Bitcoin Position Size & Liq Alert on Binance
risking $50 on Bitcoin with a 2.0% stop at $82,371 sizes the position at 0.0297 BTC — $2,500 notional, $250 of margin at 10x.
how it's computed
the stop sets the size, not the leverage slider: the liq that size leaves on Binance sits at $75,983, 9.60% below entry.
- stop distance
- 2.00%
- liq at 10x
- $75,983 (9.60%)
- risk if stopped
- $50
alert at $79,815
if the wick tags $75,983, the ~$250 of margin on this position is gone. the scream is free.
free: 2 alerts, no card · unlimited + night mode $9/mo — one wick costs more
the short version
- risking $50 with a 2.0% stop on BTC means 0.0297 BTC — about $2,500 of position.
- at 10x that ties up $250 of margin and puts the liq 9.60% away, 4.8× as far as your stop.
- keep the liq at least twice as far as the stop; if it isn't, lower the leverage — the risk stays $50 either way.
how to use this tool
pick the dollar amount you're willing to lose, set your stop, and the tool gives you the position size. sizing from the stop — not from how confident you feel — is the whole trick. the math is one division.
size from the stop, not the slider
position size = risk ÷ distance to your stop. leverage only decides how much margin that ties up.
read more
your stop is where your idea is wrong. divide your risk budget by the distance from entry to stop and you have the size; leverage, margin and liq price all follow from that division.
low margin is not low risk: the size and the $50 at risk don't change with leverage — but push the leverage far enough and the liq lands inside your stop, and the exchange closes you before the stop can.
worked example: BTC long, $50 at risk, 2.0% stop
risk $50, stop 2.0% away: 0.0297 BTC, liq 9.60% away.
- entry
- $84,053
- stop
- $82,371 (2.0% away)
- risk
- $50
- position size
- 0.0297 BTC ($2,500 notional)
- margin at 10x
- $250
- liq at 10x, this size
- $75,983 — 9.60% below entry
read more
you lose $50 on a bad trade, never more. entry $84,053, stop $82,371 — a $1,681 move. contracts = $50 / $1,681 = 0.0297 BTC, about $2,500 of exposure.
the leverage slider didn't decide that. at 10x the position needs $250 of margin and liquidates at $75,983, 4.8× as far away as the stop — so the stop hits first.
where the stop goes on Bitcoin
put the stop outside the coin's normal wick, or the market takes it for free.
read more
bitcoin does both: a 2.4% typical day on 1.7% of minute-to-minute movement, 3.9% at its widest, and no pattern to which one gets you. $472M across 21372 forced closes in 7 days, none over 3% of it: attrition, not one event, split 55%/45% long/short.
a stop inside the coin's normal noise is a donation to the market maker; outside the wick range it's a thesis.
fees are part of the risk budget
on a 1% stop, round-trip taker fees on Binance eat 10% of your risk budget before the trade moves.
read more
binance perp taker fees run 0.05% a side — 0.005% of notional above hyperliquid. on a position you open and close in a day that's 0.10% gone before funding — at 20x leverage that's 2% of your margin, which is more than most people's stop budget.
the arithmetic: 0.10% round trip ÷ 1% stop = 10% of the risk budget. size a little smaller — or use a limit entry and trim the fee line.
after sizing: check the liq distance
the liq should sit at least twice as far away as your stop. if it doesn't, lower the leverage.
read more
if the liq price of your sized position is closer than your stop, the leverage is doing something the size didn't ask for — drop it until the liq sits at least twice as far as the stop.
then set the Bitcoin liq alert on Binance: size first, liq check second, alert last.
faq
how do i calculate position size for a perp?
contracts = risk / |entry − stop|. decide the dollars you can lose (say $50), set the stop where your idea is wrong, and divide. the output is the position size — leverage and margin are consequences, not inputs.
should i size by leverage or by risk?
by risk. leverage decides how much margin the sized position ties up; it doesn't change the size or the dollars at risk — until it's high enough that the liq lands inside your stop, and then the exchange closes you before the stop can.
where should i put my stop loss?
outside the coin's normal noise, at the price where your thesis is actually wrong — a broken level, not a round number. a stop inside the noise is a fee paid to the market maker; a stop at the liquidation price is a fee paid to the insurance fund. and if you're asking why you need a liq alarm on top of a good stop: the stop picks your exit — the alarm checks whether the exchange's liquidation engine gets there first.
how much should i risk per trade?
the honest retail range is 0.5–2% of account equity per trade. at 1% and a 50% win rate with 1.5r winners, you survive the losing streaks that kill 10%-risk accounts around trade number five. this tool won't lecture you — it just makes the $ number explicit before you enter.
do trading fees count in the risk?
yes. round-trip taker fees (about 0.09–0.11% across binance/bybit/hyperliquid/okx) come out before your risk math. on a tight stop, fees can be a tenth of the planned loss — include them or your real risk is bigger than your plan.
can this page tell me my liquidation price too?
it shows the liq price of the sized position at your leverage as a sanity check — the real tool for that is the liquidation price alert (linked on this page), which walks the venue's mmr brackets properly.
walk me through the BTC example on this page
BTC long, $50 at risk, 2.0% stop: entry $84,053; stop $82,371 (2.0% away); risk $50; position size 0.0297 BTC ($2,500 notional); margin at 10x $250; liq at 10x, this size $75,983 — 9.60% below entry. the full narrative is in the explainer above — and estimate — exchanges compute exact liq from live margin; always double-check on your venue.