units calculation

Had a hard time figuring out how to get the correct unit (or rather minimum units) to enter a trade for a currency pair whereby USD is not involved. Forgot to mention I am trading in a USD account

Buy CHF/JPY
USD $5 entry at 50:1 leverage
entry price say at 92.411
stop loss price say at 92.011

USD/CHF 1.48808

So how to calculate the number of units to enter to ensure I lose only USD$1?

Thanks a lot!

Though used margin for CHF/JPY is calculated taking account of USD/CHF rate (CHF is the base currency), the point value per lot is calculated upon USD/JPY rate as JPY is the quote currency.

1 point per standard lot is equivalent to 1000 divided per USD/JPY rate (91.11 at the time I write this), thus 10.97 (instead of 10 for XXX/USD pairs).

As and if USD/JPY falls in price, the pip value for CHF/JPY will be slightly rising. For example, if USD/JPY gets to 88.00, pip value for CHF/JPY would be 11.36. The inverse happens if the pair rises.

To ensure that your 40 pip stop loss represents no more than $1, you will have to decrease the number of units you would usually trade on pairs where the US dollar is the quote currency, by roughly an equivalent percentage (10-15% less, approximatively).

That is, where you would trade 250 units of EUR/USD (pip value 0.025 * 40 pips S/L = $1), for CHF/JPY you would have to reduce this to 225 units or maybe even less for greater safety, and keeping an eye on the rate for USD/JPY.

Example:
Case 1 USD/JPY 91.11
Pip value (micro-lot or $1000) = 0.1097 (roughly 10% higher than EUR/USD pip value which would be = 0.10)
Pip value per each unit traded = 0.1097/1000 = 0.0001097
250 units = 0.027425 per pip * 40 pips = $1.097
225 units (10% less) = 0.0246825 per pip * 40 pips = $0.9873

Case 2 USD/JPY 88.00
Pip value (micro-lot or $1000) = 0.1136 (roughly 14% higher)
Pip value per each unit traded = 0.1136/1000 = 0.0001136
250 units = 0.0284 per pip * 40 pips = $1.136
215 units (14% less) = 0.024424 per pip * 40 pips = $0.97696