Course › Level 3 — How not to lose your money

Lot size — the math that makes 1% real

The 1% rule only works if your lot size (position size) is calculated, not guessed. The formula:

Lot size = (account × 1%) ÷ (stop distance × value per point)

Example: $500 account, so max risk $5. Your stop is 50 points away, and the instrument moves $1 per point per lot → 5 ÷ (50 × 1) = 0.1 lots. That's your size. Not 0.5 because you feel confident. 0.1.

Two things beginners get wrong

• Same lot size on every instrument. A point on Volatility 75 is not worth the same as a point on Boom 500 or EUR/USD. Check the contract specification in MT5 (right-click the symbol → Specification), or just use our calculator.
• Widening the stop without shrinking the size. Wider stop = smaller lots, always, or your 1% silently became 3%.

We built a free position-size calculator that does this math for you, tuned for Deriv synthetics. Bookmark it — you'll use it before every single trade.

Mark lesson complete