Forex Tools: A Lot Size Calculator, a COT Index Calculator and a Market Hours Clock
These forex tools do the sums that are easy to get wrong by hand, such as the size of a position or a COT index. Each page puts the working tool first, with the explanation under it.
What do these tools do with your figures, from lot size to the COT index?
They run in your browser and store nothing. There is no sign-in and no account, and what you type is not saved or sent anywhere. Reload the page and the boxes go back to where they started. The site's analytics count a page view and the clicks on it, as they do everywhere and as our Privacy page describes. They do not record the figures you type.
They also read nothing for you. No live price or report feeds them. You enter the balance, the stop, the price or the position, so an answer is only as good as the figures that went in.
What do they not do?
They do not tell you what to trade. A position size is arithmetic and not advice, and a COT index is a position against its own past, not a forecast. Neither says where a stop belongs, how much of an account to put at risk or which way a market will go.
Each page states what its tool assumes and works its examples on stated figures, so you can check the sum by hand. They also say where a tool stops: a stop can fill past its price, a clock does not know about bank holidays, and a broker can count a pip on gold differently from our charts.
Our charts and the tools count the same way, with gold at $1 to the pip. Where a tool follows our weekly COT report or our guide to forex market hours, its page says how.
Start here
- COT Index Calculator for Forex: The Formula, Worked on Real Weeks
A COT index calculator: enter a net position and its range for the 0 to 100 index. The formula our report uses, worked on real weeks, and common errors.
- Forex Lot Size Calculator: Size a Trade by Risk and Stop
A forex lot size calculator with its working shown: the formula, a pip's worth on yen pairs, crosses and gold, what it assumes and the costly errors.
- Forex Market Hours Clock: Handles Daylight Saving Changes
A forex market hours clock: your time beside New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney, each session open or closed, through every clock change. Its limits too.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate lot size in forex?
Divide the money you accept losing by the stop in pips times what a pip is worth on one lot. With $100 at risk, a 20-pip stop and a pip worth $10 a lot, that is 0.50 lots. The lot size calculator does this for the majors, their crosses and gold, and shows what it assumes.
How much is a pip on gold?
On our charts $1 of movement is one pip, so a pip is worth $100 on a 100-ounce lot. Other sources count gold differently, and some call $0.10 or $0.01 a pip. Turn a stop into dollars of movement before you move it from one calculator to another.
What is the COT index?
It is where a group of traders' net position sits in its own past range, from 0 at the low to 100 at the high. The CFTC does not publish one, so formulas differ. Our weekly report uses net position as a share of open interest over 156 reports, and the calculator takes whichever figures you give it.
What time does the forex market open in my time zone?
It opens at 17:00 New York on Sunday. The market hours clock shows your own time beside New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney, and whether each session is open now. To place that open in your week, take the gap between your clock and New York's.
Do the tools handle daylight saving?
The market hours clock does, because each session is held in its own city's hours and your browser's time zones do the rest. The lot size and COT index calculators have no clock in them, so it does not touch them. The clock does not know about bank holidays.