Hello fx-men, I am about to pop up my mini account (1 lot-size = 1 $) with 300 bucks. I have a good hand in demo account yet i am in middle school level of Pipsology school.
If i follow strict risk management policy and keep my risk percentage up to 3 % and set SL for 30 pips then value of per pip is equal to 0.3 .
But I want to keep lot-size atleast 0.5 which becomes 5 % of risk, I just want to know that should I go for it ? Is it too much risky ? should I increase the SL points ?
I always trade only on 30min, 1h, 4h charts …
any sort of suggestions are highly appreciated
Kudos.
Personally I follow the rule:
volume[lots] = balance[$] x CurrentPriceOfUSDXXX * 0.001 * risk[%] / SL[pips]
XXX being the quote currency of the traded pair.
No exceptions.
My broker let me trade as small as 0.01 lots.
Whatever system you use, make it working even if you have only 100$ left. I don’t want to sound discouraging but you will probably loose money since it is your first try. I would advice to trade with a small risk % at first.
edit: the formula I gave is for pairs with 4 (or 5 if your broker works with pipettes) digits after the comma like EUR/USD or USD/CAD
If you trade pairs like USD/JPY you have only 2 (or 3) digits after the comma. Then you change the 0.001 by 0.00001
or you have this tool:
Position Size Calculator: Free Online Forex Position Sizing Calculator
Thank you very much bro, that formula looks really promising. I will determine my lot-size using this formula. Should i use this formula every time before putting in a new trade ?
Plus the above link of position Size calculator is not deriving standard and mini lot sizes less then 1. Right now its telling me 5 micro lots under the circumstances i mentioned above i.e. 5 % risk with SL of 30.
Anyways, its just a hypothetical situation for the moment. i shall test your formula 
using formula for GBPUSD at current price 1.5923 for 5 % risk and 30 points of SL
volume = 300 X 1.5923 X 0.001 X 5 / 30
Its giving 0.07. Isn’t it too low ?? Please elaborate a little bit how this formula works ?
I’d just open a standard account with $300 and trade 0.01 lots. Micro is tiresome.
Let’s suppose you want 5% risk, have a system with a 30 pips SL (1 pips = 10 pipettes ; I avoid using the word ‘points’ because the meaning would change from a broker to another)
for GBPUSD, the quote currency is USD. so you need the rate of USDUSD, wich is always 1. 
volume = 300 X 1 X 0.001 X 5 / 30 = 0.05 that is 5 micro lots.
That means if you open an order of 0.05 lots, when your 30 pips SL will be hit, you will loose 5% of your capital (i.e your balance will go down to 285$)
This part of school describes how things are computed:
Calculating Position Sizes | Position Sizing | Senior Year | Undergraduate
Note that 30 pips = 300 pipettes. Your broker may use pips or pipettes as 'points’
a price movement of 0.0001 is one pip
a price movement of 0.00001 is one pipettes
0.01 standard lots means 0.1 mini lots. right ??
1 lot
0.1 lot = 1 mini lot
0.01 lot = 1 micro lot
check out I edited my last message 