In other words, lot size is about your trading size or trading volume, which determines the number of currency units you are trading.
Forex Lot Sizes: Micro, Mini, and Standard Lots Explained
Depending on the number of units involved, lot sizes are categorized into the following:. A standard lot stands for , units of the base currency; a mini lot stands for 10, units, a micro lot stands for 1, units; while a Nano lot stands for units of the base currency. So, if you buy a standard lot of a currency pair, you are buying , units of the base currency. As you know, currencies are traded in pairs, as you are automatically selling one currency to buy another.
The first written currency in a pair is the base currency, while the other is called the quote currency. When you buy a currency pair, you are buying the base currency, using the quote currency. On the other hand, when you sell a currency pair, you are selling the base currency to buy the quote currency. The same analogy applies to the micro lot and nano lot. From our discussion so far, it follows that one mini lot is equivalent to 0. In the same vein, one nano lot will be equivalent to 0.
It is important you note that your trade volumes must not be in a single unit of the standard, mini, micro, or nano lot. You can actually trade 2, 3, or more standard lots, mini lots, or micro lots — as your account size trading capital allows you.
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Of course, 2 standard lots means , units of the base currency, just as 3 micro lots would mean 3, units of the base currency. For any given currency pair, the lot size you trades affects the value of each pip you make or lose. As a rule, the bigger the lot size, the bigger the pip value, but why is that? To understand how lot size affects pip value, you need to understand the concept of pip. It is the standardized unit for measuring price movements, and it is represented by the fourth decimal point 0.
Therefore, the pip is considered the smallest price change in a currency pair until most brokers stated adding another decimal point to the currency quotes, making the 4-point pairs now five decimal points 1. The last point, which is called the pipette, is one-tenth of the pip and is now the smallest unit of price change in a currency pair. The pip value can be measured in terms of the quote or the base currency in the pair. Even for currency pairs that do not contain USD, brokers often covert the value to USD for easy profit and loss calculation.
Before we proceed to show how the lot size affects the pip value, you should note this: In a currency pair, the quoted price exchange rate is the value of the quote currency that exchanges for one unit of the base currency. So, price movement represents a change in value in the quote currency. Now, to show how different lot sizes affect the pip value, we have to calculate the pip value using different lot sizes.
Thus, the pip value for the various lot sizes are as follows:. Please note that the pip value in USD calculated here is the same for any currency pair where the USD is the quote currency. It is also important to note that the pip value of any lot size varies in currency pairs where the USD is the base currency. In the world of financial trading, leverage is the amount your broker is ready to lend you so that you can trade bigger lot sizes than your account balance could carry without it.
It is expressed as a ratio of the amount lent by the broker to the amount you must provide to trade that lot size, which is referred to as the margin — more on that later. If a broker offers leverage of , for example, it means that for each amount you provide, the broker will make it up to 50 times that amount. So, you can use one unit of a currency pair to control 50 units of that pair, and by extension, you can use 2 units to control units nano lot size , 20 units to control 1, units micro lot size , units to control 10, units mini lot size , and 2, units to control , units standard lot size.
PIP Value per Lot Size
By trading bigger lot sizes, leverage allows you to increase your profits, but it also magnifies your losses by the same factor. Note that amount of leverage does not have any effect on the value of the lot size itself — a standard lot remains , units, while a micro lot is still 1, units — but it can affect the number of lots you can trade with the balance on your account. You can also look at it the other way round — the number of lots you trade with a particular account size determines the amount of leverage you are using since you must not use the maximum leverage provided by the broker.
Hence, no matter how much leverage allowed by the broker, you can control how much you use. Margin is closely related to leverage, and, hence, its value can be affected by the lot size. Margin can be classified as required, used, or free margin. The Required Margin is the amount of money a trader needs to put down in order to open a specified lot size of a leveraged trade. It can be expressed as a percentage of the total amount the specified lot size is worth or in the actual amount of the margin requirement.
When there are many open trades, the term Used Margin refers to the aggregate of all the Required Margin from all open positions. One standard lot is , of base currency. If you want to enter a trade of one lot, you should spend , USD to buy , euros. If you are an individual trader, you are unlikely to have such capital at your free disposal.
The minimum lot size forex under trading conditions is 0. This means you need 1, A trade of 0. A nano lot is 0. Nano-lot accounts are called cent accounts. One lot here corresponds to a trade for units of the base currency. The smallest possible transaction with a volume of 0. Regular accounts do not allow to make transactions for such small volumes. However, cent accounts have a drawback. Not only the transaction volume, i. So, professional traders, who want to recoup the time spent and make real profit, do not use cent accounts.
A standard lot size is the maximum possible contract size provided by the broker's trading conditions. Do not confuse the maximum lot with the standard one:. You can find the information about the lot type used on a trading account in the MT4 contract specialization. In the Market Watch tab, right-click on the asset currency pair and select the Specification tab. It is clear from the specification that the contract size is ,, so the lot is standard. The specification also reads that you can enter a trade of a minimum volume of 0.
In MT4, the trade volume can be selected in the window of the position opening:. The volume is not limited to 8 lots, as in the screenshot - you can enter any number up to 10, in 0.
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For example, To compare, I will open in the LiteForex terminal two demo accounts with a deposit of 2, USD each, with a 1: leverage. I will open positions with a volume of 1 and 0. There will not be enough money to open a second order with the same amount of money. Of the USD, only I can use the remaining cash balance of If you reduce the lot size, you can open positions, but the financial result also decreases.
For example, in this case, the floating loss is less, it is If you are sure in your trading decision to buy or sell, you can open a trade with a higher volume to increase the profit.
Aggressive strategies with a high risk level suggest entering trades with the maximum possible lot to increase the deposit. Conservative strategies suggest minimization of loss rather than chasing after the high profit, so they imply entering trades with a small volume.
For whatever asset you enter a trade, it will in any case be made in the account currency. In most cases, it is the USD. Therefore, it is crucial for traders to understand how much money they will actually have reserved in USD when opening a position, for example, for a cross rate. The easiest way to use the trader calculator or forex lot calculator to find out the lot size in Forex:.
XM Pip Value Calculator
Remember, the leverage size does not affect the risk if there is a clearly defined target for the position volume. With the same lot size, the change in leverage affects only the amount of the collateral. You should also note whether a direct or an indirect quote when calculating the pip value.