Next Contract Calculator for Futures Traders

How the calculator decides your size

Start with the number the plan sizes from, the calculation base. On a personal account it's your balance. On a fixed drawdown it's your drawdown plus your cumulative profit, because the floor never moves and every dollar you make is real room. On a trailing drawdown it's the larger of your drawdown and your cumulative profit.

Three percentages turn that base into dollars: risk per trade, target per trade and the daily loss limit. The target says how many contracts you'd want, using a typical move of 25 points on NQ or 8 on ES. The risk then sets the stop. Those two pull against each other, because the same dollars spread over more contracts make a tighter stop.

So each instrument has a minimum stop: 18 points on NQ and 6 on ES at the Balanced style, wider on Conservative, tighter on Aggressive. When the stop comes out tighter than that, contracts get cut until it fits. That's why size moves in steps. Between rungs, new profit widens your stop instead of adding contracts. If you already know your stop for a specific trade, the position size calculator works from that direction, and this guide to position sizing covers why a rule beats a judgment call.

The mistake: sizing up because the week felt good

Most traders add a contract when they feel ready, and they feel ready after a hot streak. That's the worst moment to decide, because the feeling comes from your last few trades and not from your account. The overconfidence lesson walks through what that streak does to your judgment. A written rung doesn't care how Tuesday went. You're on the size your base says, or you aren't.

Funded traders make a second mistake: they assume a trailing account grows like a fixed one. Take a $5,000 drawdown and $1,500 of profit. On a fixed drawdown your base is $6,500 and the next rung is $3,220 away. On a trailing drawdown your base is still $5,000 and that same rung is $8,220 away. Same profit, $5,000 further, because the first $5,000 of profit only catches the base up to the drawdown.

Size goes down too

The rule has no memory. Fall under a rung and you're back on the size below it, even if you've already traded the bigger one. On a $30,000 personal account at the Balanced style, you're on 8x MNQ, and under $28,800 you're on 7x. Plenty of traders treat that as a demotion, and size changes how you think (a lesson in the paid course) either way. It's the same arithmetic running in the other direction.

Your contract count can also fall on the way up. With 1% risk and a 2% target at the Balanced style, 9x MNQ becomes 1x NQ at $35,001. The count drops from 9 to 1, and your exposure rises from $18 a point to $20. Read the per-point column, not the count. And check your room against your firm's floor with the trailing drawdown calculator before you treat any rung as safe to trade.