How to manage risk is one of the most important knowledge that a forex trader should have. Novice FX traders often focus on testing multiple indicators. Expert FX traders, on the other hand, pay more attention to risk control. Some believe that proper risk management can determine whether a forex trading strategy is good or bad.
In Forex, no matter what your trading strategy is, neglecting risk control is a guarantee that your operations will fail. Consequently, not knowing how to calculate or miscalculate the size of your positions, will surely lead you to make losses.
Careful risk assessment and management is probably what most defines the difference between a novice forex trader and a professional one. The former tends to focus more on testing different indicators and strategies. For newbies, it urges to find something that promises big payoffs quickly. And in this search, they tend to rely on great leverage and take risks that in a short time place them in unsustainable losses.
Instead, professional forex traders make risk control the foundation on which to build their trading strategy. For them, estimating the potential loss is much more relevant than the possible gain.
So it is essential to know how to accurately determine the appropriate size of the trade position to be opened. A position that is too small will not allow us to obtain a benefit proportional to the size of our account deposit, but even more damaging is to lose all our capital by opening a position that is too big.
Table of contents
Key Forex Concepts
You must know several concepts that are essential when calculating position size. Below, we mention some of these concepts and give a brief explanation for each of them. You should look up all the additional information to ensure that you understand each of these concepts properly before proceeding with the calculations.
- Forex pip: the smallest unit that measures the minimum change in the quote of a currency pair.
- Currency pair: in FX markets shows the relation between two different traded currencies (e.g.: EURUSD).
- Base Currency: first currency that appears in a forex pair quotation (e.g.: EUR in EURUSD).
- Quote Currency: second currency that appears in a forex pair quotation (e.g.: USD in EURUSD).
- Account balance: total of money available in a trading account.
- Account equity: it’s equal to the account balance including the value of the open positions.
- Forex lot: unit to measure standardizes trade sizes.
- StopLoss: predetermined price that is placed in the order to close the position if the market moves in the opposite direction.
MT4 Forex Position Calculator
Forex Position Size Calculator for MT4 does all the calculations automatically. Its use is very basic and intuitive and works for all symbols.
Simply attach the indicator to the symbol you want to trade, set the percentage of the account you are willing to risk, and accept. Immediately a box will appear with the button ‘Lot Size’, and a line will be drawn showing the distance in pips to the current price. Now you only have to move the line to the distance where you intend to place your StopLoss or TakeProfit level, and when you click on the ‘Lot Size’ button, the appropriate position size will be shown.
In any case, the best way to check its operation is by testing it. So simply, download it and install it in the ‘Indicators’ folder of your MT4 terminal. You can share it with whoever you want. The tool is completely free forever.
Forex position size calculator download
Note: the current version of the tool is v1.2. It was updated on 04/14/2020 based on reports and additions suggested by the customers.
ibill
Thanks for this indicator. It’s nice and useful.
However, for indices instruments like US30/US500/US2000 etc, the lot size is not correct. I suspect it is related the different specification (digits/contract size) from currencies instruments?
barmenteros FX
Hi. Thanks for your feedback. Can you send us a screenshot showing an example of wrong lot size and what should be the correct size in this case? If possible, tell us what calculation you use for getting the lot size or if you use a different tool to get the right size calculation. Best regards
Rex Amadi-Woluchor
Please accept my thanks for this wonderful script!
barmenteros FX
Thank you for your comment. You’re welcome. Best regards
ALEXANDER DOLL
Thank you for this little gem, very handy.
barmenteros FX
You’re welcome, Alexander. Regards
Ese
I tried the current version of the tool v1.2., but it does not work.
Ese
I tried using the calculator but it does not work. When I click the Lot size button it does not show the size.
I see the following messages in ‘Experts’ tab of Terminal window.
2021.01.08 01:10:10.220 Lot Size Calculator v1.2 AUDJPYi,H4: GetPipValue » fail to get pip value for AUDJPYi
2021.01.08 01:18:39.218 Lot Size Calculator v1.2 AUDJPYi,H4: GetPipValue » fail to get pip value for AUDJPYi
2021.01.08 01:18:39.218 Lot Size Calculator v1.2 AUDJPYi,H4: IsSymbolList » JPYUSD’AUDJPY’ (Unknown symbol)
2021.01.08 01:08:04.332 Lot Size Calculator v1.2 EURNZDi,H1: IsSymbolList » NZDUSDEURNZD pro >> pro (Unknown symbol)
2021.01.08 01:06:22.541 Lot Size Calculator v1.2 EURNZDi,H1: GetPipValue » fail to get pip value for EURNZDi
Please what can I do to make it work?
Regards.
barmenteros FX
Hi. Type ‘i’ in ‘Symbol Suffix (eg: XXXXXXpro » pro)’ input parameter of the indicator. Keep us posted. Best regards
Ese
Hello, Thanks for you reply, but you instruction is not clear. I do not understand what you mean by ”Type ‘i’ in ‘Symbol Suffix (eg: XXXXXXpro » pro)’ input parameter of the indicator”.
Please can you show exactly what you want me to input? using AUDUSD pair for example.
Regards.
barmenteros FX
Hi. If the name of your pair is AUDUSD with no suffix, you don’t need to do anything. However, if the name of your pair includes a suffix (e.g.: AUDUSDi) you have to type that ‘i’ in ‘Symbol Suffix (eg: XXXXXXpro » pro)’ input parameter of the indicator as shown in this screenshot: https://snipboard.io/Ivda8L.jpg. Hope it helps you. Regards
Ese
Thanks so much. It works.
barmenteros FX
You’re welcome. Regards
Felipe
Anyway to create two more lines? For Pending order and for TP, that way, the indicator would show the risk reward as well. For the pending order line, we would be able to choose an entry point for the calculation of the lot size and risk reward.
Better yet if it was made into an EA, that way, it would calculate all of that AND we would just need to click buy/sell button made by the EA.
What do you say?
Barmenteros FX Staff
Hi Felipe,
Thanks for your recommendations. We’ll take them into consideration for future updates.
Best regards
Dewa Setiawan
hi, I am Dewa from Bali island Indonesia. I am trying to googling for this type of indicator which can help me for the money management. After I installed to my MT4 it’s look really helpful. only one question for you, this percentage is from the current balance or start balance? i thank you very much hard work making this indicator.
Barmenteros FX Staff
Hi Dewa. The indicator uses the account equity. Thanks and best regards
Choy Jian Hao
Came across this site while I was googling for this indicator instead of toggling between website and mt4 to find the lot size base on my risk percentage. All I can say, this indicator really saves time even for just few secs which makes a lot of difference especially in FX trading. Looking forward to improvement and other useful indicators. Keep it up, TS.
Barmenteros FX Staff
Hi Choy. Glad to hear that this indicator is useful to you! Thanks for your feedback. Kind regards
Tyrone
I tried using it but it doesnt work. When I click the Lot size button it doesnt show the size. I also have a gray circle on the Lot Size Cal in the navigator tab. I did some research and it seems that I may need to compile the mq4 file as well. DO u have that? or a workaround.
Barmenteros FX Staff
Hi Tyrone. Are you getting any error message in ‘Experts’ tab of Terminal window? If so, what’s the message? Otherwise, send us a screenshot showing the error. Gray circle in the navigator tab is not a problem. You don’t need the mq4 file in order for the indicator to run properly. Thanks
Tyrone
Thanks fr the quick response. Yes I actually do get an error message. I cant seem to post a screenshot. But the error message says
“2020.04.14 13:49:20.668 Lot Size Calculator v1.0 CADCHF…..,M15: IsSymbolList » USDCHF (Unknown symbol)”
“2020.04.14 13:49:20.668 Lot Size Calculator v1.0 CADCHF…..,M15: IsSymbolList » CHFUSD (Unknown symbol)”
“2020.04.14 13:49:20.668 Lot Size Calculator v1.0 CADCHF…..,M15: GetPipValue » fail to get pip value for CADCHF…..”
I think the reason why its not working is due to the naming convention of my broker for the currency pairs. It adds 5 fullstops after the XXXXXX, and maybe that causes the “unknown symbol” error message. Or maybe its something else.
Barmenteros FX Staff
Thanks for the report. A new version is available now. You can enter the suffix of your symbols in the input parameter ‘Symbol Suffix (eg: XXXXXXpro » pro)’, so if your symbol is ‘CADCHF…..’ you should enter ‘…..’ in the input parameter ‘Symbol Suffix (eg: XXXXXXpro » pro)’. This new version also shows the risk percent in the panel so the user will be able to change it directly from the panel. Best regards
Tyrone
Omg, thank you so much, it works like a charm now. Also love the new feature. You rock!!!
Barmenteros FX Staff
Glad to hear it. Thanks for the feedback. All the success
Jason
Great Indicator guys. so simple and yet so useful. Kudos !
Barmenteros FX Staff
Glad to hear it, Jason! Thanks for your feedback. Best regards
justice
hello i cant find the place to put the % amount am willing to risk
Barmenteros FX Staff
Hi. You can set the risk in the input parameter ‘Risk Percent’. Regards
Donovan
How do i take this off of my chart, even when its deleted it wont get off
Barmenteros FX Staff
Hi. Just click on the closing icon [X] on the top right corner of the indicator’s window. Regards
ANTHONY
How do I use it on an JPY FX pair, it does not work.
Barmenteros FX Staff
Please, send us a screenshot to [email protected] showing what’s not working. Thanks