The division that sets the size

Position sizing is one division, and everything after it is rounding — Pakistan

Most beginners choose a lot figure and discover afterwards what it can cost. The arithmetic runs the other way: decide the money, measure the distance, and the size is whatever the division returns — including, sometimes, a size that cannot be placed.

Size in lots = money you accept losing ÷ (stop distance in pips × money per pip for one lot). Two of the three inputs are decisions taken away from the screen; the third is a property of the symbol. Then the answer is rounded down to the step the ticket accepts — and if it lands under the smallest size allowed, the division has still answered you, just not with a trade you can place today.

The division, worked twice

Nothing below quotes anybody's terms; it is arithmetic on figures your own ticket prints.

Fix the money, not a percentage

Write down an amount in currency. A share of the balance is a convenient way to pick it — a small single-digit percentage is a widespread habit — but the division needs the money figure, so convert it once and keep it visible.
Multiply the distance by the pip value

Twenty pips on a pair worth $10 a pip per lot gives $200 of loss per full lot. That product is the cost of being wrong at maximum size, and it is the denominator of everything that follows.
Divide

Accept $2 and the answer is 2 ÷ 200 = 0.01 lots — exactly the floor a Standard account takes. Accept $1 and the answer is 0.005 lots, which is under it. The sum is finished in both cases; only one of them can be typed into a ticket.

When the answer lands under the floor

An unplaceable size is information, not a failure. Three inputs produced it, and exactly three things can be changed — each with a consequence worth naming out loud:

Change	Effect on the size	What it costs you
Accept a larger loss	Rises in a straight line	More money at stake on one idea
Use a shorter stop distance	Rises in inverse proportion	The exit sits closer to ordinary noise
Trade a smaller-unit account	The same trade is written in smaller units	Nothing about the arithmetic — only the counting unit changes
Wait and add to the balance	Unchanged until the accepted loss changes	Time, and nothing else

What is not on the list is «round up to 0.01 anyway». Rounding up is a decision to risk more than the amount you wrote down, made quietly, at the last moment, which is the opposite of what the sheet is for.

Sizing more than one trade at a time

The division sizes one idea. Two ideas sized the same way risk twice the amount, three risk three times it, and the sheet says nothing about that unless you make it. The fix is arithmetic rather than discipline: decide a figure for the day or the week first, then divide it among the trades you expect to place, and feed each share into the division as line 1.

Two positions sized to $2 each are a $4 decision taken in two halves an hour apart. Correlated symbols make it sharper still — two tickets that move together are closer to one trade of double the size than to two independent ones, even though each was computed correctly on its own. Nothing in the formula notices this, which is exactly why it belongs written at the top of the sheet.

How sensitive the answer is to each input

Worth memorising, because two of the four scale the size in a straight line, one inverts it, and one does not touch it at all.

Input	Double it and the size…	Double it and the sized loss…
Accepted loss	doubles	doubles — that was the point of it
Stop distance	halves	stays where it was
Money per pip	halves	stays where it was
Leverage figure	unchanged	unchanged

Read the last row twice. A bigger leverage figure does nothing whatever to what a losing trade costs — it only reduces the amount held aside while the position is open, which is a separate arithmetic entirely and belongs to the four totals. The two get folded into one sentence constantly, and the table is the shortest way to keep them apart.

What the division does not decide

Whether the idea is any good. Any three inputs return a size, including inputs behind a trade nobody should take.
Where the stop belongs. That distance is typed in; a poor choice yields a perfectly calculated poor size.
That the loss will be exactly the sized amount. A fast market can fill an exit past the level, and the result is then larger than the plan.
Anything about the outcome. Trading carries a high risk of losing money, sizing changes the scale of that, not the risk itself, and nobody can promise a profit.

One protection is worth naming because it is a rule of the account rather than of your arithmetic: negative balance protection caps a loss at what has been deposited. Everything deposited is still at stake, which is why the amount in line 1 belongs to money you can genuinely do without.

Should the accepted loss be a fixed percentage?

A small share of the balance is a common habit, but the division needs money. Convert the share once, write the amount down, and size from that.

Percentage of the balance, or of what is left after open trades?

Pick one and stay with it. Sizing from a total that already has positions against it quietly enlarges every subsequent trade.

My answer is 0.037 lots. Do I round up or down?

Down, to the step the account accepts. Rounding up puts more at stake than the figure you agreed to.

Does a wider stop mean more risk?

Not by itself — it means a smaller size for the same accepted loss. The risk changes only if the size is left where it was.

Is money per pip something I can choose?

No — it is units in a lot × one step of price, so it belongs to the symbol. Only the size scales it.

Do two small positions risk less than one bigger one?

Not automatically. Two trades sized to $2 each risk $4 together, and more if the symbols move in step.

Is the division different on a smaller-unit account?

No. The same trade prints in smaller units, so the answer is written differently and means the same thing.

Where does the spread enter?

Alongside the stop, not inside it: it is extra distance the price must cover before the position is level, priced with the same money per pip.

Can I practise the whole sheet without depositing?

Yes. A free demo prints the same reservation and the same money per pip, which makes the arithmetic checkable for nothing.

Keep going

Let the form divide

Type the amount and the distance; read the size.

Open the calculator

Measure line 2

Counting the pips between entry and stop, without the tenfold slip.

Measure a distance

Watch the reservation

Balance, equity, free margin: which total the fence comes out of.

See the four totals

Size a position on virtual money before it means anything.

A free demo reserves the same amount for the same size, with nothing to send and no time limit.

Open a free demo at Exness