Lot
A standardised position size. A standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot 10,000, a micro lot 1,000 and a nano lot 100.
In practice
Most platforms let you trade in steps of 0.01 lots. A $1,000 account risking 1% ($10) on a 25-pip stop on EUR/USD needs 0.04 lots: 10 ÷ (25 × $10 per lot) = 0.04.
Copying someone else’s lot size. A size that is sensible on a $50,000 account can wipe out a $1,000 account in a single bad trade.
Related terms
Standard lot
100,000 units of the base currency, shown as 1.00 in most trading…
Mini lot
10,000 units of the base currency, shown as 0.10 lots. On…
Micro lot
1,000 units of the base currency, shown as 0.01 lots and the…
Position sizing
Choosing how many lots to trade so that a stop-out costs a fixed…
Contract size
The number of units in one lot of an instrument. For forex pairs a…
Nano lot
100 units of the base currency. Only some brokers offer it,…