RiskShieldHow to Calculate Position Size for Crypto Futures
The single formula that decides whether one bad trade costs 2% of your account — or 40% of it.
Most new futures traders pick their leverage first, then figure out how big a position that gives them. That's backwards.
The formula
Notice leverage doesn't appear anywhere. It only determines how much margin you need to hold the position — it doesn't change what you lose if your stop-loss hits.
Try it yourself
Change any number below — the math recalculates live, the same formula the app uses.
Worked example
$10,000 account · 5% risk · LONG
Same risk, different margin
The $500 loss above never changes. Only the margin required to hold that $6,500 position shrinks as leverage rises:
- Risk stays constant at every leverage level.
- It removes the "size up" temptation — leverage stops dictating your risk.
- It works identically for longs and shorts.
Common mistake: raising leverage to make a tight stop-loss "worth it." A close stop already grows your position size correctly — that's not a reason to add leverage on top.
Where this lives in the app
RiskShield runs this calculation the moment you enter Starting Capital, Risk %, Entry, and Stop-Loss — before you touch the leverage slider. Scaling in across multiple prices instead? The DCA Order Splitter handles the weighted average automatically.