Forex Lot Size Chart
Every lot size in actual money — units, pip value, and what a stop-out costs at each size. Which, statistically speaking, you’ll want to know often enough to care.
| Lot type | Units | Pip value | What that means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard lot | 100,000 | $10.00 | A 50-pip stop = $500 at risk |
| Mini lot | 10,000 | $1.00 | A 50-pip stop = $50 at risk |
| Micro lot | 1,000 | $0.10 | A 50-pip stop = $5 at risk |
| Nano lot | 100 | $0.01 | A 50-pip stop = $0.50 at risk |
The 0.01-to-10-lots ladder
The sizes brokers actually let you type, in the units they secretly mean:
| Lots | Units (base currency) | Pip value (USD-quoted) |
|---|---|---|
| 0.01 | 1,000 | $0.10 |
| 0.05 | 5,000 | $0.50 |
| 0.10 | 10,000 | $1.00 |
| 0.25 | 25,000 | $2.50 |
| 0.50 | 50,000 | $5.00 |
| 1.00 | 100,000 | $10.00 |
| 2.00 | 200,000 | $20.00 |
| 5.00 | 500,000 | $50.00 |
| 10.00 | 1,000,000 | $100.00 |
The chart is the wrong way to pick a size
Nobody should choose a lot size from a lot size chart. The chart tells you what a size costs; it cannot tell you what you can afford. That number comes from three inputs — your account, the percent you risk per trade, and your stop distance — and it changes on every single trade. Traders who size by habit (“I always trade 0.5 lots”) are running different risk on every position and calling it consistency.
The arithmetic is risk dollars ÷ stop pips = pip value → lot size. Our position size calculator does it in two fields, per instrument, including the annoying ones (JPY pairs, gold, indices) where the folklore pip values are wrong. There is also a pip value calculator when you just need the one number, and the full method — why 1% risk survives losing streaks that would end a 10%-per-trade account — is taught free in our risk management lesson.
Questions
What is a lot in forex?
A lot is the standardized quantity of currency you buy or sell. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency; a mini lot is 10,000 units; a micro lot is 1,000; a nano lot is 100. Brokers quote position sizes in lots because "0.10 lots" is easier to say than "ten thousand euros".
How much is 0.01 lots?
0.01 lots is one micro lot — 1,000 units of the base currency, worth about $0.10 per pip on USD-quoted pairs like EUR/USD. It is the smallest size most brokers allow, and the right size to be wrong with while you are learning.
What lot size should I use for a $100 / $1,000 / $10,000 account?
Work backwards from risk, not forwards from the account. Decide the percent you will risk per trade (1% is the convention for a reason), divide the dollar risk by your stop distance in pips, and that quotient is your pip value — which maps to a lot size on this chart. A $1,000 account risking 1% with a 25-pip stop is $10 ÷ 25 pips = $0.40/pip ≈ 0.04 lots. Our position size calculator does this arithmetic for you.
Is the pip value always $10 per standard lot?
No — that convenient $10 applies to pairs where USD is the quote currency (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD). On JPY pairs a pip is the second decimal and the value floats with USD/JPY; on gold most brokers treat a $0.10 move as one pip, worth $10 per 100-oz lot. When in doubt, use the calculator rather than the folklore.
Why did my broker show a different pip value?
Usually one of three reasons: your account currency is not USD (the value converts at the current rate), the instrument uses a different contract size (gold, indices and oil all do), or the platform is quoting pipettes — tenths of a pip — and everything looks ten times smaller than expected.
Sizing is step one. We'll handle the setups.
Breakout Alerts watches every pair and timeframe and sends you rule-based setups the moment they fire — each with a defined entry, stop, and target, so the only thing left to size is the lot. Free for 14 days.