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Create AccountRisk Calculator
See what a trade will cost you in money, and what a losing run would do to the account.
Your Result
The calculation runs in your browser. Rates used for currency conversion are indicative — check your broker for the exact figure.
A risk percentage is easy to agree to in the abstract. Two percent sounds small. Six losses in a row at two percent is a little over eleven percent of the account gone, and that is an ordinary run for a strategy that wins half its trades.
This calculator converts the percentage into money and then compounds a losing streak, so the number you are agreeing to is the one you actually see. Each loss is taken from the reduced balance, which is how it works in practice.
When to use it
- When setting a risk rule for the first time, or revisiting one after a bad month.
- Before starting a prop firm challenge with a fixed drawdown limit.
- After a losing run, to check whether the outcome was normal or the risk was too high.
- When deciding whether to increase size as the account grows.
Each loss comes out of the balance that is left, not the balance you started with.
Risk Amount = Balance × Risk %
Balance After n Losses = Balance × (1 − Risk %)ⁿ
Recovery Gain = (Start ÷ End) − 1- Compounding works in your favour on the way down: risking 2% of a shrinking balance loses less in absolute terms with each trade.
- The recovery figure is the honest one. A 20% drawdown needs a 25% gain to get back, and a 50% drawdown needs 100%.
- Fixed-money risk behaves differently — the loss stays flat while the balance falls, so drawdowns compound faster.
A $10,000 account risking 2% per trade hits six losses in a row.
Working: $10,000 × 0.98⁶ = $8,858. Six ordinary losses cost 11.4% of the account. At 1% risk the same streak would cost 5.9%, and the recovery would need 6.2% rather than 12.9%.
Is a six trade losing streak realistic?
Yes. A strategy that wins 50% of the time produces a run of six losses roughly once every sixty-four trades. At a few trades a day that is a monthly event, not a disaster.
Should risk be a percentage or a fixed amount?
A percentage adapts: it shrinks the loss as the account falls and grows it as the account recovers. Fixed money is simpler to picture but digs deeper holes during a bad run.
Does this account for commission and swap?
No. It models the stop loss only. Overnight swap on a position held for several days can add meaningfully to the cost, particularly on wide-stop swing trades.
What drawdown should worry me?
That depends on your plan, but the recovery arithmetic is unforgiving past about 20%. Prop firm accounts usually fail somewhere between 8% and 12%, which is why they demand smaller per-trade risk.
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