Position sizing
Size every trade so the stop costs the same small fraction of your account.
What it is
Professional risk control starts with sizing. Decide the percent of your account you are willing to lose if the stop is hit (commonly 0.25–1%), measure the distance from entry to stop, and divide: size = risk amount ÷ stop distance.
This keeps every loss the same size regardless of the coin or setup, and keeps losing streaks survivable.
How to use it
- Choose a fixed risk percent per trade.
- Set the stop where the idea is wrong, not where it is comfortable.
- Compute the size from the distance.
- Cap total open risk across all positions.
Size from the stop, never the other way round.
Common mistakes
- Choosing size first and the stop second.
- Increasing size after a win or loss streak.
- Taking many correlated trades that are really one big bet.
Practise it in TradeDesk X
The TradeDesk X order ticket asks for a stop-loss price and a risk percent of equity and calculates the size. Micro uses fixed dollar sizes with an automatic max-trades cap.
Related lessons
🛡
Stop placement and ATR
A stop belongs where your idea is wrong, outside normal noise.
🛡Drawdown and the maths of recovery
Losses are harder to recover than they look. Protect capital first.
Educational content only. Nothing here is financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Trading leveraged products can lose more than you deposit. Practise with paper trading first and never risk money you cannot afford to lose.