How to Calculate Lot Size on Bursa Malaysia (With Fees)

TL;DR — A lot on Bursa Malaysia is 100 shares. The number of lots you can buy is capital ÷ (100 × share price), rounded down to a whole number. Then leave room for buy-side fees (brokerage, clearing, stamp duty) — sizing on capital alone is the reason orders get rejected for insufficient cash at entry.

What “lot size” means on Bursa Malaysia

On Bursa Malaysia, shares trade in board lots of 100 shares. A standard order is always a whole number of these 100-share lots — you place 1 lot, 5 lots, 111 lots, never 111.4. Quantities below one lot (1–99 shares) are odd lots and trade on a separate, thinner market, so for practical position sizing the rule is simple: work in whole lots and round down.

The basic formula

To find how many lots a given amount of capital can buy:

Lots = capital ÷ (100 × share price)

Then round down to the nearest whole lot.

Step	Calculation	Result
Capital	—	RM5,000
Cost of one lot	100 × RM0.45	RM45
Raw lots	RM5,000 ÷ RM45	111.11
Whole lots (round down)	floor(111.11)	111 lots
Shares	111 × 100	11,100 shares

Figures are for illustration only.

You round down, not up, because 112 lots would cost RM5,040 — more than your capital — before any fees are even added.

The step everyone forgets: fees come out first

The raw formula spends every ringgit of capital on shares and leaves nothing for fees. But every Bursa buy also carries brokerage, a clearing fee, and stamp duty. If you size lots against your full capital, those costs tip the total over your available cash and the order is rejected at entry.

The actual buy-side fee components (rates vary by broker — figures below use M+ Online’s overnight rate as an example):

Fee	Rate	Cap
Brokerage	0.08% overnight (or 0.05% intraday), min RM8 whichever is higher	—
Clearing fee	0.03% of contract value	RM1,000
Stamp duty	RM1 per RM1,000 (rounded up)	RM1,000

Worked example — RM10,000 overnight buy at M+ Online’s rate (for illustration only):

Line	Calculation	Amount
Brokerage	0.08% × RM10,000 = RM8.00 (min RM8 applies)	RM8.00
Clearing	0.03% × RM10,000	RM3.00
Stamp duty	RM1 × 10	RM10.00
Buy-side total		RM21.00

Round trip (buy + sell) is approximately RM42, or about 0.42% of the RM10,000 position. This means on a RM10,000 trade you effectively have around RM9,979 to allocate to shares — size against that, not the full RM10,000.

The fix is to size against capital minus expected buy-side fees, not the full amount:

Usable capital = capital − expected buy-side fees
Lots = usable capital ÷ (100 × share price)   → round down

On small trades this matters most: the RM8 minimum brokerage is a much larger share of a RM1,000 trade than of a RM20,000 one. (For the full fee breakdown, see our Bursa Malaysia trading fees guide.)

How BursaEdge handles this: the Trade Calc tab

BursaEdge’s calculator has three tabs — Trade Calc, Position Size, and Average Calculator. The Trade Calc tab answers exactly this question: given your capital and the share price, how many lots can you actually afford after all fees?

It works the formula in the correct order: lots = floor(capital ÷ (price × 100)), then trims down until the contract value plus all fees (brokerage, clearing, stamp duty) fits within your capital. The output shows exact affordable lots, the full fee breakdown, total cost, and remaining cash.

The Price Ladder is built into Trade Calc — once you have your lot count, it shows the P&L at exit prices 10 ticks above and below your entry, with the break-even point highlighted (including both buy and sell fees). It’s an educational tool for getting your numbers right before you place an order; the decision to trade is always yours.

---

BursaEdge is an educational decision-intelligence platform for Bursa Malaysia traders — a 5-pillar rating engine plus calculators and a trade journal, with the shortlist delivered to a private Telegram channel. Join the waitlist →