safe lot sizing

my forex account has around $3000, leverage is 1:500.

Maximum open trades by my EA is 5.

If I use 0.1 lot would it be safe.

To know if your risk is acceptable, not only the lot size is important. That's the combination lot size and SL that determine your risk.

Here is a nice calculator you can use

try a demo account first?

If you are comfortable with it then it is right for you!
If you are uncomfortable with it, then reduce your exposure till you are comfortable.
Cheers, H

I suggest you think in terms of effective leverage. Do some searches on the subject and see what you find. The recommended maximum is typically 1:10 for experienced traders and 1:3 or less for beginners.

Effective leverage varies on which pairs you trade and the account currency. For a USD denominated account with EURUSD or AUDUSD, that would be .3 lots, for USDJPY it would be about .36 for EURGBP it would be 0.2 for AUDNZD it would 0.46. At 10x your account will increase or decrease by 10% per 100 pips. Use 3x and it is 3%.
10x is also equivalent to 2% risk with a 20pip stop.

At this time I use three leverages in my trade plan. 8x (2%@25pips), 4x (1%@25pips) and 2x(0.5%@25pips).

I started live trades after with 25 demo trades that confirmed I was using a winning system and following my plan. Then I started at 4x. When I win I step up to 8x. when I lose I drop back to 4x till I makeup the loss. if my 4x trade is a loss I drop to 2x till I make up the 4x loss and any 2x losses.

It also depends on your stop loss size. So overall try first to work out the % of capital you want to risk in each trade and then see if the leverage suits your risk scheme.

I'm a bit confused about lot sizes too particularly around buy/sell stop entry orders. What confuses me is around how to factor in the spread for these types of orders and then the position size calculation:

So for example,
Risk = 1%
Stoploss = 50 pips
Take profit = 100 pips
Spread = 5pips

Buy stop order:
I want to create an order with:
Opening price = 1.0050, Stop loss = 1.0000, take profit = 1.0150 and figure out my position size with 50 pip stoploss
So adjusting with the spread:
Opening price = 1.0055, stop loss = 1.0000, take profit = 1.0150 and figure out my position size with 55 pip stoploss. Is this correct?

Sell stop order:
I want to create an order with:
Opening price = 1.0100, stop loss = 1.0050, take profit = 1.0000 and figure out my position size with a 50 pip stoploss
So adjusting with the spread:
Opening price = 1.0100, stoploss = 1.0055, take profit = 0.9995 and figure out my position size with a 55 pip stoploss. Is this correct?

Does this look right or am I completely wrong? I'm confused as hell!