Position sizing.
How much should you buy? Enter a few numbers and we size the trade so that a stop-loss hit costs only the amount you chose to risk — a planned loss at the stop, not a guarantee: fees, funding and gaps past your stop come on top. Brand new to this? The plain-English guide is right under the calculator.
Margin and P&L: USDT. Prices and notional: USDT.
Changing the contract or margin coin clears amounts and prices. Enter values in the new units.
The worked examples and formula walkthroughs on this page use linear USDT/USDC contracts unless stated otherwise.
Inputs
How far your stop-loss is from your entry price
1× futures remain margined positions and can still face liquidation.
Position Size
2,000.00 USDT
Position size depends on your risk budget and the contract's loss at your stop. Leverage changes the margin (collateral) you need, shown below.
- Risk Amount
- 100.00 USDT
- Margin Required
- 2,000.00 USDT
- Account % Used as Margin
- 20.0%
Planned price loss at an exact stop fill. Fees, funding and slippage come on top — at 0.04% per side, entry and exit fees alone add about 1.60 USDT on this position.
Your numbers, explained
Risk budget: 100.00 USDT. Position notional: 2,000.00 USDT. Required margin: 2,000.00 USDT. An exact stop fill loses the risk budget before costs.
1× futures remain margined positions and can still face liquidation.
Assumes an isolated position backed only by the margin shown, an exact stop fill, and no fees, funding or slippage in the main results.
Results are estimates only and should not be relied upon for financial decisions.
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New here? The whole idea, in plain English.
Risk percentage is a scenario input, not a universally safe threshold. Planned loss assumes an exact stop fill; actual losses can be larger.
First, the 5 words you need
- Position size
- The contract's notional exposure, not the collateral deposited. A derivatives position does not mean that you own the underlying coins.
- Stop-loss
- An order triggered at a chosen price. Execution can slip or fail; the trigger does not guarantee the exit price or maximum loss.
- Risk
- What you plan to lose if the price hits your stop and the order fills there. This is not what you put in — just the loss; fees, funding and slippage come on top. The calculator above shows it as your Risk amount.
- Margin
- Collateral supporting a derivatives position. It is distinct from notional exposure and from the planned loss at a stop.
- Leverage
- For derivatives, leverage is notional exposure divided by initial margin. At 8×, 1 unit of margin backs 8 units of exposure; this does not itself create a loan. Spot margin borrowing is a different product.
The one line to remember: your stop-loss and how much you are willing to lose decide your risk and your position. Leverage only decides how much cash gets tied up — but it pulls the liquidation price closer, so your stop has to sit inside it.
Size targets a planned loss at an exact stop fill. Fees, funding, gaps and slippage are excluded. The bankruptcy boundary is not the actual liquidation trigger; maintenance and costs can cause earlier liquidation.
Common questions
What is position sizing in crypto trading?
Position sizing determines how much capital to allocate to a single trade based on your risk tolerance and stop-loss distance. It keeps the planned loss on any one trade to a predetermined percentage of your account — provided the stop fills where you set it. Without proper position sizing, even a winning strategy can lead to ruin through a single outsized loss.
What is the 1% rule?
The 1% rule means you never plan to risk more than 1% of your total account on a single trade. With a $10,000 account, the planned loss per trade is $100 whatever the position size or leverage — before fees and slippage. Twenty losses in a row at 1% of the current balance leave about 82% of the account (0.99^20), which is what makes the rule survivable, as long as every stop is actually taken.
How does leverage affect position sizing?
Leverage doesn't change the dollar amount you plan to risk — it changes how much margin (collateral) you need. A $5,000 position at 10x leverage only requires $500 margin, but a 2% adverse move still costs $100. The key insight: leverage changes capital efficiency, not the planned loss — provided the stop fills and the position is not liquidated first, because higher leverage moves the liquidation price closer to your entry.
Should I always use the same risk percentage?
Risk percentage is a scenario input, not a universally safe threshold. Planned loss assumes an exact stop fill; actual losses can be larger.
What's the difference between position size and margin?
Position size is the total value of your trade. Margin is the collateral you deposit. With 10x leverage, a $10,000 position requires $1,000 margin. Your risk isn't determined by margin alone — it's determined by your position size and stop-loss distance.
How do I position size for crypto vs stocks?
Risk percentage is a scenario input, not a universally safe threshold. Planned loss assumes an exact stop fill; actual losses can be larger.
Can position sizing prevent blowing up my account?
It makes a blow-up far less likely; it is not a guarantee. Risking a fixed 1% of your current balance, 100 losses in a row would still leave about 36.6% of the account (10,000 × 0.99^100 ≈ 3,660), because each loss is 1% of a shrinking balance. Losing everything in 100 trades would take a fixed $100 loss every time — abandoning the percentage rule as equity fell. Position sizing bounds each planned loss; it cannot stop a gap past your stop, fees, or a run of correlated losses, and a 50% win rate with a 1:2 risk-to-reward ratio (winners twice the size of losers) is profitable only if every stop is actually taken.
What is the Kelly Criterion?
The Kelly Criterion is a formula for the fraction of capital to risk given your win rate and payoff ratio: Kelly fraction = W − (1 − W)/R, where W is the win rate as a fraction (0.55, not 55) and R is the average win divided by the average loss. The result is a fraction of capital (0.10 = 10%); a negative result means the bet has no edge. Many traders use half-Kelly (half the calculated fraction) to reduce the volatility of returns.
Related Tools & Guides
Methodology, checks and sources
Educational scenarios for linear USDT/USDC and inverse coin-margined contracts. These are not exchange-specific liquidation engines or forecasts.
For derivatives, leverage is notional exposure divided by initial margin. At 8×, 1 unit of margin backs 8 units of exposure; this does not itself create a loan. Spot margin borrowing is a different product.
- Maintenance is fixed at entry. Cross margin models one position backed by the entered wallet balance. Fees, funding, changing risk tiers, other positions and collateral haircuts are excluded. Actual venues can use different formulas and mark-price triggers.
- Size targets a planned loss at an exact stop fill. Fees, funding, gaps and slippage are excluded. The bankruptcy boundary is not the actual liquidation trigger; maintenance and costs can cause earlier liquidation.
- The projection holds rate, position value, mark price and interval constant. It does not model changing rates or actual settlement timestamps. Kraken accrues funding continuously; its hourly equivalent is a comparison basis.
- Annualized % = native rate % × 24 ÷ interval hours × 365. This is simple annualization without compounding, not a promised yield. Missing quotes are not zero rates.
Worked verification examples
- Isolated USDT: entry 65,000, margin 1,000, 10×, maintenance 0.5% → long 58,825; short 71,175.
- The same position with cross collateral 2,000 USDT → long 52,325 USDT.
- Inverse BTC: entry 65,000 USD, margin 0.01 BTC, 10×, maintenance 0.5% → long 59,360.73 USD.
- USDT account 10,000, planned risk 1%, stop distance 5%, 5× → notional 2,000, margin 400, planned loss 100 USDT.
- USDT margin 1,000, 10×, constant 0.01% per 8 hours for 7 days → long pays 21 USDT; short receives the same amount.
Zero entry prices, zero stop distances and maintenance at or above collateral cannot define a valid position. Zero funding produces zero cost; negative funding reverses payer and recipient.
Primary sources
- Bybit · Liquidation Calculator
- Bybit · Funding Rate Calculator
- Binance API
- Bybit API
- OKX API
- KuCoin API
- Kraken API
Responsible publisher: MN Media s.r.o.
Model and source checks: . Calculation tests and source review; not an independent financial certification.