The Lot Size in Trading: My Personal Survival Guide 🕵️

What a complicated topic! The lot size... that concept that has caused me so many headaches when I started trading in the financial markets, especially in Forex 🌍. Let me share with you what I have learned the hard way about this unit that determines how much money you are really putting at stake. 🧑‍💻

The Different Lots (o How to Ruin Your Account More or Less Quickly)

1. Standard lot (100.000 units)

Who needs money to pay the rent when you can bet it all with 100,000 EUR against the dollar? 💵 Only veterans or crazy people with fat accounts should touch this. Personally, when I started, I almost had a heart attack seeing how my capital evaporated in seconds by getting a standard wrong.

2. Mini lot (10.000 units)

My favorite option when I stopped being a complete novice. Less shocking than the standard but still gives strong emotions. 🧑‍🎓 Although I admit it has also given me a scare or two.

3. Microlot (1.000 units)

For those of us who want to experiment without selling a kidney. 🌱 Each pip barely moves the needle, ideal for not having anxiety attacks with every candle.

4. Nano lot (100 units)

This is like playing with Monopoly money. 🧪 Useful for practicing or when your account is so wrecked that you barely have any capital left.

The Real Impact on Your Pocket

Look, let's be frank: the bigger the lot, the bigger your dreams... and your nightmares. 📉 A movement of one pip with a standard lot can mean $10 going or coming. With a micro, it's just a few cents.

Leverage is that friend who encourages you to do crazy things. It allows you to control more money than you actually have... until everything goes wrong and you end up with nothing. ⚠️

Choose Your Poison: What Lot Size to Use?

For small accounts:

Please use microlots or less. I learned this lesson when I lost half of my small account on a single miscalculated trade. 🪙

Depending on your strategy:

For short-term trading, you need to protect yourself with smaller lots. Long-term strategies might tolerate larger lots, but don't fool yourself, the risk is always there. 🕰️

Risk management:

The famous 1-2% rule... that many (, including myself in my beginnings, ) ignore until we get plucked. 🛑

A Real Example from My Experience

When I had an account of $1000, I got carried away by the excitement and invested in gold using a mini lot. The price fell $5 per ounce in minutes and BAM! $50 vanished from my account. I learned that it would have been wiser to use a micro lot or even less.

It is frustrating to see how trading courses paint everything rosy, when the reality is that choosing the correct lot size is possibly THE most important decision for surviving in this game.

The lot size is not just a number, it's the difference between being able to sleep at night or spending hours staring at charts with bloodshot eyes. Choose wisely, because the market does not forgive those who think they are smarter than it. 🚀