Sizing for how you trade
Position sizing when you are new to futures
Most accounts are not lost on bad ideas. They are lost on good ideas in positions that were too big, usually because the size was chosen from leverage or from a round number rather than from what a loss would actually cost.
What goes wrong
- Leverage feels like the size decision and is not: your stop distance is
- The first surprise is usually the fee, the second is funding, the third is liquidation arriving before the stop
- Every exchange asks for a quantity, which is the one number a beginner has no way to work out
What ZRisk does about it
Start from the loss, not the leverage
Decide what a losing trade costs. The size, the margin and the leverage follow from it.
See liquidation before you order
Estimated at your leverage and checked against your stop, so the trade cannot be one that liquidates first.
Free to try, no key needed
The free calculator needs no account. An account with no exchange connected still sizes trades.
Learn what it actually costs
Fees, funding and the break-even price are on screen for every trade rather than discovered afterwards.
In numbers
A 1% risk on a $2,000 account is $20. With a stop 2% away that is a $1,000 position, whatever leverage the exchange happens to be set to.
Size your next one properly
Start with the free calculator. No account, no key, nothing to install.
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