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Position Size, Risk Amount & Pip Value
Work out the exact lot size for any forex pair or metal from three numbers: your account balance, the risk you accept, and your stop loss in pips. Free and instant.
Pick your pair, set your risk percentage, and enter your stop loss distance. The lot size, dollar risk, pip value, and unit count update as you type.
Calculate the optimal lot size for any forex pair or metal based on your account balance, risk percentage, and stop loss distance.
| Risk % | Risk Amount | Lot Size |
|---|---|---|
| 1% | $100.00 | 0.20 |
| 2% | $200.00 | 0.40 |
| 3% | $300.00 | 0.60 |
| 5% | $500.00 | 1.00 |
Calculations use standard contract specifications (1 standard lot = 100,000 units, gold = 100 oz). Pip values vary with your broker and account currency, so always verify before trading. Trading carries risk of loss.
Three inputs, one number to trade with. Here is the order to fill them in.
Select the currency pair or metal you are about to trade, then enter your current account balance in USD. The quick-select buttons cover the most common balances if you want a fast answer.
Choose the share of the account you are willing to lose on this trade, usually between 0.5 and 2 percent, then enter the distance from your entry to your stop loss in pips. Results recalculate on every keystroke.
Copy the recommended lot size straight into your MT4, MT5, or broker order ticket. Check the risk comparison table to see how 1, 2, 3, and 5 percent risk would change the same position.
What a lot actually is, the formula behind the calculator, and why pip value changes from one instrument to the next.
A lot is the contract size of your trade. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, one mini lot (0.10) is 10,000 units, and one micro lot (0.01) is 1,000 units. Most retail brokers accept increments of 0.01, which is what makes precise position sizing possible on small accounts. The lot size you pick decides how many dollars each pip is worth, and therefore what a stop loss actually costs you.
Position sizing works backwards from risk: Lot Size = Risk Amount / (Stop Loss in Pips x Pip Value per Standard Lot). Take a $10,000 account risking 2 percent, which is $200, with a 50-pip stop loss on EURUSD where one pip is about $10 per standard lot. Lot Size = $200 / (50 x $10) = 0.40 lots. Widen the stop to 100 pips and the same $200 of risk only supports 0.20 lots, which is the point most traders miss: the stop loss sets the size, not the entry.
On most pairs a pip is the fourth decimal place (0.0001), but on JPY pairs it is the second (0.01). For USD-quoted majors such as EURUSD, GBPUSD, and AUDUSD, one pip is worth roughly $10 per standard lot, $1 per mini lot, and $0.10 per micro lot. Gold works differently: XAUUSD is quoted in $0.01 ticks on a 100-ounce standard lot, and while this tool treats a $0.01 move as one pip (about $1 per standard lot), many brokers define a pip as a $0.10 move instead (about $10 per standard lot). Check the contract specification on your own account before sizing a trade.
| Lot Type | Units | Pip Value | Risk at 50 Pips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro (0.01) | 1,000 | $0.10 | $5 |
| Mini (0.10) | 10,000 | $1.00 | $50 |
| Standard (1.00) | 100,000 | $10.00 | $500 |
Six principles that decide whether your lot size protects the account or quietly drains it.
Keeping single-trade risk between 1 and 2 percent of the balance makes a losing streak survivable instead of account-ending. Fix the percentage once and let the calculator move the lot size for you.
The same 0.50 lot position is routine on a $50,000 account and reckless on a $2,000 one. Recalculate whenever your balance changes meaningfully, up or down, instead of trading a fixed size out of habit.
A 100-pip stop needs exactly half the lot size of a 50-pip stop to keep dollar risk identical. Never widen a stop mid-trade without shrinking the position that sits behind it.
Gold and indices routinely cover several times the daily range of a major pair, which forces wider stops and therefore smaller lots. Size for the instrument in front of you, not for a number that worked somewhere else.
Three open trades at 2 percent each is 6 percent at risk, and correlated positions like EURUSD, GBPUSD, and AUDUSD often move against you together. Cap the combined risk across open trades, not only the risk on each one.
Every United Kings signal arrives with a defined entry and stop loss, so the pip distance this calculator needs is already in front of you. Run it against your own balance before you place the order.
Common questions about lot sizes, position sizing, and how this calculator works.
Use Lot Size = Risk Amount / (Stop Loss in Pips x Pip Value per Standard Lot). Start with the risk amount: a $10,000 account risking 2 percent gives $200. On a USD-quoted major, one pip is worth about $10 per standard lot, so a 50-pip stop loss gives $200 / (50 x $10) = 0.40 lots. The calculator above applies the correct pip value for every pair in the list so you do not have to look it up.
Risking 1 to 2 percent of a $1,000 account means $10 to $20 on the line per trade. With a 50-pip stop on a USD-quoted major that works out to roughly 0.04 lots, and with a 100-pip stop it drops to about 0.02 lots. Accounts this size need a broker that supports micro lots of 0.01. Only trade with capital you can afford to lose.
One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot (0.10) is 10,000 units, and a micro lot (0.01) is 1,000 units. On a USD-quoted major that translates to about $10 per pip for a standard lot, $1 for a mini lot, and $0.10 for a micro lot. Notional value is not the same as margin: your broker's leverage decides how much cash you actually have to post to hold the position.
For USD-quoted majors such as EURUSD, GBPUSD, and AUDUSD, one pip is approximately $10 per standard lot, $1 per mini lot, and $0.10 per micro lot. On JPY pairs the pip sits at the second decimal rather than the fourth, and when the US dollar is not the quote currency the pip value drifts with the exchange rate. This calculator uses typical values for each pair, so confirm the exact figure with your broker if you are trading size.
Yes. XAUUSD and XAGUSD are both in the pair list, and a standard gold lot is 100 troy ounces. This tool follows the common convention of treating a $0.01 move as one pip, which is about $1 per standard lot. Some brokers instead call a $0.10 move one pip, which makes it roughly $10 per standard lot, so check your contract specification and convert your stop loss to the same definition before you calculate.
Take the entry price and stop loss from the signal and measure the distance between them in pips. Enter that number as the stop loss, add your own account balance and risk percentage, and the calculator returns a lot size scaled to your account rather than to someone else's. This keeps you on the same trade idea while your exposure stays inside limits you set yourself.
A lot size calculator answers the question every trade starts with: how much should you actually put on? In forex a standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot is 10,000 units, and a micro lot is 1,000 units. Rather than guessing between them, this position size calculator works backwards from the only three numbers that matter, which are your account balance, the percentage of it you are prepared to risk, and the distance to your stop loss in pips.
Position sizing is where most retail accounts are won or lost. Traders spend hours refining entries and then size the position on instinct, which means two trades with identical setups can cost wildly different amounts. Fixed fractional risk fixes that. You decide in advance that no single trade will cost more than 1 or 2 percent of the balance, and the lot size becomes an output of that rule instead of a mood. As the account grows the size grows with it, and after a drawdown it shrinks automatically, which is exactly the behaviour you want.
The mechanics come down to pip value. On most pairs a pip is the fourth decimal place, on JPY pairs it is the second, and on USD-quoted majors one pip is worth roughly $10 per standard lot, $1 per mini lot, and $0.10 per micro lot. XAUUSD is quoted in $0.01 ticks against a 100-ounce standard lot, and brokers differ on whether a pip means $0.01 or $0.10, so verify the specification before converting a stop loss into a lot size. Once the pip value is right, the formula never changes: risk amount divided by stop loss in pips times pip value per lot.
United Kings publishes forex and gold signals to a Telegram community of more than 13,000 traders, and every signal carries an entry, a stop loss, and take profit levels. Measure the pip distance between the entry and the stop, drop it into this calculator with your own balance and risk percentage, and you get a position sized to your account instead of somebody else's. No signal service can promise an outcome and trading carries a real risk of loss, but the size of each position is the part of the process you control completely.