New here, trying to get a handle on risk sizing with futures

asked by u/nbondarenko · 3d · 1 answers

Hey everyone, just joined. Been dabbling in the markets for a bit now, mostly equities, but I'm trying to wrap my head around futures contracts, specifically ES mini. The leverage is great, obviously, but I'm really struggling to find a consistent way to size my positions without feeling like I'm taking on way too much risk for my account size, or conversely, leaving too much on the table.

I've seen some talk about using a percentage of account, but how do you actually apply that to, say, a one-point stop on ES where each point is $50? Is it just a mental calculation, or are there specific tools people use to dial that in? I feel like I'm always overthinking it and could use some insight into how more experienced traders approach this practically.

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  • u/james69· 1 pts· 3d

    Welcome! It's definitely a different beast than equities when it comes to leverage. One common approach is to use a fixed percentage of your account balance for each trade, but then scale the number of contracts based on your stop loss. So if your stop is wider, you'd take fewer contracts. Have you looked into that method at all?

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