EUR/USD with account size of $4,000
Trade entry: buy at 1.2500
Profit target: sell at 1.2825
Stop loss: sell at 1.2425
Given the information above, how to calculate for the percentage amount risk? Thanks!
There are 2 possible answers here, depending on whether
(1) your position size is not yet determined, or
(2) your position size has been determined, and you neglected to mention it
(1) If you’re not committed to a position size, then the next step is to CHOOSE the amount of risk you want to take. Suppose you choose to risk 1% of your account balance on this trade.
That choice implies that a 75-pip move against your long position will cost you 1% of your account, which would be $40.
If 75 pips = $40, then one pip = $0.53333
The exact position size corresponding to this value would be 5,333 units of EUR/USD.
If your account does not provide for trading in individual unit-amounts, then you will have to round (down, or up) to the nearest micro-lot, or mini-lot. Example: you might round down, and decide to trade 5 micro-lots (5,000 units) of EUR/USD.
Rounding up will slightly increase your risk, above your chosen 1%. Rounding down will slightly decrease your risk, below 1%.
(2) If you simply neglected to specify the position size in this trade, then your risk is already determined by that position size. You can figure out how much risk you are taking using these relationships:
If you are trading in individual units, then your risk is $0.0001 per pip per unit x 75 pips = $0.0075 per unit traded. You dollar-risk is $0.0075 x the number of units in this trade. Your percentage risk is this amount divided by your account balance.
If you are trading in micro-lot position sizes (1,000 units per micro-lot), then your risk is $0.10 per pip per micro-lot x 75 pips = $7.50 per micro-lot traded. Your dollar-risk is $7.50 x the number of micro-lots in this trade. Your percentage risk is this amount divided by your account balance.
If you are trading in mini-lot position sizes (10,000 units per micro-lot), then your risk is $1.00 per pip per mini-lot x 75 pips = $75 per mini-lot traded. Your dollar-risk is $75 x the number of mini-lots in this trade. Your percentage risk is this amount divided by your account balance.
2 Likes
Thank you so much, Clint. 
@Tracer88
Hi mate
I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT FIND THIS USEFUL given your question above.
I used to use this a while back, i still use it every now and then, it’s a simply spreadsheet that does 2 basic things
IT’S PRIMARY PURPOSE is TO CALCULATE LOT SIZE that you should be using Based on your input
Secondly, its’ a quick calculator that calculates how many pips difference are between your entry and stoploss and take profit
I’VE ATTACHED THE SPREADSHEET (Feel Free to use it an modify it as you see fit)
- it’s password protected so you don’t accidentally stuff up the formulae,
- IF YOU WANT TO UNPROTECT IT
THE PASSWORD IS… abc123
SIMPLE
Open it
Go to REVIEW tab
select UNPROTECT SHEET
punch in the password And do what you like
it looks like this
FIRST THE RIGHT SIDE
i’ll give you a quick walk through of how it works
THIS SIDE IS COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT FROM THE OTHER SIDE
Meaning… whatever you do here will not affect any formula or calculation on the other side
use this as a calculator
if you are BUYING, you only edit the top 2 (that are in the BLUE BOX)
if you are SELLING you only edit the bottom 2 (that are in the RED BOX)
NEXT…
Whichever you edit
YOU ONLY HAVE TO DO 3 THINGS
- enter the TAKE PROFIT in the cell that the orange arrow points to
- enter the ENTRY price in the cell that the orange arrow points to
- enter the STOP LOSS in the cell that the orange arrow points to
NOW THE IMPORTANT PART
if you leave the sheet password protected, YOU WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO EDIT THE FOLLOWING FIELDS
INPUT 1
INPUT 2
INPUT 3
INPUT 4
INPUT 5
Input 1 - Enter your EXACT ACCOUNT BALANCE
Input 2 - RISK (Per Trade %) this is based on HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO RISK - it’s your choice.
the spreadsheet will give a Lot Size based PRIMARILY ON THIS NUMBER
Input 3 - Input Daily Goal (%) - this is your daily Target , Expressed as a percentage of your Account Balance.
Input 4 - Total Pips at Risk (S/L) - to work this out, you either calculate the pip difference between your entry
and stop loss, Manually, or you use the calculators on the right to tell you after you enter the entry
Stop loss and Take Profit.
Input 5 - This field can be changed to any number, BUT IT MUST BE HOW MANY SIMULTANEOUS ACTIVE TRADES
YOU PLAN TO RUN
NOTE : if you plan to risk 2% of your total account balance, but you plan to run 2 trades at a time.
it means each trade must risk 1%
if you plan to run 4, Each trade must risk a max. of 0.5% and so on
this field accounts for that, so you don’t get caught with your pants down, so to speak
FINALLY, THE LOT SIZE is the MAXIMUM SIZE YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TRADE WITH (in order to not
Risk more than what you want.
have fun with it
feel free to ask questions about it
feel free to change the colours or formulae
remember this was created for me to understand, not for others originally.
Lot Size Calculator - CURRENT - Copy.xlsx (13.1 KB)
PS, the format is XLSX meaning… Word 2010 or later
if you need XLS let me know
of any other format
1 Like
So I think you can calculate it using a formula for the percentage calculation and another way (which I prefer) you can use a percentage increase calculator that can help you to do the work quick since it works online on different devices. I prefer to use it often on my job (I am financial manager) where this “tool” can really help. Basically it helps a lot when you don’t have a lot of time and it can save your personal time on the job btw. Btw here it is https://www.percentagecalculator.co.uk/calculate-percentage-increase.html