Here is a complete checklist to determine the most important aspect of money management, position sizing. 1. What is my account balance? $4234.58 2. What percentage of my account balance will I be risking? 1.0% 3. What is my stop loss on this particular trade? 50 pips 4. What currency pair am I trading? GBP/USD 5. How much is a pip worth on a 10K (mini) account? $1 6. CALCULATION What is my dollar risk amount? (Account Balance x Percentage Risk) $42.35 7. CALCULATION What is my position size (Dollar Risk Amount x 10000) ÷ (Stop Loss x Pip Worth) NOTES EXAMPLE #1 (Answer questions 1 - 7) What you might be thinking… I can only trade a mini-lot which is 10,000 units. This is more than my calculated position size. This means that you are under-capitalized. You need more capital to trade mini-lots. Another option is to use a variable-lot size broker like Oanda where you can specify 8470 units. Another option is to risk a smaller percentage per trade (use 0.5%.) EXAMPLE #2 (Answer questions 1 - 7) In this example, you could enter a trade in the USD/JPY with 3 mini-lots or 30,000 units. If you have a variable-lot size broker like Oanda, you can enter a trade with 31,962 units. There may be a better or quicker formula for calculating position size. This method works but if you know of a more efficient way, let me know.


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