A free calculator for futures, stocks & ETFs, FX, and crypto. Drop in your account size, the % you’re willing to lose on this trade, and where your stop sits. The math gives you a size that survives the trade you’re wrong on.
Log scale: $1,000 → $1,000,000
The disciplined pros sit at 1%. Above 2% is aggressive.
$2 per point per contract
$40 risk per contract
Typical high-to-low range (ATR)
Educational tool only. Does not account for commissions, fees, slippage, gaps, or overnight margin. You are responsible for your own trades.
A list curated from public interviews and books by Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Douglas, and other long-tenured day and swing traders. None of it predicts the market. All of it makes the account survive a bad month.
Big enough to matter, small enough that ten bad trades in a row doesn’t end the account. Most pros sit at 1%.
A stop you decide after entry is no stop at all. The price the market has to hit for your idea to be wrong is known up front, or it never gets defined.
A stop closer than ~20% of the instrument’s expected daily range gets clipped by random wiggles before the idea gets a chance. Use the calculator above to check.
Adding to a losing position increases risk on a trade the market is already telling you is wrong. Cut, sit out, and wait for a better setup.
At 2:1 a 40% win rate breaks even. Paul Tudor Jones looks for 5:1. The size of the win against the size of the loss matters more than how often you’re right.
Three full stops in a session is the market telling you today is not yours. Stop, walk, come back tomorrow with a fresh read.
When you’re cold, the goal is to protect the mind and the capital, not to force a comeback. Pros shrink risk during losing streaks. Amateurs press them.
Drop in a broker statement. Gecko grades your real trades against the seven rules above and names the costliest leaks in dollars. Free to start, no card, no broker connection.
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Educational tool only. Not financial, investment, or trading advice. Trading carries substantial risk of loss.