Crypto Position Size Calculator
Set what you are willing to lose and where you are wrong. It returns a position size with enough decimal places to actually be placed, in coins and in satoshis.
Risking $100 on this trade.
5.13% away.
Position Size
0.025coins
2,500,000 satoshis
Maximum Risk
$100
1% of the account
Position Value
$1,950
19.5% of the account
Potential Loss
-$100
If the stop is hit as planned
Risk / Reward
1 : 3
Break even winning 25% of the time
- Your risk budget buys less than one whole unit. Widen the stop, raise the account size, or trade something that allows fractional size.
Why crypto needs more decimal places
When one coin costs tens of thousands, a correctly sized position for a normal account is a fraction of one. Risking 100 with a 4,000 stop distance gives 0.025 coins — a real, placeable position that a calculator built for share counts would round to zero and a calculator built for whole units would refuse.
Below a whole coin the display here widens to as many as eight decimal places, which is the smallest unit bitcoin divides into. That unit is called a satoshi, and 0.025 BTC is 2,500,000 of them.
Volatility is the reason the stop is wide
Crypto routinely moves several percent in a session, so a stop placed close enough to feel cheap is usually just a stop that gets hit by noise. A wider stop is not a bigger loss — it is a smaller position for the same loss, which is the trade-off this calculator exists to make explicit.
The number worth watching on this page is position value against your account. A modest risk percent on a volatile asset can still produce a position worth more than the account, which is only possible on leverage and brings liquidation into play well before your stop does.
Exchange risk is not in these numbers
This sizes the market risk of the trade. It cannot size the risk of the venue holding your coins, which has historically been the larger of the two: the failures in this market have wiped out balances that were never in a losing position at all.
Position sizing assumes the account still exists when the trade closes. Keep on any single platform only what you need to trade with.
Common questions
- How much bitcoin should I buy for a trade?
- Divide the money you are risking by the distance from your entry to your stop. Risking 100 with a 4,000 stop gives 0.025 BTC, regardless of what the coin costs.
- What is a satoshi?
- The smallest unit of bitcoin: one hundred millionth of a coin. Position sizes below a whole coin are often clearer read in satoshis, so this calculator shows both.
- Does this work for altcoins?
- Yes. The arithmetic does not care what the asset is called or what it costs — only your risk budget and your stop distance. Sub-cent prices are handled with extra precision rather than rounded away.
- Does it account for leverage or liquidation?
- No. It sizes the position from your stop. If the position value exceeds your account you are using leverage, and a liquidation price then sits somewhere that your stop may never be reached — check it on the exchange before entering.
Sizing a different market
This website provides educational information only. It is not financial, investment, or trading advice. Results assume your stop fills at the stop price; gaps, slippage, spread and commissions are not included and will change your real outcome.