Size the loss first. The contracts follow.
Enter your account, the risk you have chosen and your stop. See how many futures contracts fit, and how close whole contracts get you to the risk you meant to take.
Free, with no sign up, and nothing you enter leaves your device. Futures only, in US dollars. Fees and slippage are not included.
How much of your risk budget you use
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The same trade, full size or micro
Using it well
The calculator does the sum. The decisions that matter are the ones you make before you open it.
Choose the risk away from the screen
Decide what you are willing to lose on one trade before you open a chart. It is far harder to be sensible once a trade is moving.
Let the stop come from the chart
Put the stop where the idea is wrong, then size to it. Squeezing the stop tighter to fit more contracts changes how often you are stopped, not the risk you chose.
Check the cushion
If the losses it takes to reach your limit are fewer than the streak the odds throw up, trade smaller. The Losing Streak Planner shows what is normal.
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Continuum Community works through the week together: the market context, the process work, and exercises like this one. Continuum Education is the full process in one place, as a one-time purchase with lifetime access.
The research behind it
- CME Group. Contract specifications for E-mini and Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100, S&P 500, Dow and Russell 2000 futures, and for Gold, Micro Gold, WTI Crude Oil and Micro WTI Crude Oil futures. cmegroup.com.
The Position Size Calculator is an educational tool. It is not trading advice. Point values and tick sizes are taken from CME Group contract specifications and can change, so check them with your broker or firm before you rely on them. Contracts are rounded down to whole numbers. Stops are not guaranteed: gaps and slippage can make a loss larger than the one calculated here, and fees are not included. Trading involves risk, and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose.
