Crypto Position Size Calculator
Risk a fixed dollar amount per trade. Set deposit, risk percentage, entry and stop. Output is the size that keeps loss within budget.
Enter deposit, risk % and levels
Position sizing formula
Risk a fixed dollar amount per trade derived from your deposit and risk percentage. Divide that by the distance from entry to stop to get the position size. Fees are optionally added to the denominator so they don't eat into your risk budget.
Example: $10,000 deposit, 1% risk, entry $94,200, stop $93,000, Binance taker → Size ≈ 0.0834 BTC ($7,857 notional).
Dollar risk at common settings
Most professional traders risk 0.5–2% per trade. Risking more than 3% per trade makes account recovery after a losing streak mathematically difficult.
Frequently asked questions
Should I include fees when calculating position size?
Yes. The fees on the opening and closing legs are part of the loss you take when the stop hits, so they belong in the denominator alongside the entry-to-stop distance. Skipping them makes the size 5 to 15 percent too large depending on the stop distance, and the realised loss exceeds the risk budget every time the stop fires. The calculator adds the round-trip taker fee at the chosen exchange rate to the per-unit risk before dividing.
How does leverage affect position size?
Risk-based sizing decouples position size from leverage. The size is set by deposit times risk percent divided by per-unit loss, which only depends on entry, stop and fees. Leverage is then a consequence of that size: notional divided by margin you choose to post. Higher leverage on the same size lowers the margin required and brings the liquidation price closer, but does not change how much you lose if the stop hits.
What risk percentage should I use as a beginner?
Beginners should risk 0.5 to 1 percent of account equity per trade. At 1 percent you can survive a string of 20 consecutive losses with about an 18 percent drawdown, which is recoverable. At 5 percent, the same losing streak wipes 64 percent of the account and recovery requires nearly tripling what is left. Once a strategy has a documented edge over 100 plus trades, risk per trade can climb to 1.5 or 2 percent.
How do I convert the position size from BTC to USD?
Multiply the size in BTC by the entry price. A size of 0.12 BTC at an entry of $94,200 is a notional of $11,304. The calculator already shows both numbers: size in base asset (BTC, ETH, SOL) and notional in USD. The notional is what fees, funding and margin are computed on, so always check it lines up with the trade you intend to place.
What is risk-per-trade and why does it matter?
Risk-per-trade is the dollar amount you accept losing if the stop is filled, expressed as a percentage of account equity. It is the single most important parameter in position sizing because it directly bounds drawdown. A 2 percent rule means a 10-trade losing streak costs 18.3 percent of equity; a 5 percent rule on the same streak costs 40.1 percent. Without a fixed rule, sizing drifts with conviction and the worst trades end up the largest.