Free position size calculator (forex and gold)

Work out the lot size that risks exactly the percentage you chose. Works for forex pairs quoted in USD and for XAUUSD. No sign-up.

Account balance

Risk per trade (%)

Instrument

Entry price

Stop loss price

-Amount at risk

-Stop distance (price)

-Position size (lots)

Enter your balance, the percentage you are willing to lose if the stop is hit, and your entry and stop prices. The result is rounded down to 0.01 lots so you never risk more than you chose.

How the calculation works

Risk amount = balance x risk %. Position size in lots = risk amount / (stop distance in price x contract size). A standard forex lot is 100,000 units, so a 20-pip stop on EURUSD (0.0020) risks $200 per lot. Gold is usually 100 ounces per lot, so a $5 stop risks $500 per lot.

Important limits

The result is in the instrument's quote currency. For pairs quoted in USD with a USD account it is exact. For JPY pairs and crosses, convert the risk into the quote currency first.
Contract sizes differ between brokers. Check yours in MT5 (Market Watch, right-click the symbol, Specification) and use the custom option if it differs.
Spread, slippage and commission are not included.

What to do with it

Size each trade the same way, then track whether you actually did. Your journal should show risk per trade next to the result; see the forex journal guide and win rate, profit factor and expectancy explained. Check a trade idea with the risk to reward calculator.

This calculator is for education. It is not trading or investment advice.

Worked examples (hypothetical numbers)

EURUSD, $10,000 account, 1% risk, 20-pip stop. Risk = $100. One pip on one lot is $10, so a 20-pip stop risks $200 per lot. Size = 100 / 200 = 0.50 lots.
EURUSD, $2,500 account, 0.5% risk, 12-pip stop. Risk = $12.50. Per lot, 12 pips = $120. Size = 12.50 / 120 = 0.104, rounded down to 0.10 lots.
Gold, $5,000 account, 1% risk, $8 stop. Risk = $50. One lot of 100 ounces risks $800 on an $8 move. Size = 50 / 800 = 0.0625, rounded down to 0.06 lots.

Lot size by stop distance (EURUSD, 1% risk)

The same 1% risk gives very different lot sizes depending on how far away the stop is. The figures are lots, rounded down to 0.01, for a USD account trading a pair quoted in USD:

Stop distance	$1,000 account	$5,000 account	$10,000 account	$50,000 account
10 pips	0.10	0.50	1.00	5.00
20 pips	0.05	0.25	0.50	2.50
30 pips	0.03	0.16	0.33	1.66
50 pips	0.02	0.10	0.20	1.00
100 pips	0.01	0.05	0.10	0.50

The wider the stop, the smaller the position. If you use a table like this to plan trades, remember that the stop should come from the chart first and the lot size from the stop second, never the other way round. Squeezing a stop in to justify a bigger position is one of the quickest ways to be stopped out by ordinary noise.

Mistakes the calculator cannot catch for you

Widening the stop after entry. The lot size was set for the original stop. If you move it further away, your real risk is larger than you planned. Record the original stop in your journal.
Several trades at once. Three trades at 1% each are 3% of the account at risk if they all lose, and on correlated pairs they often do. Decide a total open-risk cap as well as a per-trade figure.
Minimum lot size. On a small account, the smallest lot your broker allows can risk more than you intended. If the result rounds down to zero, the trade is too large for your risk setting, and the honest answer is to skip it or reduce the risk, not to round up.
Wrong contract size. Gold, indices and some CFDs differ between brokers. The Specification in MT5 Market Watch shows the right figure; enter it with the custom contract option.
Costs. Spread and commission mean a stopped-out trade loses slightly more than planned.

Check that you actually sized the trade as planned

Position sizing is a rule, and the journal is where you find out whether you followed it. For each trade, log the planned risk percentage and compare it with the realised loss on trades stopped out. If your 1% plan produced losses of 0.6%, 1.4% and 2.3% in the last three stopped trades, the plan and the practice have drifted apart. This is also the quickest way to spot lot-size creep after winning streaks. The risk to reward calculator and the expectancy calculator show whether a trade is worth taking at all, and the margin calculator tells you what the position will hold from your account.

Rounding and small accounts

The calculator rounds down to the nearest 0.01 lots so that you never risk more than you chose. On a $500 account with 1% risk (a $5 risk) and a 20-pip EURUSD stop, the exact size is 0.025 lots, which becomes 0.02 lots and risks $4. That slightly smaller risk is intended. If your broker offers 0.001 lot steps, you can use them, but check that your platform and broker accept the size before you rely on it.

Background reading: how lot size and contract size work in MT5, and a worked gold lot size table.

If your broker rejects a tight stop, read MT5 stops level and freeze level explained. Going the other way, from lots to stop distance on gold, try the XAUUSD stop loss calculator.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate position size in forex?

Multiply your balance by your risk percentage to get the amount at risk, then divide by the stop distance in price times the contract size.

How many lots is a 1% risk?

It depends on your balance and stop distance. For a $1,000 account, a 20-pip stop on EURUSD and 1% risk, the position is 0.05 lots.

Does this work for gold (XAUUSD)?

Yes. Choose the gold option, which uses 100 ounces per lot, and enter your entry and stop prices.

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