Position Size & Risk-Reward Calculator
Size every trade so a stop-loss costs exactly the risk you chose — and see the reward.
Pip value per lot
After a losing streak
How this was calculated
Results are estimates for general information and planning, not financial advice. Banks and institutions may calculate differently (rounding, fees, rate changes). Confirm figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before deciding.
About the Position Size & Risk-Reward Calculator
Most traders decide first how much they are willing to lose on a trade — 1% of the account is a common choice — and where the trade is wrong (the stop-loss). The position size then follows: the risk budget divided by what one share, lot or coin loses between the entry and the stop. This is the fixed-fractional sizing rule, and it keeps one bad trade from doing outsized damage whatever the price of the instrument.
This calculator does that for shares, F&O lots (with the lot size and, if you like, the margin per lot from your broker), crypto in fractions, and forex in standard, mini or micro lots, with the pip value worked out from the pair or from a conversion rate you enter. Add a target to see the risk-reward ratio, the profit in money and in R (multiples of your risk), the win rate you would need to break even, and what a losing streak does to the account. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
How to use it
- Choose the instrument: Shares, F&O lots, Crypto or Forex.
- Enter the account size and the risk per trade, as a % of the account or as an amount.
- Choose Long (buy) or Short (sell), then the entry price and the stop-loss — as a price, or as a distance (% away, or pips for forex).
- For F&O, enter the lot size of your contract (and the margin per lot if you want to see the margin). For crypto, the decimals your exchange accepts. For forex, the pair, your account currency and — only when the account is in neither currency of the pair — the conversion rate.
- Optionally add a target price. Read the position size, the loss at the stop-loss, the risk-reward ratio and the losing-streak table; copy the summary or download it as CSV.
Examples
Account ₹5,00,000, risk 1%; buy at ₹1,250, stop-loss ₹1,210, target ₹1,370
125 shares (₹1,56,250) · loss at the stop-loss ₹5,000 · risk-reward 1 : 3 · profit at the target ₹15,000 · break-even win rate 25%
₹5,000 ÷ ₹40 a share = 125 shares.
Account ₹10,00,000, risk 1%; entry 2,400, stop-loss 2,370; lot size 250
1 lot (250 units) · loss at the stop-loss ₹7,500
One lot loses 30 × 250 = ₹7,500; two would lose ₹15,000, more than the ₹10,000 budget. Lot sizes are set by the exchange: check your contract’s.
Account $10,000, risk 1%; buy at $64,000, stop-loss $62,400; 4 decimals
0.0625 units ($4,000) · loss at the stop-loss $100
Account $10,000, risk 1%; buy 1.0850, stop-loss 1.0820 (30 pips), target 1.0940; micro lots
0.33 lots (33,000 EUR) · $10 a pip a standard lot, $3.30 for this position · loss at the stop-loss $99 · risk-reward 1 : 3
Account $10,000, risk 1%; buy 150.00, stop-loss 149.50 (50 pips)
0.3 lots · a pip is 0.01, worth ¥1,000 a standard lot = $6.67 at 150.00
Common uses
- Size an intraday or swing trade in shares so a stop-loss costs, say, 1% of the account.
- Work out how many futures or options lots fit a risk budget, and the margin they need.
- Size a forex trade in micro lots and check the pip value in your own currency.
- Compare setups by risk-reward and the win rate each needs to break even.
The formulas
- Risk budget = account × risk % (or the amount you enter).
- Risk per unit = |entry − stop-loss|; for forex × the conversion from the quote currency to your account currency.
- Position size = risk budget ÷ risk per unit, rounded down to a whole share, a whole lot, the crypto step or the forex lot step, so the loss at the stop-loss never exceeds the budget.
- Risk-reward ratio = |target − entry| ÷ |entry − stop-loss|. A trade that risks 40 to make 120 is 1 : 3.
- Break-even win rate = 1 ÷ (1 + reward ÷ risk): at 1 : 3, winning 25% of such trades breaks even before costs.
R-multiples
An R is the amount you risk on a trade. Measuring results in R makes trades of different sizes comparable: hitting a target three times as far as the stop is +3R, a full stop-loss is −1R, and a trading record of +0.4R a trade on average is positive whatever the account size. The calculator shows the target as a multiple of R and the profit in money.
Pips and pip values
A pip is the usual smallest price step of a currency pair: 0.0001, or 0.01 for pairs quoted in Japanese yen. A standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot 10,000 and a micro lot 1,000, so one pip on a standard lot is worth 10 units of the quote currency (1,000 yen for a yen pair).
In your account currency, the pip value depends on the pair:
- account currency = quote currency (EUR/USD with a USD account): $10 a pip a standard lot, no conversion;
- account currency = base currency (USD/JPY with a USD account): the yen value divided by the price, worked out from your entry;
- neither (EUR/GBP with a USD account): multiply by the quote currency’s rate to your account currency, which you enter.
Brokers that quote an extra digit (“pipettes”) still count pips at the fourth (or, for yen, the second) decimal; choose another pip size only if your broker counts pips differently. Forex lots here are always 100,000, 10,000 or 1,000 units of the base currency. Metals, indices and other CFDs have their own contract sizes: size them with F&O lots, entering your broker’s contract size as the lot size.
Losing streaks
Even good strategies have runs of losses. Risking a fixed fraction, each loss is a share of what is left, so ten 1% losses leave 90.44% of the account, not 90%. Recovering is harder than falling: a 20% drawdown needs a 25% gain to get back. The table shows both for your risk.
Limitations
- The loss at the stop-loss assumes the order fills at the stop price. Gaps, slippage and fast markets can fill it worse; brokerage, taxes and spreads are not included.
- For options the stop-loss is on the option premium, which can move very differently from the underlying; the calculation is the same, the risk of gaps is larger.
- Shares, F&O and crypto are priced in the account currency. Margin and lot sizes are not built in: enter your broker’s and the exchange’s figures.
- Rules on who may trade forex, with which brokers and in which pairs differ from country to country; check that your broker is authorised by your regulator.
- Sizing limits how much a trade can lose; it does not make a trade a good one, and nothing here is advice to trade.
Privacy
Everything is calculated in your browser. Your account size, prices and results are never uploaded or stored on a server.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate position size?
Divide the amount you are willing to lose by the loss per unit if the stop-loss is hit. With a ₹5,00,000 account and 1% risk, the budget is ₹5,000; buying at ₹1,250 with a stop at ₹1,210 risks ₹40 a share, so the position is 5,000 ÷ 40 = 125 shares.
What is the 1% rule?
A common guideline: never risk more than 1% (some use 2%) of the account on one trade. It is a convention, not a law — the calculator works with any percentage — but small fixed risks keep a losing streak survivable: twenty 1% losses in a row still leave about 82% of the account.
What is a good risk-reward ratio?
It depends on how often the trades win. The break-even win rate is 1 ÷ (1 + ratio): a 1 : 2 trade needs to win more than a third of the time, a 1 : 1 trade more than half (before costs). A high ratio with a rarely reached target is not better than a modest one that is reached often.
How much is a pip worth?
For pairs quoted in your account currency, 10 units of it per standard lot (1 per mini, 0.1 per micro): $10 for EUR/USD with a dollar account. Otherwise convert: for USD/JPY at 150, a pip on a standard lot is ¥1,000 = $6.67.
Why is my position size 0?
Because even the smallest unit — one share, one lot, the smallest crypto step or a micro lot — would lose more than your risk budget at that stop-loss. Use a closer stop, a larger budget, or a smaller contract.
Does the calculator include margin or leverage?
It shows the position value as a multiple of the account, so you can see when a trade needs margin, and for F&O the margin from the per-lot figure you enter. Tick “Never more than the account can pay for” for shares and crypto to cap the size at the account balance.