Help needed pls:

[spike123]

Hello,

if i openen an 1000 Euro Account.

Which would be the best lot size to trade secure with.

MAximal open trades would be 3-4.

Better 0.1 lots or 0.01 lots.

I dont know how to calculate this.

Pls help

[iwjw]

depends on how much you want to risk per trade

Lets say you risk 2% of your total balance and your SL=20 pips

2% of $1000 = $20....that's max you gonna lose if the trade goes against you

If you're trading 0.1 lots you have $1/pip....(depends on the pair you are trading)

So in this case you would trade with 0.1

If your SL=40 pips you could only trade with 0.05 lots to risk the same 2%=$20

[maybe]

Depends on your trading strategy and how much risk is involved. Alot of people would recommend using 2% of your account (although I use 5%). You can work this out by taking 2% of your account and dividing that by your risk in pips (ie the amount of pips until your stoploss). So if your stoploss is -300 pips, then that's 1000/50=20, 20 divided by 300 = .06 lotsize. This is with a leverage of 1:100. This way you have a higher risk when you have a larger account, and a lower risk when you've a smaller account, so you can suffer a losing streak indefinitely, and earn exponentially in a winning streak.

 

However if your using indicators to dictate when to stop, then you can't work out your lotsize that way, you can only do that if you know your stoploss in advance.

[spike123]

Ok, lets say i open a trading account with 1000$ balance.

I want to open max 3 trades at the same time.

Each trade with max sl 150.

What do you think is the best lot size.

0.05? 0.01? With these lots what is the maximum loss i have with a sl of 150? And What with a sl of 210?

Thanks a lot thats my last question

Edited July 16, 2010 by spike123

[iwjw]

Ok, lets say i open a trading account with 1000$ balance.

I want to open max 3 trades at the same time.

Each trade with max sl 150.

What do you think is the best lot size.

0.05? 0.01? With these lots what is the maximum loss i have with a sl of 150? And What with a sl of 210?

Thanks a lot thats my last question

 

SL150 0.1 lots ->$150

SL150 0.05 lots ->$75

SL150 0.01 lots ->$15

 

So if you're going with SL210 you're risking about 2% if you take 0.01 lots...and that's what I would recommend to start with

[maybe]

What lwjw said. Disregard my last post too, I mixed up the lotsizes.

 

In an effort to be helpful, there's a pdf called true money management that explains some of this

 

http://www.multiupload.com/16U1QR2933

Edited July 16, 2010 by maybe?
Bah I was completely wrong with my explanation

[iwjw]

This depends on your leverage. For lwjw a sl of 150 pips at .1 lots risks $150, but for me (with alpari uk), at 1:100 leverage, it only risks $15. It might also be affected by if your broker lists the price to the 5th decimal.

 

Depends on the brokers size for one standard lot...leverage is only used for calculating the margin

if 1 standard lot = 100K then 150pips @0.1 lots will be equivalent to $150 (depending on the pair you're trading)

if it's only 10K then 150pips -> $15

[wonderwoman]

You can always open an acount with Oanda, this would give you much better scope with your lots size, the only downside is that there leverage is quiet low, however if you want to trade safely this should not be a problem. Technically speaking as as already been speaking you should only ever risk 1-2 of you balance and to work this out you need to know how much you are willing to loose per trade.

Hope this helps

ww

[bob898]

I guess you already opened an account but for new traders I guess some general information would be pretty useful:

If your account balance is less than 10.000$ open a account where you can trade micro lots(1.000 units).

If your account balance is less than 100.000$ open a account where you can trade mini lots(10.000 units).

If your account balance is more than 100.000$ open a account where you can trade standard lots(100.000 units).

 

There are variations using 5.000$ and 50.000$.

 

Do not trust the commercials telling you to open a mini account with just 1.000$, you can trade 10 micro lots in any micro account though you are trading 10.000 units = a mini lot if you are very confident in your strategy. If you are just able to trade mini lots, you need to trade at least 10.000 units (equals generally speaking 1$ per pip). That is definitely not useful if you just have 1.000$ and if you are just starting. I can trade 2 standard lots in my micro account though you really do not worry about not getting big enough lots if you want to. There are normally no disadvantages to micro accounts (sometimes you cannot trade CFDs, but you want to focus on forex anyways!).

 

And as stated above, for your accurate lot size you need to figure out how much you want to risk on each trade and calculate the actual lot size you are going to use on each trade.

Edited August 29, 2010 by bob898

[chrisbenjy]

You should set lot size according to the amount of your capital your willing to lose.

 

Use this calculator to calculate your position size:

http://www.currensys.com/FreeForex.php

[Daniel Chen]

Don't do any trading transaction before you know this well. I'm the one like you who know less about trading, but I think lost money is very easy and make money is not so. Good luck, guy.