Work out exactly what you stand to lose — and what you are aiming for — before you place the trade, not after.
Read this before you use it. A 1:2 risk-to-reward ratio means your target is twice
what you risk. It does not mean you get it. Most trades do not reach target, and any trade
can lose the full amount you risked. This tool tells you how much is on the line and where your
levels sit — nothing here predicts an outcome, and nothing here is financial advice.
Everything in your trading account.
1–2% is the common range. Above 5% is where accounts die.
Where you get in.
Where you admit you were wrong.
How far the target sits, in multiples of your stop distance.
Long expects up, short expects down.
You risk
—
if the stop is hit
Target profit
—
if the target is hit
Position size
—
units / shares / contracts
Position value
—
what you are controlling
Stop distance
—
per unit
Target price
—
where you take profit
Forex note. This works in price terms, which suits stocks, indices, crypto and commodities.
For FX, divide your risk amount by (stop in pips × value per pip) to get lot size — the risk
figure above is the number you feed into that.
Risking $20 to $100 — what it actually looks like
At a 1:2 ratio, the target is always double the risk. The part almost nobody shows you is the
third column: the account you need for that risk to be sensible. The amount is only half
the picture — what matters is what percentage of your account it represents.
You risk
Target at 1:2
Account needed at 2% risk
Account needed at 1% risk
If the stop is hit
$20
$40
$1,000
$2,000
−$20
$40
$80
$2,000
$4,000
−$40
$60
$120
$3,000
$6,000
−$60
$80
$160
$4,000
$8,000
−$80
$100
$200
$5,000
$10,000
−$100
This is the whole point of the table. Risking $100 on a $5,000 account is 2% — normal.
Risking the same $100 on a $500 account is 20%, and five losing trades in a row would take half
of everything you have. The dollar figure is meaningless on its own. Always read it as a
percentage of your account.
How to use it
Enter your account balance
The real number, not what you plan to deposit later. Every calculation below scales from it.
Choose your risk percentage
Start at 1–2%. This is the single most important number on the page — it decides whether a bad
run is a dent or the end. On a $1,000 account, 2% is $20.
Enter your planned entry price
Where you actually intend to get in. Not where price is now if you are waiting for a level.
Enter your stop-loss price
Put it where the idea is wrong — below the support you are buying from, above the
resistance you are selling from. Never pick a stop to make the position size look nicer. That
is working backwards from what you want and it is how people lose accounts.
Pick your reward ratio
1:2 means the target is twice your stop distance. Ask honestly whether the chart has room to
get there before a level blocks it. If it does not, that is not a trade.
Read the position size, then place that exact size
This is the number the whole calculation exists to produce. Placing a bigger size than it says
throws away everything above.
The part that matters most
You do not need to be right most of the time
At 1:2, a win pays two units and a loss costs one. That means you break even at a
33% win rate — wrong two times out of three, and still level.
Win rate at 1:2
Per 100 trades, risking $20
Result
25%
25 × $40 won, 75 × $20 lost
−$500
33%
33 × $40 won, 67 × $20 lost
break even
40%
40 × $40 won, 60 × $20 lost
+$400
50%
50 × $40 won, 50 × $20 lost
+$1,000
This is why the ratio matters more than being clever. At 1:1 you would need to win more than half
your trades just to stand still. At 1:2 you can be wrong most of the time and still come out ahead
— provided you take the loss at the stop every single time. One trade where you move the
stop "just a bit" can wipe out ten disciplined ones.
Losing streaks are normal, not a sign something broke
At a 40% win rate, five losses in a row happens roughly once every twelve trades. It is not
unusual, it is not the strategy failing, and it is not a reason to double up. At 2% risk, five
straight losses costs about 10% of the account and you carry on. At 20% risk, the same completely
ordinary run takes almost everything.
Position size, not entry, decides whether you survive ten losses in a row. That sentence is
the reason this page exists. Everybody obsesses over the entry. Almost nobody works out what
happens if they are wrong six times before they are right.
What this calculator cannot do
It cannot tell you whether the trade is any good. That comes from the chart — is the
level real, does the pattern sit somewhere that matters, did the next candle confirm.
It cannot account for slippage or gaps. In fast markets your stop can fill worse than
the price you set, so the real loss can exceed the figure shown.
It does not include spread, commission or overnight fees. Those come out of every
trade and quietly change the maths.
It cannot make a target reachable. If a 1:2 target sits on the far side of a level
price has rejected four times, the ratio on paper means nothing.