Trade planner: a prop firm risk calculator

How to use it

The planner has two steps on one screen.

1. The trade. Pick the instrument and your account currency. Enter your equity now, the percentage you want to risk, the stop loss distance and the target distance. For forex both are in pips; for everything else they are price distances, such as 5.00 on gold or 40 points on an index. Check the contract size and the lot step, which are filled in and can be changed. 2. Your account's rules. Tap a preset for typical rules, "1-step", "2-step", "Instant funding" or "Futures end of day", or type your own. Enter the starting balance, the maximum drawdown percentage and its type (static, trailing or end of day trailing), your highest balance for a trailing type, the daily loss percentage and today's starting balance.

The presets are generic examples, not any firm's rules. If the price is in another currency, the planner shows the rate it uses, filled in from the European Central Bank's daily reference rate, and you can type today's.

What the result means

• Size. The lot size that loses no more than your risk at the stop, rounded down to the lot step, with the exact loss at that size.
• Reward. The gain at the target, the reward to risk ratio and the breakeven win rate: the share of trades you would need to win at this ratio to break even before costs.
• Today's limit. The daily floor and the drawdown floor are both worked out, and the planner uses whichever is closer to your equity. It shows the room before a breach, the room left after a loss at the stop, and how many such losses fit. A bar shows the loss against today's room.

If the loss at the stop would breach a limit, the planner says so before you place the trade.

Worked example: NAS100 on a trailing account

A 1-step style account started at $50,000 with a 6% trailing maximum drawdown and a 3% daily loss limit. The highest balance so far is $52,000. Equity now and today's starting balance are both $51,000. You risk 0.4% on NAS100 with a 50 point stop and a 100 point target, at 1 dollar a point per lot.

1. Risk: $51,000 times 0.4% is $204. 2. Stop cost on one lot: 50 points times $1 is $50. 3. Size: $204 divided by $50 is 4.08 lots, so the loss at the stop is $204. 4. Target: 100 points times $1 times 4.08 lots is $408. Reward to risk is 1 to 2, and the breakeven win rate is 1 divided by 3, which is 33.3%. 5. Maximum drawdown floor: 6% of $50,000 is $3,000, trailed from the $52,000 high, so $49,000. 6. Daily floor: 3% of $51,000 is $1,530, so $49,470. 7. The daily floor is closer, so today's room is $51,000 minus $49,470, which is $1,530. 8. One loss uses $204 of $1,530, about 13%, and leaves $1,326. Room for 7 such losses.

Common mistakes

• Sizing without the daily limit. A size that fits your risk can still leave little room if earlier losses today already used most of it.
• Using the wrong base. Many firms measure the daily limit from today's starting balance. Some use the initial balance. Check which one your firm uses.
• Forgetting the trailing high. On a trailing drawdown, the floor rises with your highest balance. Update the high after a good day.
• Treating the target as certain. Reward to risk only matters with the win rate. The breakeven win rate shows what the plan needs.
• Ignoring costs and slippage. Spread, commission and slippage can push a loss past the planned amount.
• Typing balance instead of equity. With trades open, equity is what the floors are measured against.

What to check at your firm

• Drawdown type. Static, intraday trailing or end of day drawdown, and whether trailing stops at the starting balance.
• Daily limit base and reset time. What the daily limit is measured from, and when the day resets.
• Size and risk rules. Caps on lots, risk per trade or required stops.

For more on each part, use the lot size calculator, the risk reward calculator, the drawdown calculator and the challenge pass probability tool.

Results depend on the inputs you enter, and firms' rules differ, so check your own firm's rules before you trade.

Running a prop firm? Read How to start a prop firm in 2026: tech, legal setup and a 90 day launch plan.