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Crypto position size calculator

How big a position can be so that hitting your stop-loss costs a fixed share of your account. Enter the account, the risk you accept and where your entry and stop are.

Buy 20 units, a position of $2,000. If the stop at $95.00 is hit you lose $100, which is 1% of the account.

Position size
$2,000
20 units at $100.00
Stop distance
5.00%
below entry
Share of account
20%
no leverage needed
Reward to risk
3.00 : 1
$300 at the target

How the calculator works

The money you accept losing is the account size times the risk percentage. The distance between entry and stop is what one unit loses if the stop is hit. Dividing the first by the second gives the number of units. A stop below the entry is treated as a long, a stop above it as a short.

The result assumes the stop fills at its price. In a fast market it can fill worse, and trading fees add to the loss, so the real figure can be somewhat larger than the one shown.

Questions

What is position sizing?
Position sizing is deciding how much of a coin to buy or short so that the loss, if your stop-loss is hit, equals an amount you chose in advance. The size follows from the risk and the stop distance, not from how confident you feel about the trade.
How is position size calculated?
Multiply the account size by the risk percentage to get the money at risk, then divide by the distance between the entry price and the stop-loss price. Example: a $10,000 account risking 1% has $100 at risk; with entry at $100 and a stop at $95 the distance is $5, so the position is 20 units, worth $2,000.
How much should I risk per trade?
Many traders keep it between 0.5% and 2% of the account, so that a run of losing trades does not do lasting damage: ten losses in a row at 1% leave about 90% of the account. The right figure is a personal decision and this calculator does not choose it for you.
Why does a tight stop give a bigger position?
The money at risk is fixed, so the smaller the distance to the stop, the more units fit inside it. A very tight stop can produce a position larger than the account, which is only possible with leverage and is far easier to get stopped out of by ordinary price noise.
What is a good reward-to-risk ratio?
It depends on how often your setups win. At 2 to 1 a strategy breaks even when a third of its trades win; at 1 to 1 it needs half. A higher ratio lets you be wrong more often, but targets further away are reached less often.

Disclaimer: This calculator is educational and does not constitute financial advice. It assumes the stop-loss fills at its price and leaves out fees, funding and slippage. Leverage can liquidate a position before the stop is reached. Never risk more than you can afford to lose.