Plan your risk before you trade
Calculate your forex lot size from your account balance, risk per trade and stop loss. Use this free position size calculator to estimate trade volume, potential loss and reward before placing an order.
Enter your own trade details. Presets are examples.
Scroll inside the calculator for results and advanced settings.
Need help? Read the stepsPlanning estimates only. Check your broker’s contract size, volume limits, prices and currency conversion rates. Presets are illustrative; this tool does not use a live price feed. Slippage, gaps and execution costs can change your actual loss.
Plan the size here. Explore your chart setup with VIP Algos.
Premium trading indicators for TradingView, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.
Start with your trade idea and stop loss. Then work out the size that fits your chosen risk budget.
Select your currency pair and account currency. Enter the balance or equity you want to base the calculation on.
Enter a percentage of your account or a fixed cash amount. This is the amount you choose to risk for this calculation.
Choose Buy or Sell. Add your entry and stop loss, using prices or a pip distance. A take profit is optional.
Check the broker settings, conversion rate and costs. Calculate to see the lot size, estimated loss and any target result.
Using a non-USD account? If the instrument’s profit currency differs from your account currency, check the conversion section. The calculator derives conversion from exit prices where applicable, or asks you to enter a rate. It does not fetch live exchange rates.
A forex lot size calculator converts your chosen cash risk and stop-loss distance into a trade size. It helps answer a practical question: how many lots would put approximately this amount at risk if the trade reaches my stop?
Position size describes the amount you trade. In forex, you can express it as lots or as units of the base currency. For a standard 100,000-unit contract, a 0.20-lot position represents 20,000 units.
A wider stop requires a smaller position for the same cash risk. A tighter stop allows a larger calculated position, but the stop should still reflect your trade setup. Changing the size does not make a setup more likely to succeed.
Lot size = Risk amount ÷
(Stop loss in pips × Pip value per lot)
Suppose you have a USD account with a $10,000 balance. You choose a 1% risk budget and a 50-pip stop on EUR/USD. Assume a standard contract of 100,000 units, a 0.01-lot step and no trading costs.
At this size, each pip is worth $2. A 50-pip stop therefore represents a $100 price loss before costs. With a 25-pip stop instead, the basic calculation would be 0.40 lots for the same $100 risk.
Costs change the result. If you add $7 round-trip commission per lot, the 50-pip example gives $100 ÷ $507 ≈ 0.1972 lots. Rounded down to a 0.01-lot step, that becomes 0.19 lots, with an estimated loss of $96.33.
For a standard forex contract, 1.00 lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency, which is the first currency in the pair. A mini lot is 10,000 units and a micro lot is 1,000 units.
| Lot type | Lots | Units | Value per pip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1.00 | 100,000 | $10.00 |
| Mini | 0.10 | 10,000 | $1.00 |
| Micro | 0.01 | 1,000 | $0.10 |
These pip values apply to this EUR/USD example. Other pairs, account currencies and contract specifications can produce different values. A pip is usually 0.0001 for most forex pairs and 0.01 for JPY pairs.
Use the position size as one part of your trade plan. Confirm the details in your trading platform.
Position sizing estimates the loss at a chosen stop. Margin is the collateral needed to open a leveraged trade. This calculator does not check free margin or broker approval, so a calculated position may exceed what your account can open.
The result covers one planned position. Other open trades can add to your overall risk, particularly when they involve correlated currency pairs. Check your combined exposure and any account or prop firm loss limits separately.
The tool includes gold, index, crypto and custom instrument settings. Their contract sizes, tick values and volume steps can differ between brokers. Replace illustrative defaults with the specifications for the symbol you actually trade.
Bring your chart analysis and risk planning together. VIP Algos offers premium trading indicators with Buy/Sell alerts, trend signals, support and resistance tools, and potential entry, Take Profit and Stop Loss areas.
Indicator features vary by product and platform. Analysis tools do not guarantee profitable trades. This calculator remains free to use.
Understand the inputs, the result and the assumptions behind your trade size.
Created by VIP Algos for educational trade planning. For a platform reference, see MetaTrader’s explanation of profit calculation in account currency.
Yes. You can use the calculator without signing up or buying an indicator. VIP Algos premium trading indicators are a separate, optional purchase.
For a forex trade, they usually describe the same risk-based calculation. The difference is how the size is expressed: lots or currency units. With a standard 100,000-unit forex contract, 0.10 lots equals 10,000 base-currency units.
There is no single lot size based on account balance alone. You also need a chosen risk amount, stop-loss distance, pip value and broker volume limits. For example, $1 risk with a 20-pip EUR/USD stop gives 0.005 lots before costs. If your broker’s minimum is 0.01 lots, no position fits that budget. A zero-lot result means the minimum trade would exceed the selected risk.
For EUR/USD with a 100,000-unit contract and a USD account, 0.01 lots is approximately $0.10 per pip. Pip values differ for other currency pairs and account currencies. Gold and other CFDs use their own contract and tick specifications.
Leverage changes the margin required to open a position. It does not change the cash loss for the same volume and price move under the same contract specifications. This risk-based calculation therefore does not need leverage, but you must check margin availability separately with your broker.
Yes, the calculator includes illustrative presets and custom broker settings. Check contract size, tick size, profit currency, minimum lot and volume step against your broker’s symbol specification. Do not apply the standard forex assumption of 100,000 units per lot to every instrument.
You can enter round-trip commission per lot, a fixed cost and a stop slippage allowance in ticks under “Broker specifications & costs.” These values affect the calculation only when you supply them. The tool cannot predict execution. Avoid counting the same cost twice if it is already reflected in your planned entry and exit prices.
It rounds down to your configured broker lot increment so the estimated loss stays within the chosen budget under the entered assumptions. It can return zero if the minimum permitted lot would exceed that budget, or if fixed costs use the whole budget. It also respects the maximum volume you enter.
No. Instrument presets contain example prices. Enter your own trade levels and verify conversion assumptions before calculating. When a manual currency conversion is needed, supply your broker’s applicable rate; it is not fetched automatically.
No. The result is an estimate based on your inputs and costs. Gaps, slippage, spreads, exchange-rate changes and broker execution can make an actual loss different from the estimate. A stop order does not guarantee its execution price.
Yes. You can use the calculated volume as a planning reference for a compatible broker symbol. Check the order size units, lot step and contract specifications in your platform first. The calculator does not connect to your account or place orders.
Ready to size your next trade?Enter your own figures and check the assumptions before placing an order.
Back to the free calculator