type in.
2. Effective stop distance = |entry − stop price| + spread. The spread is what you actually lose at entry, so it belongs inside the stop distance, not next to it.
3. Units = (risk budget − commission) ÷ (effective stop distance × quote→account rate). Commission is paid before it can be risked, so it is subtracted from the budget.
4. Tradable size = units rounded down to your broker's unit step. Rounding never increases risk.

Position value = units × entry price × quote→account rate. Margin required = position value ÷ leverage. Exposure = position value ÷ account balance.

What the move itself costs is a separate question from the size, and the pip calculator that shows what one pip is worth at each lot size answers it per pip, per 1-pip spread and per 20-pip move, in your own account currency.

Rounding, spread and commission

Most calculators stop at the raw formula and print a number that no broker will accept. This one shows both numbers side by side: Size without costs is the raw formula result, and the main Position size is what you can actually place after the spread, the commission and your broker's minimum increment are applied.

Max loss incl. costs recomputes the worst case from the rounded size, so you can see that it still fits inside your risk budget instead of assuming it does.

Profit targets are optional. When you enter a take-profit price, the Risk : reward figure compares the distance to your target against the distance to your stop, including the spread.

Once the trade is closed, the same two costs come off the other side of it: the forex profit calculator that shows the net figure after spread and commission takes your entry and exit prices and prints the gross, the pip difference and what you actually keep.

What each result means

Position size

The size you can actually place: the raw result rounded down to your broker's unit step. Rounding down is why it never exceeds the risk you set.

Same size in standard / mini / micro

One size written three ways — 100,000 units to a standard lot, 10,000 to a mini lot, 1,000 to a micro lot. Useful when your broker only accepts one denomination.

Risk budget

Account balance × risk %, or the fixed amount you typed. This is the ceiling, not the loss.

Max loss incl. costs

The worst case recomputed from the rounded size, with the spread and the commission counted. If this is below your risk budget, the size fits.

Stop distance

|entry − stop|, in pips for forex and metals, in price for stocks and indices. The effective distance used in the maths adds the spread on top.

Position value

Units × entry price, converted into your account currency at the quote→account rate you set.

Exposure

Position value ÷ account balance — how much of the account one trade occupies, which is not the same as how much it risks.

Margin required

Position value ÷ leverage. Filled in only when you enter a leverage figure; it does not change the amount you risk.

Risk : reward

Distance to your take-profit ÷ distance to your stop, both measured with the spread included. Filled in only when you enter a target.

Size without costs

The raw formula result, before spread, commission and rounding. Shown next to the real size so the difference is visible instead of hidden.

Who, how and why

Who. This page is published by Position Size Tool. The method is written out in full above, and the instrument defaults behind it — contract size, pip size and unit step — are published as an open reference dataset you can check. More about the project is on the about page. If a number here looks wrong, or you want a symbol added to the dataset, the contact page is the fastest way to reach us, and what this site stores about you (nothing beyond a page view) is written out in the privacy policy.

How. Every number is computed in your browser from the four inputs shown on this page: risk budget, stop distance, spread and commission. There is no price feed, no model and no estimate — the page fetches nothing, and the calculation is the formula printed in How position size is calculated, rounded down to the unit step.

Why. Sizing pages usually stop at the raw formula and print a number a broker will not accept. This one exists to show the size you can place: spread inside the stop distance, commission out of the budget, increment applied, and the resulting worst case recomputed so you can see it still fits.

Guides

Forty longer write-ups cover the method behind this page, each with a worked example you can check by hand.

• How to calculate position size in forex — the four inputs, the formula, and a full EUR/USD example including spread and commission.
• Position sizing for crypto futures — contract size, unit step, funding and liquidation, with a BTCUSDT example.
• How much should you risk per trade? — the losing-streak and drawdown-recovery arithmetic behind choosing a percentage.
• Lot sizes explained — standard, mini, micro and nano lots, what a pip is worth in each, and how many units you are trading.
• How many shares should I buy? — risk budget and stop distance turned into a share count, including fractional shares.
• Leverage, margin and position size — why leverage is an output rather than an input.
• Position sizing for prop firm evaluations — sizing against a daily loss limit, a static or trailing drawdown, and a profit target.
• Position sizing on a small account — what to do when the broker's minimum lot step is bigger than the size your risk allows.
• Adding to a position — splitting one risk budget across several entries without multiplying the risk.
• Position size by instrument — contract size, pip size and unit step for all 131 symbols, why one budget gives 0.50 lots on EUR/USD and 1 contract on US30, and a full XAU/USD example worked in dollars rather than pips.
• Position size after spread and commission — the spread goes into the stop distance, the commission out of the budget, and 50,000 units becomes 44,000.
• Combined risk across open positions — four trades at 1% each are 3.97% of the account, and the currency bloc cap binds before the book cap does.
• Lot size calculator — turn lots into units, notional and margin, or type your risk and stop distance to get the lot count back.
• Risk reward ratio — your R:R from three prices, the win rate that ratio demands, and the target price for any R you want.
• Stop loss calculator — how much room your risk budget actually pays for at the size you picked, in pips and in price, after spread and commission.
• Drawdown calculator — how far equity has fallen from its peak, and the larger gain the reduced balance needs to climb back.
• Leverage calculator — the leverage you are actually using, the margin it locks up, and the largest size that stays under any ceiling you set.
• Forex margin calculator — the margin an order ties up, the free margin left, and how many pips of adverse movement stand between you and a margin call.
• Margin call calculator — the equity that trips your broker's call line, and whether a deposit or a size cut clears it by less.
• Risk of ruin calculator — the probability your account reaches a drawdown you chose, and how many consecutive losses it takes to get there at 0.5%, 1% or 2% per trade.
• Average true range calculator — true range bar by bar, the Wilder recursion behind the reading, and the size a 3,000.00 budget pays for at one and a half ATR of stop.
• Pip value calculator — what one pip is worth per lot on metals, energies, indices and stocks, in the quote currency and your own.
• ATR indicator — what the reading measures on the chart, how the period you pick moves it from 22.83 to 13.60 on one series, and how a wider reading cuts the size a fixed budget pays for.
• Crypto position size calculator — how many coins a risk budget buys on 43 USDT pairs, what one tick is worth at that size, and the venue floor that stops small orders.
• Futures position size calculator — whole contracts from a risk budget, why one US30 contract is 40,000.00 of notional on a 10,000.00 account, and how much of the budget the integer step strands.
• Forex compounding calculator — where a chosen risk percentage and a run of trades leave the balance, with the range around the number rather than one averaged line.
• Win rate calculator — your journal turned into a win rate, a win/loss ratio and the break-even rate, with how often a losing run of each depth arrives and what it costs at 2% a trade.
• Profit factor calculator — gross profit over gross loss, the win rate that ratio demands at your payoff, and what a run of ten losers costs at 1% and 2% risked.
• Stock correlation calculator — the coefficient between two return series, how many independent bets your open tickets are worth, and the per-ticket ceiling a correlated book leaves you.
• DCA calculator — the expected share ratio against buying once today, and how many price paths leave the periodic buyer ahead, from drift, volatility and cost per purchase.
• Stock profit calculator — the net figure after both tickets and the tax on the gain, plus the sell price the trade needed to break even.
• CAGR calculator — the rate that joins a start to an end, and how far the average of your years sits above the rate the money compounded at.
• CAGR formula — the same rate rearranged to solve for the length, the beginning value or the ending value, in five period units, with a block that pastes into a sheet.
• Crypto profit calculator — the exchange fee on both sides, the average across several entries, and the sale price that breaks even.
• Stock average calculator — what several buys of one stock cost you per share once commission is charged on each, the price that breaks even, and the size of the next buy that lands your average on a target.
• Options profit calculator — what a long call, a long put, a covered call or a cash-secured put pays at expiration once your per-contract fee is in, and how many contracts a risk budget actually allows.
• Covered call — 200 shares and one sold call across five prices at expiration, with the money the position ties up, the return on it, and the price above which holding the shares alone would have paid more.
• Kelly criterion — five win rates at one payoff, the share of the balance each one puts at risk, the half-Kelly figure, and the break-even win rate the whole answer hangs on.
• Trailing stop — what a stop that rises with price does to the R you keep: ten twelve-bar paths, three exit rules, and the run a trail needs before it beats a fixed target.
• Sortino ratio — why the ratio is the same at every size and what its denominator does instead: two twenty-trade journals, both at 2.00, coming out at 0.50 and 0.25 lots.

Picking a risk percentage is one way to answer how much. The other starts from your own results: the kelly criterion calculator that turns a win rate and a payoff ratio into a share of your balance returns full Kelly, half Kelly and quarter Kelly side by side, with the break-even win rate beside them.

The instrument defaults and the streak and drawdown tables behind these guides are also published as an open reference dataset — four CSV files under CC0, each with the formula that generates it.

FAQ