Size every trade to your stop, not your margin. Enter your account, your risk, and your stop — get the exact number of contracts in real time.
Position sizing is the one habit that separates traders who last from traders who blow up. The math is simple: your risk per trade divided by your risk per contract gives you the number of contracts you can hold. Risk per contract is your stop distance in points multiplied by the contract's point value.
Contracts = (Account × Risk%) ÷ (Stop in points × Point value)
For the E-mini S&P 500 (ES), each point is worth $50. A 4-point stop is therefore $200 of risk per contract. On a $50,000 account risking 1% ($500), that's 2 contracts — not the 10 your margin might allow.
Most funded accounts don't fail on bad strategy. They fail because a trader saw a low day-trade margin, sized up to what the broker allowed, and got stopped out at a size their account couldn't absorb. The calculator above shows margin needed and what it is as a percentage of your account — if that number climbs past 50–60%, you've left yourself no room for normal volatility.
| Contract | Point value | Tick | Tick value |
|---|---|---|---|
| ES | $50 | 0.25 | $12.50 |
| MES | $5 | 0.25 | $1.25 |
| NQ | $20 | 0.25 | $5.00 |
| MNQ | $2 | 0.25 | $0.50 |
| YM | $5 | 1.0 | $5.00 |
| MYM | $0.5 | 1.0 | $0.50 |
| RTY | $50 | 0.1 | $5.00 |
| M2K | $5 | 0.1 | $0.50 |