How much to risk per trade on a funded account: doing the arithmetic

Free tools: Daily Loss Limiter for MT5 (locks the day at your limit) · Daily loss calculator · Last checked 5 November 2026 by the Spectar FX team.

Many traders on a funded account ask how much they should risk on one trade. This article does not give you a number. It shows the arithmetic instead. You will see what one gold trade at a given lot size can lose and how that sits next to the daily limit you have set. Once you can see the sum clearly, the choice of size is yours.

What a one-dollar move is worth

Start with the contract specification in your own MetaTrader 5 terminal. Right-click XAUUSD in Market Watch, choose Specification and find the contract size. On many accounts one lot of gold is 100 troy ounces, but that is not true everywhere, so check yours.

If one lot is 100 ounces, a one-dollar move in the gold price changes the value of a one-lot position by 100 dollars. The rest is simple multiplication:

These figures only show how the sum works. They are not suggestions. If your contract size is different, use your own figure in place of 100.

What one trade can lose

The planned loss of a single trade is three things multiplied together:

1. the distance from your entry to your stop loss, in dollars of gold price;
2. the lot size;
3. the contract size.

Then add the cost of opening the trade: the spread, and any commission your account charges.

If you add to a position, you are no longer working out one trade. Add up every position you allow, each at its own distance to the final exit. The total is the worst case for the whole trade. Adding more simply makes a bigger position.

Setting it beside your daily limit

Now take the daily loss limit you work to. On a funded account your firm often sets it, and you may choose a lower figure of your own inside it. Divide the limit by the planned loss of one trade.

That one division tells you a lot. It shows how many losing trades in a row the day can take, and whether the last trade of a bad day would push you over. Some traders want room for many attempts. Others prefer fewer, larger positions. The arithmetic does not say which is better. It only makes the trade-off visible.

Two more points belong in the same sum:

• When the day starts. Many rule sets reset at midnight broker server time, not at your local midnight. See daily loss and broker midnight.
• Balance or equity. Some firms measure the daily limit against equity, which includes floating losses on open trades. Others count only closed balance. In the first case, a trade that is still open may already count against your limit.

Read the exact wording of your own firm’s rules on both points. A few words can change the whole calculation.

Where the arithmetic stops

The planned loss is a plan, not a fixed amount. Gold can gap over a weekend or jump around news, and your broker fills a stop loss at the next available price. Slippage can make the real loss larger than the figure on paper. Spreads also widen during quiet hours and around news releases. Treat your figure as the loss you expect when the market behaves normally, and remember that it does not always behave normally.

Why the choice is yours

Nobody else knows your account size, your firm’s terms, how you handle a run of losses or what else you have at stake. A figure taken from a forum or a video was worked out for someone else’s situation, if it was worked out at all. When you do the sum yourself, you know exactly what you have agreed to before the trade opens.

A simple routine before each session:

1. Check the contract size and the current spread.
2. Write down the lot size and stop distance you plan to use.
3. Work out the planned loss of one trade, and of every position you may add to it.
4. Divide your daily limit by that figure.
5. Decide whether you are comfortable with the answer. If you are not, change your own inputs.

For more on lot sizes, see setting lot sizes in the panel. If you run more than one account, two prop accounts explains how to keep the sums separate.

Where Spectar FX Gold fits

Spectar FX Gold is a subscription service for MetaTrader 5, for gold (XAUUSD). It does not do this arithmetic for you and does not suggest any number. You set every rule yourself — lot sizes, daily stop, daily target, trading hours and news window — and the tool holds them. The daily stop is counted from 00:00 broker server time, the way prop firms usually count it. When the daily stop is reached, the day locks: no new trades until the next day.

It runs on your own account. We never receive broker passwords, never hold funds and give no signals. A gap in the market or slippage at the broker can carry a position past any limit; a daily stop is a setting, not a promise. The plans are MANUAL, SEMIAUTO and AUTO, monthly or yearly, with an 8-day free trial on MANUAL monthly. You can read more in the FAQ and in using a gold tool on a prop account.

Keep your daily limit in one place: the free Daily Loss Limiter for MT5 locks the trading day once today's loss reaches the figure you set, and the daily loss calculator shows the balance where that happens.

Related: Daily loss limit and broker server midnight · What happens when the daily stop is reached