I created this Google Spreadsheet to help myself with position sizing, and I thought I would share it with you guys. I always have this printed out and laying on my desk while I am trading. I did take this a step further and created a custom keyboard with hotkeys, but I will share that info at the end. With this spreadsheet you are able to calculate your position size on the fly, just by knowing the distance to your stop loss. By default, the risk is set to 100. This means every single trade that you take, you should lose no more than $100. An example would be, if my stop loss is 0.30 away, my position size for that trade would be 334 shares. You are able to change the default risk to what ever you are willing to risk, and your share sizes will automatically be calculated. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iD0qiPLulbYSFri9r38SG1Ke7eNiZdFHNg8MldGwSng/edit?usp=sharing To use this Spreadsheet: make sure you are logged in to your Google account, so you are able to copy the spreadsheet to your Google Drive go to File -> Make a copy... -> Then save it to your Google Drive Once you have copied the spreadsheet, you can now edit the default risk of 100, and your share sizes will be calculated accordingly A step further... The Keyboard Having this printed on your desk does help you easily calculate your position size, but it does have one drawback. You have to enter your position size in manually, which does eat up precious time. I wanted the idea of the chart used as hotkeys, so my solution was a custom keyboard. I have attached the proof I got back from http://www.wasdkeyboards.com, as well as a photo of the physical keyboard. How it works As you can see from the images, the distance to stop loss is printed on the alpha keys. If I have my hotkeys set up to risk 100 per trade, Short+Modifier+E would short the stock with 667 shares: Risk: 100 Distance to stop loss: 0.15 100 / .15 = 666.6 (667 rounded up) Conclusion Having the spreadsheet printed in front of me while I trade really helped with my position size. The keyboard really helped me execute my trades faster.

Excellent Article! This is extremely accurate and true. If experts go through slums so will most of us that are still very new to this career, a lot of us do not even have 12 months under our belt, some 6 months (me) and many just went live this month. We need to just keep swimming and get through the rough patches with some scars but still alive to trade the following day.

Fernando's Low float blog post 1 Good afternoon guys, I would like to start this thread to discuss some of the strats, rules, psychology, recaps and so on in the low float world. A Lot of our guys are interested in low floats and some of the other guys would like to learn to be more well rounded; whatever your reason is to read this "blog" I hope it helps you in a positive way. Today I want to touch on some basic rules and set ups I use everyday. Because of the nature of small caps you have to set up rules to minimize the risk that comes with trading low floats. Let's highlights a couple of those: - Recognize your strengths; accept your weakness: Off the bat low floats are not for everyone. It is a fast, high risk, niche type of trading, if this type of trading does not fit you style it's okay to find something else, don't force something unnecessary. It will save you money and stress. I eliminated all other trades, setups and stocks that I don't do well off my playbook, I only trade what i'm "good" at it. An example of trades I wrote off my book are pre-market high break. I have more losses at this strategy than winners, so why keep doing it? After recognizing if low floats is your thing, develop a play that you see success and stick to it, develop that, make it better everyday, polish it. My favorite set up is a bull flag or first candle to make new highs, well go over that with more details soon. - Don't chase; avoid FOMO: Low floats can run points in a matter of seconds, literally seconds. One of my biggest rules is to wait for a pullback regardless if the stock is moving 3 points without me. Sometimes these pullbacks happen inside a one minute candle but for the purpose of this rule lets keep it basic and say that is a more well defined risk to wait for one or two candle of pullback before getting in. This pullback will give you a more well defined "bottom" or stop loss and a better entry, minimizing your risk. - Wait for the set up to form; don't guess: Lots of people like to trade low floats because of its range and potential for a big reward, but thats is also true for a big loss. My next rule is to wait for the set up to come to you. Do not anticipate a move too much unless is obvious, but again for the purpose of this thread let's not anticipate anything and keep it simple. The most used set ups in low floats are "momentum break", "first one minute candle to make a new high" or a bull flag/ABCD, so wait for the set up to form in front of you, don't "guess" is the right time to get in, you can visualize the setup forming in front of you and than get in with confirmation of volume, order flow, level two and so on. - Tight stop; make it or break it: A important rule that helps me a bunch is to keep a tight mental stop. Low floats are trades to be done at a breakout point, if you don't get instant resolution at that point, than you better off exiting the trade with a small loss or break even and getting back in another time. Remember, the same way the stock skyrockets it can plunge like a rock. Breakout point is the key word. Those are simple rules that you can apply in your trading routine and hopefully will help you somehow. We'll revisit rules, pointers and more on upcoming posts, now let's break it down a basic strategy that I use everyday. On the picture attached we have a crystal clear set up that defines the basics of the play. $MTSL popped up on the scanners last week, so I went over my process to see if it was worth it: -Volume (check) - Daily levels (check) Intraday activity (check) So $MTSL made a pretty decent move from 1.70$ to 2$, in this play we need a strong move upwards to show us strength with decent volume on those candles (#1 and #2) so than the waiting game for the setup to form started. After the strong first push we have a really "weak" pullback to the vwap. When I say weak pullback im referring to the volume, play close attention on how much less volume we had on the pullback (#3, #4, #5) that tells me that people are not just yet interested in shorting the stock, most likely we have traders taking profit, also we have the vwap and 9EMA around that area, that gives me a well defined risk and some sort of support. My next step here is to look for the breakout point and that would be the 1st candle to make a NH (new high) with confirmation of volume, lvl 2 and tape. I got in around 1.95$ when I saw volume picking up (more than we had on the previous pullbacks), level 2 looked good, so did the tape. Volume is another indicator that I use to confirm a breakout, on candle #6 we can see that spike in vol. My first target was 2.15$ and the rest for a bigger move or out BE (breakeven). Like mentioned before, this is a very basic concept of low floats, that offers better risk management when trading those stocks. As you progress in the "World of low floats" you will develop into more advanced trades by getting lots of screen time and experience. The important thing here is to follow steps into developing as a trader. You don't want to jump in with 1000 shares on your first trade or maybe don't even try these out live right away. One last tip for todays post. Don't skip steps in learning, there is no magical shortcut, only hard work. If you are a beginner, embrace that. learn the basics, the patterns and than move into a simulator. Be a master of your tools and execution. Than start small. After all that stop losing alot of money, lose less, get to break even, make a little, than make more. Aim for consistency Understand that trading takes time to develop, be very meticulous with your learning experience and put all you got into learning (not all your money, just all your efforts). If you are serious about trading, you will need to work hard, it's not a game for everyone, but you need to give it your best shot to find out if its for you. The markets is a "eternal learning experience" and we all learning here. Hope this post can help all of our members in a way and looking forward to post more Best regards, trade safe and follow your rules. Fernando Duarte ps: Pardon any grammar mistakes, this is my second language.

it'll definitely help me, dicrease my losses, and maybe make better profits I was just trading with 100/200 shares no matter were my stop loss was, that was terrible because sometimes I was winning 1/2/3 trades and then sometimes one trade wipes that all... With position sizing, it'll help me held my winnings and make my loses small)) Thanks again))

Glad you like it. I hope it works well for you!

Bro that's amazing, I loved the calculations and that sheet)) I printed it as well, I think I'll buy a keyboard and just stick everything bymyself for now, but I really like you keyboard :DD!! It's amazing! Thank you for sharing this)

This is Andrew´s new ORB TI scanner that Andrew is testing: http://www.trade-ideas.com/Cloud.html?code=a151665e41a756e75f8805afaa78c073

Of course Ben, -So as for L2 I would look for many orders on the "Ask" as Andrew points out sometimes on his recaps that a "heavy ask side" can be bullish, although I believe the tape tells a better story, I look for the same things you looking at and an imbalance of orders on the ask going through as well if that makes sense. Its very hard to explain "tape", it's something you need to watch over and over again like a tv show and you will develop a "feel" for it (even though I hate using this word in trading). - For volume is more of a liquidity matter I just need to be able to get in and out with certain ease, if its trading more than X amount at a specific time of the day(well I guess that's Rvol lo, anyways), another pointer is I tend to be away of stocks that are too crowded as a retail trader, liquidity is good but as a retail trader I don't "have a say" on stocks that are been traded by co or props specially on low floats. For daily, Ideally the stock should be trading above those levels (daily EMA's), so we don't have any overhead resistance too close caping the move. ATR is usually pretty good on low floats so that's never an "issue", plus I like when they are former runners as well. 2.15$ was the top of the pole or HOD at that moment (that been a mental resistance) Very simple concepts, nothing to crazy Hope I could answer a few of you questions and help a bit. @bbt Ben! Best regards, Fernando.