Trading Basics · Position Sizing

Can Your Edge Survive Your Bet Size?

A quick, hands-on demo for new traders: set your win rate and average win/loss, then take trades one at a time and choose how much of your account to risk on each one.

What "position sizing" means

Position sizing is simply how much of your account you put on any one trade. Most new traders spend all their time on entries and exits and almost none on this — even though it decides whether a good strategy survives long enough to pay off.

In this simulator, size is expressed as a % of your current balance risked per trade. Risking 2% on a $100,000 account means a full loss on that trade costs you $2,000, not your whole account.

Why a winning strategy can still go to zero

A strategy with a real, positive edge (it makes money on average, over many trades) can still ruin an account if each bet is too large a slice of capital. A big enough losing streak at an oversized bet compounds against a shrinking balance, and there may not be enough capital left to recover.

Try it below: run the same system at 2% risk per trade, then reset and run it again at 25–50% risk. The edge doesn't change — only the outcome does.

1. Your trading system

Describe your system's real (or hypothetical) statistics: how often it wins, and the average size of a win or loss in "R" — multiples of what you risked. Plug in your own numbers, or try different combinations.

Win rate

—

Expectancy / trade

—

2. Starting account size

Starting balance ($)

Session

Trade #

Peak balance

—

Drawdown

0.0%

Current balance

$100,000

— no trades yet —

Trade-by-trade result strip appears here as you go →

Risk this trade (% of current balance)

Risking 2.0%= $2,000

Conservative · 1%

Moderate · 5%

Aggressive · 20%

Reckless · 50%

Trade log

#	Risk %	Result	P/L	Balance