SOPHRONEPSIS.NONSTOP DIVERSIFICATION

Size the position without leaving the chart

A tool that stays on your screen, tells you how many shares to buy and sends the order from right there. Free, and we did not make it.

There are two ways to get it wrong before entering the market, and both cost money.

The first is calculating by eye. «I'll put in a thousand euros» says nothing about risk: a thousand euros with the stop at 2% loses twenty; with the stop at 15%, one hundred and fifty. The same amount, seven times the damage.

The second is typing the order wrong. Putting the number of shares where the amount should go, or the other way round. It is the most common mistake when starting out and it gives no warning: you find out when you are already in.

You can be right more than half the time and ruin the account. And you can be wrong more than half the time and grow. The difference is not in being right: it is in how much you lose when you are wrong.

Both are solved with the same thing: a tool that calculates for you and opens the trade itself, so there is no second step where you can slip up.

The one we recommend

Position Sizer, by EarnForex · MetaTrader 4 and 5

It is the one we use. It costs nothing, it is open source, and it does exactly those two things: it calculates the size and executes the order from the chart itself.

Download the Position Sizer
earnforex.com · free · open licence

What makes it different from an ordinary calculator:

You drag the entry, stop and target lines on the chart. The size recalculates by itself as you move them.
It knows your broker's rules: minimum lot, volume step, commission, swap, margin. It gives you a number you can actually execute, not a theoretical one.
It tells you the risk of your whole portfolio, not just that of this trade.
It opens the order from the panel. No more copying figures by hand.
It works for stocks, indices, commodities, currencies and crypto, not just forex.

Before installing anything: use whichever you like. Your broker probably includes one, and there are others that are fine. We recommend this one because it is free, it is complete and it is the one we know inside out — but what matters is not which one you use, it is that you use one, always, before sending an order. That part is not optional.

Installing it

Five minutes, just once

It is not an indicator: it is what MetaTrader calls an expert advisor. That changes where the file goes and requires one extra step at the end. Follow the order and it will not fail.

Download the compressed file from the link above.
In MetaTrader: File → Open Data Folder. A folder on your computer opens.
Go into MQL5\Experts\ (or MQL4\Experts\ if you use MT4).
Copy the whole folder from the compressed file in there. The whole folder: it contains several files that need each other.
Go back to MetaTrader. In the Navigator panel, right-click on Expert Advisors → Refresh.
Drag Position Sizer onto a chart.
Turn on Algo Trading — the button at the top of the MetaTrader toolbar. Without it, the tool calculates but cannot open trades.

If you get errors when compiling, it is almost always the same thing: you copied just one file instead of the complete folder, or you compiled the wrong file. The one to compile is Position Sizer.mq5, none of the others.

A detail you will appreciate: the panel can be set to Spanish. You do it by uncommenting a line at the beginning of the Position Sizer.mq5 file and compiling again. If you get by in English, leave it as it is; if Spanish is easier for you, this takes away half the difficulty of the first week.

Using it

What you will do every time

When you put it on the chart, three lines and a panel appear. The lines are the entry, the stop and the target; you drag them with the mouse. The panel shows, in real time, how much you are risking in money, how much as a percentage, the ratio between what you can win and what you can lose, and the exact position size.

You define the risk in one of two ways, whichever you prefer: as a percentage of the account or as a fixed amount of money. You enter one and it calculates the other. It also works the other way round: you can type the size you want and it tells you what risk that means.

When the lines are where you want them, you press Trade and the order goes out to the market with its stop and target already set.

Time-saving shortcuts

Key	What it does
`S`	places the stop where your mouse is
`P`	places the target where your mouse is
`E`	places the entry where your mouse is
`Tab`	switches between buy and sell
`H`	hides or shows the lines
`Shift` + `T`	sends the order

Why the risk you get is not exactly the one you asked for. If you set 1% it may give you 0.87%. It is not a bug: your broker only accepts certain sizes, and the tool always rounds down so as not to exceed the risk you set. Falling short is the correct behaviour.

What almost nobody uses and is well worth it

Once you have got the hang of it

Several targets on the same idea

You can set several exit levels and split the volume between them: part exits early, part holds on. There are buttons that split the percentage by themselves —in equal parts, more at the start or more at the end— and others that place the levels at equal distances.

Three things you need to know before using it, which are not on its website:

When you split into several targets, the tool opens a separate trade for each one. That is good: each one carries its stop and its target on the broker's server, and they stay alive even if you shut down your computer.
It does not work on netting accounts: the tool detects it and leaves it as a single target with all the volume. You need a hedging account.
If your account is small, one of the parts may end up below the broker's minimum lot. That part is simply discarded. With three or four targets and little capital, it happens.

Volatility-based stop and target

Instead of setting the stop by eye, you can tie it to the asset's average movement — what is called ATR — multiplied by whatever you decide. It is useful so you do not use the same distance on a calm stock as on one that moves three times as much.

Moving the stop automatically

It has a trailing stop —which moves up behind the price— and breakeven —which moves the stop to where you entered once you are a certain amount in profit—.

Watch out for this, it is the most expensive trap: those two functions are carried out by your computer, not the broker. They need MetaTrader open, connected, with the tool on that chart and algo trading enabled. If you turn off your computer, the stop stops moving.

Normal stops and targets do live on the broker's server and survive everything. The difference matters.

Brakes that save you from yourself

You can set limits that prevent the trade from opening if you go too far: maximum number of open trades, maximum cumulative risk for the whole account, maximum volume, and a cap on margin used — this last one designed for people trading with third-party capital who have limits to comply with.

What it does NOT do, and it is best not to confuse this: it has no daily loss limit and does not cut off the session when you are having a bad day. It is not an account firewall, it is a calculator that executes. For that you need a different tool.

If you do not use MetaTrader

The reasonable alternative is TradingView's long and short position tool, which comes built in. You enter the balance, the risk, the entry and the stop, and it gives you the quantity.

But it is worth knowing what it does not do, to avoid surprises: it is a drawing. It does not know your account or your broker's rules, it does not take commissions or margin into account, it does not calculate your portfolio risk and it does not open the trade. It gives you a theoretical number that you then have to transfer by hand — which is exactly the step where mistakes are made.

It is fine for getting started. For trading every day, it falls short.

What you take away

1. Position size is calculated, not improvised. It is the decision that weighs most on whether your account lasts.

2. Use a tool —this one or another— and use it always, including the day you are in a hurry. Especially that day.

3. What the broker puts on its server survives everything. What your computer does switches off with it.

Download the Position Sizer

The Position Sizer is a free, open-source tool developed by EarnForex, unrelated to Sophronepsis. We have no commercial agreement with them and receive nothing for recommending it: we recommend it because it is the one we use and it works. Always download it from their official website. Check the figures with your broker before sending any order.

Sophronepsis · educational and informational content. It is not financial advice or an investment recommendation. Trading in the markets carries the risk of partial or total loss of capital. Past data does not guarantee future results.