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Units

Position size expressed directly as a number of base-currency units rather than as lots, which removes the guesswork from risk sizing.

Several brokers, particularly those built for smaller accounts, drop lots entirely and let you enter 3,700 units of EUR/USD. One lot is simply 100,000 units, so 0.037 lots and 3,700 units are the same position.

Units make position-sizing arithmetic direct: choose the dollars you are willing to lose, divide by the stop distance in price terms, and you have the unit count. No rounding to the nearest micro lot required.

Example: risking $150 on EUR/USD with a stop 62 pips away. 62 pips is 0.0062 in price. Units = 150 / 0.0062 = 24,193. That is 0.24 lots, which a lot-based platform would round to 0.24 and a unit-based one would take exactly.

Related: nano-lot, lot-size-calculation, pip-value, standard-lot

See it drawn

Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.

How a position size is worked outAccount size, risk per trade and stop distance feed into one box giving the number of shares.ACCOUNT SIZE$25,000your capitalRISK PER TRADE1%of the accountSTOP DISTANCE$0.50entry to stopPOSITION SIZE500 sharesrisk budget: $25,000 × 1% = $250position size: $250 ÷ $0.50 = 500 shares
Working out a position size. Three numbers decide how big a trade is: the account, the share of it put at risk, and the distance from entry to stop. One percent of $25,000 is a $250 budget, and a $0.50 stop divides into that 500 times.

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