Skip to main content
The ticket sizes an order in one of three ways. The switch on the right of Size picks it: % Risk is offered on every instrument. lot is offered on the instruments traded in lots: Markets and hours lists them, with what one lot is. The currency is offered once you are signed in, and always on an instrument traded by amount only. The screenshots on this page come from a demo account holding 10,000 USD. Every price and figure on them is an example.

​
Size in lots

The ticket sized in lots: 0.1 lot of EUR/USD
Type the size in Size. One lot is a fixed quantity of the instrument: 100,000 euros on EUR/USD, one bitcoin on BTC/USD, 100 shares on a stock. The field takes as many decimals as the instrument’s step, 0.01 lot on a currency pair and 0.001 on BTC/USD, and the ticket refuses a size under the instrument’s minimum or over its maximum: Minimum size is 0.01. The bar under the field sets the size as a share of the largest one your free margin covers at this leverage, or of the instrument’s maximum when that is smaller. The estimates say what the size means. For 0.1 lot of EUR/USD bought at 1.10947: The ticket prices from the fill price to more places than the row writes, so a product of the rounded price can differ from its figure by a few cents.

​
Where the leverage comes from

​
Leverage in lots

Trading preferences: Order entry and Leverage by asset class
An order in lots opens at the leverage you set for its asset class: click the gear at the top right, then Settings, Trading preferences, Leverage by asset class. The block shows while your Order entry is Lots. The ticket does not ask for the leverage: it states it among the estimates, with the class beside it, as Leverage (Forex). When the instrument allows less than your setting, the order opens at the instrument’s cap and the row says (set by the instrument). A change applies to the orders placed after it. The leverage a new account starts at, class by class, is on Leverage and margin. In lots, the leverage does not change the size: 0.1 lot of EUR/USD is 11,094.65 USD of notional at any leverage. It changes the margin held against the position, and how far the price can move before the position is liquidated. At 1:500 the order above holds 22.19 USD; at 1:100 it would hold 110.95 USD. Leverage and margin gives the move that liquidates a position at each leverage.

​
Leverage by amount

The Adjust leverage dialog
When you enter an amount, the Leverage row ends in a button with the figure. Click it to open Adjust leverage, pick a figure on the scale or type a whole number, and confirm with the button that repeats it, Confirm 1:10 here. The dialog states the instrument’s range. On an instrument traded by amount only, most coins among them, while your Order entry is Lots, the ticket starts from the leverage you set for the instrument’s class, held to its cap, and the row names the class. That lasts until you pick a figure there or move to another instrument. By amount, the leverage sets the size: the amount is the margin, and the position is the amount times the leverage.

​
Size by amount

The ticket sized by amount: 100 USD of AVAX/USD at 1:10
Type an amount in your account’s currency: it is the margin the order holds. 100 USD at 1:10 opens a Position size of 1,000.00 USD of AVAX/USD, and the Required margin is the 100.00 USD you entered. The order is still sent as a quantity of the instrument, on its step, so the position can come out a few cents under the amount times the leverage. The bar sets the amount as a share of what your free margin can put up, or of the amount that buys the instrument’s maximum when that is smaller. While your Order entry is Lots, an instrument traded by amount only says so on the ticket: This market trades by amount and leverage, not in lots. On an instrument traded in lots, choosing USD sets Order entry to Amount + leverage in your trading preferences, for every instrument; choosing lot sets it back to Lots.

​
Size by risk

The ticket sized by risk: 1% of the balance, a stop 1% under the price of BTC/USD
1

Click % Risk

The field becomes Risk, in percent of your balance, and the stop loss row reads (sets the size). While the risk sizes the order, the stop loss cannot be removed.
2

Enter the share of your balance

For instance 1. Under the field, At risk, fees included writes it in money: 1% of 10,000 USD is 100.00 USD. The balance is the trading account’s balance, without the result of the positions still open.
3

Set the stop loss

As a price or as a percentage of the price, or in points on an instrument you enter in lots. Size (auto) then writes the size the risk sets: 0.097 lot of BTC/USD for a stop 1% under the buy price.
Change the risk or move the stop, and the size follows. When the order is entered by amount, the size is written as the amount that buys those lots. Choosing lot again leaves the size the risk set in the field, to type from.

​
How the size is worked out

The ticket takes the largest size, on the instrument’s step, whose loss at the stop loss, fees included, stays within the money at risk:
  • The loss at the stop is the distance from the price you fill at (a limit or stop order’s own price) to the stop, times the contract size, times the lots. The spread is inside that distance: a buy fills at the ask, and its stop closes at the bid.
  • The fees are every commission the order pays: at the open on the fill price, and at the close on the stop price, with the surcharge on a fill outside regular hours when it applies.
In the screenshot, 0.097 lot of BTC/USD bought at 79,033.8 with its stop at 78,243.44 pays, if the stop fills at its level: One step more, 0.098 lot, would lose 100.57 USD, so the ticket stops at 0.097. Without the fees, the same 100 USD would have bought 0.126 lot. The @ SL row shows the move alone, and the share of the balance it is: the fees are what take the loss at the stop up to the risk you set.

​
With several stop levels

To leave in steps, click Add, then Stop Loss again, and give each row its Share closed. The risk counts each level for the share of the order it closes: the distance is the average of the levels, weighted by their shares, and each level’s close pays its commission. Together, the levels have to close the whole order. The first stop row can be left without a share: it then closes the rest, and it has to be the farthest level. Every row you add names its own share.

​
What the risk does not cover

  • A stop that fills worse than its level. A stop loss closes at the market once the price reaches it. In a fast or gapping market it can fill beyond its level, and the loss can be larger than the risk. See How a stop loss fills.
  • The nights the position stays open. The overnight swap, and the borrow charge on a short share, are charged each night and are not part of the risk.
  • A price that moves before the fill. The size is worked out from the fill price on screen, and a market order fills at the price on receipt.

​
When the ticket refuses the order

The order button says why: