Tick math, position sizing, trailing drawdown, evaluation costs — everything runs in your browser.
Ticks ↔ points ↔ dollars for 12 CME contracts, scaled to your contract count.
Dollar value = ticks × the contract's $-per-tick × contracts. Points are larger units of the same thing: four ticks per point on the ES/NQ families, ten on RTY/M2K and GC/MGC, one hundred on CL/MCL, one on YM/MYM. The classic trap: MNQ is exactly one-tenth of NQ — the same 20-tick stop risks $10 per contract on MNQ and $100 on NQ.
Dollar risk + stop distance → max contracts, rounded the safe direction.
From your own plan — many prop traders budget a fixed slice of their daily cap per trade.
Max contracts = floor( risk budget ÷ (stop in ticks × $ per tick) ). It rounds down — a partial contract doesn't exist, and rounding up would overshoot the budget you set. Worked example from our docs: $400 budget, 20-tick stop on MNQ → $10 per contract → 40 contracts. The identical stop on NQ → $100 per contract → 4. Where the budget comes from is your plan — one documented framework is the Daily Loss Planner below.
Watch the threshold ratchet under a P&L sequence — and see the exact breach day.
The maximum distance the threshold trails behind your peak balance — from your firm's dashboard.
Many firms freeze the threshold once it climbs to your starting balance; some freeze slightly above it. Unchecked models the strictest case (it trails forever). Confirm the exact rule on your dashboard.
One number per day, separated by spaces or new lines. Negatives with a minus sign or parentheses: -300 or (300). Write thousands without commas (1000, not 1,000). This simulator is close-to-close — one balance step per entry — so it cannot model intraday trailing, where the threshold ratchets on unrealized peaks. If your firm trails intraday, treat a "no breach" here as a best case, not a clearance.
A trailing drawdown is a moving loss limit: it sits a fixed distance below the highest balance your account has reached and only moves up. A winning streak raises the floor underneath you — the losing day that was survivable on day one can breach the account after a run-up. End-of-day trailing samples closed balances — that is what this simulator models. Intraday trailing samples open-position peaks too, which is strictly harsher and cannot be represented by one number per day. Separately: firms enforce the threshold against live equity, not the closing balance — a day whose worst intraday mark touched the threshold fails the account even if it closed above it; this simulator only tests the close. And it models the trailing rule alone: most firms also enforce a separate daily loss limit that a single bad day can fail while this chart still shows room. Rules differ by firm and plan; confirm the mechanism on your own dashboard.
Max drawdown → daily cap → per-trade risk → contracts. The full sizing chain.
For prop accounts: the trailing or EOD drawdown from your dashboard. For personal accounts: the most you're prepared to lose, full stop.
Our docs use 10% as the working framework — adjust to your own plan.
Daily cap = max drawdown × your chosen percentage (our risk docs use 10% as the working framework). Per-trade risk = daily cap ÷ trades per day. Contracts = floor( per-trade risk ÷ (stop ticks × $ per tick) ). Each number protects the one above it: a bad trade can't take out the day, and a bad day can't take out the account.
The honest total: fees, resets, activation, and data — across the months it really takes.
Be honest — most traders take more than one month.
One-time fee many firms charge when you pass. Zero if yours doesn't.
Total = (monthly fee × months) + (resets × reset fee) + activation + (data fees × months). Evaluation pricing is designed to look small monthly; the honest comparison between firms is the whole path at your realistic pace. A cheap monthly with expensive resets can cost more than a pricier evaluation passed once.
Tick size, tick value, and point value — the reference behind every tool above.
| Symbol | Name | Tick size | $ / tick | $ / point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ES | E-mini S&P 500 | 0.25 pt | $12.50 | $50 |
MES | Micro E-mini S&P 500 | 0.25 pt | $1.25 | $5 |
NQ | E-mini Nasdaq-100 | 0.25 pt | $5.00 | $20 |
MNQ | Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 | 0.25 pt | $0.50 | $2 |
RTY | E-mini Russell 2000 | 0.10 pt | $5.00 | $50 |
M2K | Micro E-mini Russell 2000 | 0.10 pt | $0.50 | $5 |
YM | E-mini Dow | 1.0 pt | $5.00 | $5 |
MYM | Micro E-mini Dow | 1.0 pt | $0.50 | $0.50 |
CL | Crude Oil | 0.01 /bbl | $10.00 | $1,000 |
MCL | Micro Crude Oil | 0.01 /bbl | $1.00 | $100 |
GC | Gold | 0.10 /oz | $10.00 | $100 |
MGC | Micro Gold | 0.10 /oz | $1.00 | $10 |
Verified against public exchange contract specifications. Micros are exactly one-tenth of the full-size contract — same tick size, one-tenth the dollars. MNQ is $2 per point; NQ is $20 per point. They chart identically on TradingView; they do not risk identically at your broker.
Sizing mistakes are among the fastest ways to lose an account, and the arithmetic that prevents them shouldn't cost anything. These tools pair with our risk management docs — and if you want the full Paradox Algo toolkit, three automated strategies, six indicators and the Stratera optimizer ship with membership.
These calculators are arithmetic aids for education and research. They are not financial advice, they make no recommendation about any trade, and results depend entirely on the numbers you enter. Verify every figure against your own broker and firm dashboards. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss.