Standard Lot

What is a standard lot?

A standard lot is the original, full-size lot unit in forex trading: 100,000 units of the base currency. It’s the benchmark against which smaller lot sizes — mini lots and micro lots — are defined as fractions.

For most pairs quoted against the US dollar, one standard lot gives a pip value of roughly $10 — meaning every pip the price moves is worth about $10 on that position.

Worked example

Suppose a trader opens 1 standard lot of EUR/USD (100,000 EUR) at 1.0850. If the price rises 40 pips to 1.0890, the position gains roughly 40 × $10 = $400. If instead the price falls 40 pips against the trade, the loss is roughly the same $400 — the standard lot simply scales whatever the price does, in either direction, into a proportionally larger dollar outcome than a smaller lot size would.

This is also why standard lots require substantially more account margin to open than mini or micro lots at the same leverage: the underlying notional exposure (100,000 units) is ten times that of a mini lot and one hundred times that of a micro lot.

Why it matters to a trader

Standard lots are typically used by traders with larger account balances or those trading multiple smaller lots combined to fine-tune position size. Because a single standard lot carries meaningfully higher pip value and margin requirements, smaller or newer accounts more often trade in mini or micro lots — or fractions of a standard lot — to keep risk proportional to account size. Recognizing the standard lot as the “full unit” makes it easier to reason about how mini and micro lots scale down from it.

Quick recap

• A standard lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency.
• Its pip value is roughly $10 on most USD-quoted pairs.
• It requires proportionally more margin than mini or micro lots, and suits larger accounts or combined smaller positions.