How many shares should you buy?
Size every trade from the loss you can accept, not from a hunch. Enter your account, your risk, your entry and your stop — get the exact share count.
- Money at risk
- Rs. 2,000
- Risk per share
- Rs. 20
- Position value
- Rs. 50,000
- Share of account
- 50%
Round down, never up. Recalculate whenever your account size changes.
Risk first, size second.
Good traders decide how much they are willing to lose before they decide how much to buy. Fix that rupee amount, measure the distance from your entry to your stop, and the share count follows.
Worked example: a Rs. 1,00,000 account risking 2% can lose Rs. 2,000. Buy at Rs. 500 with a stop at Rs. 480 and each share risks Rs. 20 — so you buy Rs. 2,000 ÷ Rs. 20 = 100 shares. If the stop is hit you lose about Rs. 2,000, and the position uses half the account.
You can be wrong more often than you are right and still survive if every loss is this small. That is why position sizing matters more than stock picking.
Shares = (Account × Risk %) ÷ (Entry − Stop)Rs. 1,00,000 × 2% = Rs. 2,000 · Rs. 500 − Rs. 480 = Rs. 20 · 2,000 ÷ 20 = 100 shares
Four inputs, one number.
Enter your account size
Type the total money in your trading account in rupees — the amount you could actually lose, not your savings.
Choose your risk per trade
Pick the percentage of the account you accept losing if the trade fails. Beginners usually stay between 0.5% and 2%.
Enter your entry and stop-loss
Add the price you plan to buy at and the stop-loss price where your idea is proven wrong. The stop must be below the entry.
Buy the share count shown
The calculator divides your rupee risk by the risk per share and rounds down. Place a real stop-loss at the same price.
Habits that keep you in the game.
- Keep risk between 0.5% and 2% per trade while you are learning.
- Set the stop where your reason for the trade is proven wrong — then size around it, not the other way round.
- Check the share trades enough volume that you can actually sell at your stop. The most-traded list helps.
- Round down, never up, and recalculate whenever your account size changes.
- Pair it with the risk/reward calculator so the trade is worth taking in the first place.
Straight answers.
How do you calculate position size?
Position size = (account size × risk %) ÷ (entry price − stop-loss price). The result is the number of shares that keeps your loss at your chosen limit if the stop-loss is hit. Always round down.
What is the 2% rule?
The 2% rule says never risk more than 2% of your trading account on a single trade. Even ten losses in a row would then cost less than a fifth of the account, so you can keep trading and learning.
Does position size depend on the share price?
Only through the distance to your stop. A Rs. 1,000 share with a Rs. 20 stop and a Rs. 200 share with a Rs. 20 stop give the same share count; the expensive one simply ties up more capital.
What if the position is bigger than my account?
That happens when the stop is very tight. Buy only what you can afford — a smaller position simply risks less than your limit — or place the stop at a more sensible level.
Is this calculator free?
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser. To practise the habit, place the same trade in the ShareRocketPro app's practice market with practice money (orders are in kitta, minimum 10).
Practise the sizing risk-free.
Place this trade in the ShareRocketPro app's 24/7 practice market with Rs. 10,000 practice money. Practice money has no cash value — the lessons do.