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What is a micro lot in forex?

In one line: A micro lot is 1,000 units of the base currency, or 0.01 of a standard lot. On pairs quoted in US dollars, one pip is worth about $0.10.

Trading glossary · Updated 2026-10-21

The short answer

Forex trades are measured in Lots. A micro lot is the small one: 1,000 units of the first currency in the pair.

On most platforms you type it as 0.01.

The lot sizes side by side

Pip values are exact like this only when the US dollar is the second currency, as in EUR/USD or GBP/USD. For other pairs, use the pip value calculator.

A simple example

You have a $1,000 account and want to risk 1%, which is $10.

Your Stop loss is 25 pips away on EUR/USD.

• $10 ÷ 25 pips = $0.40 per pip
• $0.40 ÷ $0.10 per micro lot = 4 micro lots, or 0.04

If the stop is hit, you lose about $10. A math example, not a promise. Slippage can make a loss a bit bigger.

Why it matters

Micro lots let a small account size trades properly. Without them, the smallest trade might be too big to risk only 1%.

They also let you fine-tune. With 0.01 steps, you can match your size to your stop very closely, instead of rounding to a much bigger trade. The lot size calculator does this math for you.

A common mistake

Typing 0.1 when you meant 0.01. That's a mini lot, 10 times bigger. Your $10 risk just became $100.

Check the size box twice before every trade. And check what your broker calls each size. A few brokers use different contract sizes, so read the contract specs.

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