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Free trader tool

How many shares should you buy?

Your stop already answered that question. Put in your account size, your entry, and your stop, and this calculator hands you the share count that keeps the loss inside the number you chose.

● The same formula we have taught traders since 2002
Morpheus Trading Group

Position Size Calculator

Your chart sets the stop. Your stop sets the share count. Fill in the boxes and you have your size.
$
Total capital in the account you trade from.
$500
1.00%
The most this trade can cost you if the stop gets hit. Traders still building consistency usually sit at 0.25% to 0.5%.
$
The price you plan to get filled at.
$
The price where the chart says you are wrong. Below your entry on a long, above it on a short. Your size appears below.
$
Add it to see what the trade pays for every dollar you put at risk.
Your size
Enter an entry price and a stop price to see your size.
Share counts round down to whole shares so you never carry more risk than you planned. Trading futures or crypto? The math holds, just read shares as contracts or units.
For education only. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

The math behind the number

Three steps. You can run them on a napkin once you have seen them a few times.

STEP 1

Set the dollars you will risk

One percent of a $50,000 account is $500. That is the most the trade can cost you if the stop gets hit.

STEP 2

Measure the stop on the chart

Buy at $100 with the stop under support at $98 and every share you own carries $2 of risk.

STEP 3

Divide one by the other

$500 of risk divided by $2 per share gives you 250 shares. Round down and place the order.

Shares = Dollars at risk ÷ Stop distance per share

Bad sizing takes out more accounts than bad picks

You can be right on half your charts and still bleed out, because the losers were oversized while the winners were small. Sizing off the stop settles that. Every loss costs you the same planned amount whether the stock is $8 or $800, and whether the stop is a nickel away or five dollars away.

Run this before you send the order. Two minutes here saves the month.

“My three biggest problems were focus, discipline and hopeium. Hoping losing trades would work out instead of following proper risk management.”

Deke Bowerman  •  Trial Attorney  •  MTG Student

Sizing is one piece. Come see the rest.

Deron Wagner runs a free workshop called The Real Reason 90% of Traders Fail. It covers what changes when your entries, your stops, and your size all come out of the same set of rules.

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Saturdays at 11:00 AM ET (New York time)

Bookmark this page and it is one tap away the next time you are about to send an order.

This calculator is an educational tool. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and it does not account for commissions, slippage, gaps, or overnight risk. Trading involves risk of loss.

Morpheus Trading Group  •  Trade what you SEE, not what you think