Forex Position Size Calculator
Set your account, the percent you are risking and how far your stop sits in pips. It returns the lot size that keeps the loss to exactly what you chose.
Risking $100 on this trade.
50 pips away.
Editing this moves the stop price to match.
Position Size
0.2standard lots
20,000 units of the base currency
Maximum Risk
$100
1% of the account
Risk Per Pip
$2.00
Over a 50 pip stop
Potential Loss
-$100
If the stop is hit as planned
Risk / Reward
1 : 2
Break even winning 33.3% of the time
- This position is worth about 217% of your account. Your loss is still capped at the risk you set, but funding it needs margin or leverage.
Why pips make the sizing easier, not harder
A pip is the standard unit a currency pair moves in: 0.0001 for most pairs, and 0.01 for anything quoted in yen. Measuring your stop in pips rather than in decimals is what lets you compare a EUR/USD trade against a USD/JPY one without doing arithmetic in your head.
The useful number that falls out of it is risk per pip. If you are risking 100 of your account currency and your stop is 50 pips away, each pip is worth 2 to you. That figure holds no matter which pair you trade or what currency your account is denominated in, because it is simply your risk budget divided across the distance to your stop.
Standard, mini and micro lots
A standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot is 10,000 and a micro lot is 1,000. Your broker will ask for one of these, so the calculator converts the raw unit count into whichever you trade in.
Fractional lots are normal and expected. A correctly sized position frequently comes out at something like 0.27 standard lots — that is not a rounding error, it is what the arithmetic produced, and rounding it up to a whole lot means quietly risking more than you decided to.
Leverage does not change the answer
Leverage decides whether your broker will let you open the position and how much margin it ties up. It does not decide how much you lose if the stop is hit — that is set by your stop distance and your position size, both of which you control.
This is why the calculator never asks for your leverage. Two traders on 30:1 and 500:1 with the same account, the same risk percent and the same stop should place exactly the same size.
Common questions
- How do I calculate lot size from a stop in pips?
- Divide the money you are risking by the pip distance to get the value of each pip, then divide that by what one pip is worth per lot. The calculator does both steps and shows the lot size directly.
- What is a pip worth?
- It depends on the pair, the lot size and your account currency. Rather than assume any of those, this calculator works backwards from your own risk: your total risk divided by your stop in pips is what each pip is worth to you on this trade.
- Should I use standard, mini or micro lots?
- Whichever your broker offers and your account can size sensibly. Smaller accounts usually need mini or micro lots, because one standard lot can represent more risk per pip than a small account should take on a single trade.
- Does this account for spread and swap?
- No. It sizes the position from your stop distance. Spread widens your effective entry and swap accrues overnight, so both make the real outcome slightly worse than the calculated one. Check them with your broker before placing the trade.
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.