How to calculate amount per pip

I am curious to know how you guys determine the amont of lots you buy for the amont of money you have in youe broker. I am starting off with $1000 in oanda and trading $1/pip. So how do you guys determine the amount per pip for the amount of money in your account?

o.O

You answered your own question.

As BK has stated, you already know the amount/pip that you are trading. However if you mean how much per pip you SHOULD be trading with a $1000 account, that's a matter of personal preference. I'm just a newbie myself, but it's alot more comfortable trading micro lots (1,000 units on Oanda) with an opening balance such as yours.

Maybe another vet will jump in with a recommended lot size to use.

Good luck,
Bob

Mr Burger,
While I am new to this forum, I am not new to Forex. You, sir, have obviously been around for a while. Mr Luke is a newbie. He has not answered his own question because he does not know. He is only guessing. If he knew, he would not have asked. So, please, answer his question. Please do not belittle him for his ignorance. Please reply in a manner and verbiage which he will understand. Please correct me if I am wrong, but is not part of the purpose for the veterans in this forum to help the less informed and the less experienced? Thank you very much.

Honestly, what was he asking? The value of a PIP? or lot size or account size? Value of PIP and Lot size are directly related.
From the initial post, the question was clear to me he was asking: "So how do you guys determine the amount per pip for the amount of money in your account?"

He had answered it $1/pip which suggests that he is trading mini lots (0.1 Lots).
Mini Lots on $1000 is a good answer.

However, depending on one's trading style: Short to Long term, it will vary greatly.

For shortterm, one can go full lot scalping 5~10 pips profits per trade (or loosing just as much). Long Term can do Mini lots but targetting 200~500 pips staying as much as 2-4 weeks at a time.

I trade 15 % of account balance with a 3% stop loss. If stopped out I still have 97% of original balance.

In oanda you can set this up very easy by going to Tools/ User Preferences/Trading tab/Default size order put 15%/Default stop 3.0/ you chose which option you want % balance/Nav/pips whatever

No matter how much or little money you have you will always open your trade with 15%. You can use whatever % you want but 15 for me is agood number it will allow you to open up 2-3 trades at one time if needed without going broke if you miss your entry

I wasn't sure what he was asking at first either, but if I understand correctly now, he's asking what how many lots you should trade, which will then determine how much profit or loss you incur per pip. Here's a somewhat simplified version of what I do:

I've predetermined that I'm going to risk 2% of my account balance on each trade. When I sit down to trade, I figure out what that amounts to. If my balance were $1000, then 2% is $20.

Now I begin to analyze the market. Once I identify a potential trade, I have to know where my stop loss is going to be (which is the earliest point at which I can recognize that the trade isn't working that way I thought it might). Suppose I'm going long and I determine I'm going to set my stop loss 13 pips below my entry point. That means I can do 1.5 mini lots and my risk is $20. ( 20 / 13 = 1.5 ). I'm pretty sure you can do fractions of mini lots on Oanda, although I've never used them.

If the stop loss needed to be set 20 pips below the entry point, then I'd only do 1 mini lot. If the stop loss was going to go at 10 pips, then I could do 2 mini lots.

Now, you might deceide that you want to be more aggressive than 2%. I think that'd be a little scary--a run of bad luck can mean a large drawdown.

But if you decided you wanted to risk 5% and your stop loss was 13 pips below your entry point, then you'd go 3.8 mini lots ( 50 / 13 = 3.8 ).

Now, suppose you're using 5% and you get stopped out. Your account is now at $950. 5% of 950 is $47.5. So you that would be the amount you risk the time you trade. On the other hand, if your trade is successful and you make 30 pips, you account is now at $1,114. ( 3.8 mini lots * 30 pips = $114). 5% of 1,114 is $55.70, so that would be your risk the next time you trade.

But I'd seriously suggest staying with just 2%. I think it was Jacko who said in one of his post something to the effect of "It's better to get rich slowly than to go broke spectacularly fast." I always remember that when I'm tempted to get more aggressive.

Good Luck.

Plip

i always try to pick the lowest lot size possible, easy and less confusing. i use margin as gauge meter and keep it low,

i think he is asking, for example how much does 1 pip value per lot @ a certain price for a cross pair

e.g, eurjpy @ 140.00 = $7.14

Calculator

Here is the answer to your question..

Pair Pip value (100k contract)
EUR-USD 10
USD-JPY 8.22
GBP-USD 10
USD-CHF 8.16
USD-CAD 9.31
AUD-USD 10
EUR-JPY 8.22
EUR-CHF 8.16
USD-NOK 1.65
GBP-JPY 8.22
CHF-JPY 8.22
USD-PLN 3.52
EUR-GBP 19.76
EUR-CZK 0.47
USD-DKK 1.8
USD-THB 29.9
USD-SGD 6.54
NZD-USD 10
EUR-NZD 730.1
USD-SEK 1.44
AUD-JPY 0.08
EUR-NOK 164.73
EUR-AUD 8.23
EUR-PLN 3.52
USD-HKD 1.28
EUR-DKK 1.8
USD-CZK 0.47
USD-ZAR 1.4
EUR-CAD 9.31
GBP-CHF 8.16
EUR-SEK 1.44
USD-HUF 0.05
EUR-HUF 5.36
XAU-USD 1000

Thank you Dr Cool, Russo, bballfan31...
especially bballfan31, hit it dead on. Thats exactly what the answer i needed. Thanks

Rosso...

You might want to check your calculations for these.(I haven't checked all of your excellent list, but I think these are wrong)


Cheers

You know what I do? I enter a demo trade before entering a live trade to figure out the exact pip-value on that particular cross at that precise time.

Hi guys pardon me but i think what he tried to ask is what's the volume/lot size to place if the's limiting his risk to say... 10% out of 1k balance in his acct. Another way of saying this is, if he had 1000$ in his micro-acct and he's willing to risk 100$ (10% of 1000$) of his money/balance for a trade, whats the volume/lot factor need to be placed.
For my self i'm not sure either, thats why i m browsing this forums seeking the simplest and correct way to calculate this on-the-fly (maybe with some xls worksheet asst ;-) and btw I'm using mt4 with fxcast.com as the broker.
Hope this helped (or answered as to my problem)

zhuzzir

When USD is the second currency in a pair, pips will be $1 per minilot.

When the second currency in a pair is not USD, you look at the dollar rate for that currency.

For example, to get the USD pip value for GBP/JPY, you would need to look at usd/jpy. 1 pip is always 100 yens, on 1 mini lot, so if USD/JPY is 120, you would divide 1000 by 120. In this case one pip would be worth 83 cents. I hope i explained it well enough to understand.

Pete