What the crypto position calculator does
Crypto prices can move several percent in a day, so a fixed number of coins per trade carries very different risk from one setup to the next. This calculator sizes the trade from the amount you are prepared to lose, the distance between entry and stop and the fees you pay — for spot or for leveraged futures.
How to use it
- Enter your account balance and choose risk as a percentage or a fixed amount.
- Enter the entry price and the stop-loss price. A stop below the entry is treated as a long, a stop above as a short.
- Set the trading fee per side (taker fees commonly sit between 0.02% and 0.1%).
- Set leverage to 1 for spot, or to the leverage you will use on futures.
The panel shows the quantity in coins, the position value, the margin it requires, the stop distance in percent and the fees included in your risk. If the position value exceeds your balance multiplied by the leverage, the calculator warns you.
The formula
risk amount = balance × risk %
stop distance = |entry − stop|
fees per coin = fee rate × (entry + stop)
quantity = risk amount ÷ (stop distance + fees per coin)
position value = quantity × entry
margin = position value ÷ leverage
Adding the fees to the denominator makes sure the stop costs your planned amount after paying to enter and exit.
Worked example
A $10,000 account risking 1% ($100) buys BTC at 100,000 with a stop at 98,000 and a 0.05% fee per side.
- Stop distance: 2,000 per coin.
- Fees per coin: 0.0005 × (100,000 + 98,000) = 99.
- Quantity: 100 ÷ (2,000 + 99) ≈ 0.047642 BTC, a position of about $4,764.
If the stop is hit, the price loss is about $95.28 and the fees about $4.72 — $100 in total. Without the fee adjustment you would buy 0.05 BTC and lose about $105 at the stop.
On futures at 5×, the same position needs about $953 of margin. Leverage does not change the quantity or the risk; it only changes the capital locked up.
Common mistakes
- Sizing by leverage. "10× on a thousand dollars" says nothing about risk. Start from the stop distance.
- Stops too tight for crypto volatility. A 0.5% stop on a coin that moves 5% a day is likely to be hit by noise. Consider a volatility-based stop from the ATR stop-loss calculator.
- Forgetting slippage. In fast markets a stop-market order can fill beyond its trigger. Keep some slack in your risk budget.
- Ignoring the liquidation price. On futures, check that liquidation sits well beyond the stop with the liquidation calculator.