Free tool

Position size calculator

Pick the market, set what you will risk and where your stop is. Get the number of contracts, lots or shares that stays inside that risk, rounded down.

Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.

Market

Account balance

Risk per trade

Risk as

Contract

Stop distance

pts

32 ticks of 0.25

Fees per contract

Round trip. Optional.

Position size, contracts

Risk budget

$250.00

What this size risks

$240.00

Rounded down, $10.00 under budget.

Risk per contract

$40.00

Always rounded down, so the size never risks more than the budget. It assumes the stop fills at its price: in a fast market slippage can make the real loss larger.

How it works

Position sizing is one division: what you will lose, over what one unit loses at the stop.

Futures contracts = risk ÷ (stop in points × point value + fees per contract)
Forex lots = risk ÷ (stop in pips × pip value per lot)
Shares = risk ÷ |entry − stop|

The result is always rounded down. If $250 at a 30-pip stop works out to 0.83 lots, the answer is 0.83, never 0.84, because the extra hundredth would put you over budget.

Worked examples

MES ($5 a point), $200 risk, 8-point stop: $40 a contract, so 5 contracts, risking exactly $200.
NQ ($20 a point), $500 risk, 20-point stop: $400 a contract, so 1 contract, risking $400. Two would be $800.
EURUSD, $100 risk, 25-pip stop at $10 a pip per lot: $250 a lot, so 0.40 lots.
A stock at $50.00 with a stop at $48.75, $250 risk: $1.25 a share, so 200 shares.

The point values for futures are the same ones Traquil’s journal uses, so a size worked out here and the P&L the journal records will agree. When a stop is too wide to fit even one contract, the calculator says what one contract would risk instead of rounding up to it.

Sizing in risk rather than in contracts is also what makes results comparable. That is the idea behind R multiples.

Questions

How do I calculate position size?

Divide the amount you are willing to lose on the trade by what one unit loses if the stop is hit. For futures that is the stop in points times the contract's point value, plus fees. Round down to a whole contract.

How many MES contracts should I trade?

That depends on your risk and your stop, not on the contract. At $5 a point, an 8-point stop risks $40 a contract, so a $200 risk budget allows 5 contracts. The calculator does this for any stop.

What is a pip worth?

On a standard lot of 100,000 units, a pip is worth 10 units of the quote currency. When the quote currency is your account currency, like EURUSD in a US dollar account, that is $10. For other pairs it depends on the exchange rate, so check your platform's figure.

Why does it always round down?

Because rounding up would risk more than you asked for, and a size calculator must never be wrong in that direction.

What percentage of my account should I risk per trade?

That is your decision, and it depends on your strategy and your rules. The calculator works in either dollars or a percentage of the balance, and shows exactly what each size risks.

Useful next

Log the trade you just sized

Traquil records every trade in dollars and in R, net of fees, with the same point values, and shows what your sizing has done over time.

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