Position sizing determines the amount of currency you wish to put into a stock trade. It is part of money management for an investor. Money management has many different types of calculations to help an investor determine how much money they are going to lose. Position sizing is the main aspect of money management.

Just because an investor has a stop loss in place, it does not mean that they have covered position sizing. Having a stop loss in place simply allows a trader's stock to be removed if a certain position is reached. However, with a stop loss the trader loses the highest amount of money. With position sizing, it allows the trader to determine how much units of stock they are capable of purchasing. This in turn, allows the trader to minimise the amount of money they can lose.

By determining the traders stop loss and their maximum loss on a stock, they can use these two figures to determine, without going over their maximum loss, the amount of shares they are able to buy. The calculation is as follows; the maximum loss is divided by the stop loss size. This gives the trader the amount of shares they are capable of buying.

The difference between the traders entry price and their stop loss value is what a stop loss size is. For example, if the trader entered the stock market for two dollars, with a stop loss value of one-dollar ten cents, their stop loss size is ninety cents. By using this formula, a trader can limit the amount of risk of over buying shares, which can exceed their maximum loss.

An example of this formula; with a trading float of $10,000, and a trader risking 3%, their maximum loss is $300. The market entry price is for example two dollars, with a stop loss value of one dollar ten cents, thus the stop size is ninety cents. To determine the amount of shares the trader can buy without exceeding their maximum loss, the maximum loss is divided by the stop size. Thus, $300 is divided by ninety cents, which allows the trader to buy 334 shares. The use of this formula is the confirm the security of the float.

If a trader wishes to incorporate their brokerage fee into the maximum loss, it is possible. The formula for this is to subtract the brokerage fee from the maximum loss. An example of this is, if the brokerage fee was $50 and the maximum loss was $300, the new maximum loss would $250. The $250 is then used in the above formula which decides the amount of shares the trader can purchase.

Limiting the amount of loses made is an important aspect of trading. Position sizing helps a trader with this. This article has explained the benefits of position sizing and the ways in which to incorporate it. As well as that, ways in which to confirm the security of a traders float have been explained.