Fixed fractional sizing: how do you calculate yours?

Fixed fractional means risking the same percentage of the account on every trade — 1% is the classic. The maths is simple; the discipline is the hard part, because the percentage wants to drift with confidence.

Fixed fractional sizing: how do you calculate yours? — risk-reward diagram
A risk-reward ratio of 1 to 2

How do you run it?

  • your percentage and how you settled on it
  • whether you recalculate per trade or per day
  • how the method behaves through drawdowns
Fixed fractional sizing: how do you calculate yours? — drawdown and recovery diagram
An equity curve during a drawdown and its recovery

The position sizing guide walks through the calculation step by step.

Background: Position sizing: how to risk a fixed percentage per trade

How much you trade matters more than where you enter. A step-by-step method for sizing positions from your stop-loss and the amount you are willing to lose.

How do I calculate lot size from risk?

Divide the amount you are willing to lose by the stop distance in pips multiplied by the pip value per lot. For $50 risk, a 25-pip stop and $10 per pip per lot, that is 0.20 lots.

What is the 1% rule in trading?

A guideline to risk no more than 1% of the account on any single trade, so a losing streak doesn't cause a drawdown you can't recover from. It is a starting point, not a guarantee.

Read the full guide

Comments

Log in to join the discussion. Comments follow the community guidelines.

Log in to comment

Loading comments…