Lots, mini and micro
4 min read · Educational content, not financial advice
A 'lot' is the standardized trade size in Forex. One standard lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency. A mini lot is 10,000 units (one-tenth the size), and a micro lot is 1,000 units (one-hundredth).
Trade size directly determines how much each pip movement is worth in your account currency — a bigger lot means bigger pip value, which means both gains and losses move faster. Beginners often start with micro lots specifically to keep that pip value small while they build experience.
Choosing a lot size isn't arbitrary — it should be the output of a risk decision, not the starting point. Decide how much you're willing to risk on a trade first, then work backward to the lot size that fits that risk given your stop-loss distance. Our Position Size Calculator automates this.