Calculators that do the risk math for you
Two free calculators that run the same arithmetic the lessons teach: what one pip is worth at your size, and what size a defined loss allows. No sign-up, no email, and no invented exchange rates — where a figure needs a rate we do not hold, they ask for it and say why.
By fx4success Editorial Team
Position sizing is arithmetic, and arithmetic done by hand at the moment you want to place a trade is arithmetic done badly. These do it for you.
Position size calculator
Give it your account balance, the percentage you are willing to risk, your stop distance in pips and the pair. It returns the position size that makes those things consistent.
A $5,000 account risking 1% with a 20-pip stop on EUR/USD comes back as 0.25 lots — 25,000 units, $2.50 a pip, $50 if the stop is hit. Widen the stop to 50 pips and it returns 0.10 lots, because the money at risk is the thing being held constant. That inversion is the whole lesson, and it is covered in position sizing.
It also pushes back. Ask it to risk more than 2% and it says what a run of ten losses at that size would cost. Give it a stop under five pips and it points out that you are inside normal spread and noise. Neither stops you doing it — they are there so the decision is made with the number in front of you.
Pip value calculator
What one pip is actually worth, for a pair and a position size, in your account currency. It handles the two conventions that catch people out: yen pairs are quoted to two decimals so a pip is 0.01 rather than 0.0001, and gold trades in 100-ounce lots rather than 100,000 units. Getting either wrong misstates risk by a factor of 100 or 1,000.
What they will not do
They will not invent an exchange rate. Converting a pip value into your account currency needs a rate — if your account is in dollars and you are trading a yen-quoted pair, the answer depends on USD/JPY right now. We do not fetch a live rate and we do not hardcode a stale one, because a wrong rate produces a confidently wrong position size, and that is the single most damaging thing a site like this could output.
So where a rate is needed, the calculator asks for it and tells you why. You can read it off your platform in seconds, and you will know which number the answer depends on.
They also do not know your broker's contract specifications. Conventions vary — some brokers treat a gold pip as $0.10 rather than $0.01 — so the tools state the assumption they used on screen. Check it against your platform once, and then you know.
What is not here yet
There is no drawdown recovery calculator. The arithmetic is simple enough to read straight off a table, and the table plus the reasoning is in drawdown math — 20% down needs 25% to recover, 50% down needs 100%.
The rule these follow
Margin decides the position you can open; your stop and your pip value decide what you can lose. Retail leverage is capped at 30:1 on major pairs, which is a ceiling rather than a target. These calculators answer the second question, which is the one that keeps accounts alive.
Sources
In this section
- Position Size Calculator
Enter your account size, risk percentage and stop distance to get the position size that keeps your risk fixed.
- Pip Value Calculator
What one pip is worth for a given pair, lot size and account currency.
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