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Position size calculator
Position size is the money you're willing to lose divided by what your stop costs per lot, contract or share. Enter your account, your risk, your entry and your stop. The calculator gives the size for gold (XAUUSD), forex pairs, futures such as ES, MES, NQ and gold futures, stocks and crypto, rounded down so you never risk more than you chose.
Most brokers use 100 oz per lot for XAUUSD. Check your symbol's specification.
Adds reward-to-risk.
Enter an entry and a stop-loss price to see your position size.
Sized it? Check the chart before you place it.
Scan the chart freeHow the calculation works
Every market uses the same formula. Only the value of a price move changes:
size = risk ($) ÷ (|entry − stop| × $ value of a 1.00 move per unit)
- Gold (XAUUSD): one lot is usually 100 oz, so a 1.00 move is $100 per lot. Risk $100 with a stop $10 away: 100 ÷ (10 × 100) = 0.10 lots.
- EUR/USD: one standard lot is 100,000 euros and a pip is 0.0001, worth $10 per lot. Risk $100 with a 20-pip stop: 100 ÷ (20 × 10) = 0.50 lots.
- USD/JPY at 150: a pip is 0.01, worth 1,000 yen per lot, or about $6.67. Risk $100 with a 30-pip stop: 100 ÷ (30 × 6.67) = 0.50 lots.
- MES futures: $5 per point. Risk $100 with a 4-point stop: 100 ÷ (4 × 5) = 5 contracts. The same stop on ES ($50 per point) doesn't fit even one contract.
- Stocks: risk $100 with a stop $1.50 below a $50 entry: 100 ÷ 1.50 = 66.7, rounded down to 66 shares.
The stop is the part that matters most, and it should sit where the trade idea is proven wrong, not at a round number picked to fit the size. If you're not sure where that is, here's how WickScan reads a stop and target off a chart, and why risk per trade separates pros from amateurs.
What the calculator doesn't do: it doesn't check margin or leverage, spreads, commissions or slippage, and it assumes a USD account. Your broker's contract specification is the final word on lot and contract sizes.
Questions
How do you calculate position size?
Divide the money you're willing to lose by what the stop costs per unit of size. Position size = risk in dollars ÷ (distance from entry to stop × dollar value of a 1.00 price move per unit). With a $10,000 account risking 1% ($100) and a gold stop $10 away, one 100 oz lot loses $1,000, so the size is 0.10 lots.
How much is one lot of gold (XAUUSD)?
At most brokers, one standard lot of XAUUSD is 100 troy ounces, so every $1.00 move in the gold price is worth $100 per lot, and a 0.01 lot is worth $1 per $1.00 move. Some brokers use a different contract size, so check your symbol's specification and change the contract size in the calculator if it differs.
What is the pip value of one lot in forex?
For pairs quoted in US dollars (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD), one pip (0.0001) on a 100,000-unit standard lot is worth $10. For USD/JPY, a pip is 0.01, so its value is 1,000 yen, which is about $6.67 when USD/JPY trades at 150. The calculator works this out from your entry price for USD-based pairs. For crosses such as EUR/GBP, enter the pip value your platform shows.
How many contracts of ES or MES should I trade?
ES is worth $50 per point and MES $5 per point. With $100 of risk and a 4-point stop, one ES contract would lose $200, which is more than your risk, so the answer is zero ES contracts. MES loses $20 per contract on the same stop, so five MES contracts fit. The calculator rounds down and tells you when your risk is too small for one contract.
Why does the calculator round the size down?
Brokers only accept sizes in fixed steps: 0.01 lots, whole contracts, whole shares. Rounding up would put more money at risk than you chose, so the calculator always rounds down and shows the risk after rounding.
How much should I risk per trade?
That's your decision, and it depends on your strategy and your account. A common rule among traders is 1–2% of the account per trade, so that a run of losing trades doesn't do lasting damage. The calculator flags anything above 2% as a reminder, not a rule.
Do I need an account to use the calculator?
No. It runs in your browser and works without signing up. Nothing you type is stored. WickScan, an AI chart-analysis tool, makes it free alongside its chart scanner.
Size it, then check the chart
A position size is only as good as the stop behind it. WickScan, an AI chart-analysis tool, reads a screenshot of your chart and returns the trend, the support and resistance zones and, when there's a clean setup, an entry, stop and target taken from the chart's own price axis. Free scans recharge every day, no credit card.
Educational tool only, not financial advice. Trading carries a risk of loss, and leveraged products such as forex, CFDs and futures can lose more than a planned stop when price gaps.