Most traders blow up not because they pick bad trades…
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Most traders blow up not because they pick bad trades — they size positions wrong. Here's the math that saved my account.
I blew up two accounts before I figured out what I was doing wrong.
It wasn't my entries. It wasn't my indicators. It was that I had no idea how much to actually risk per trade.
I was just "buying some BTC" without thinking about position size at all.
Here's the formula that changed everything:
Position Size = (Account Balance × Risk%) ÷ (Entry − Stop Loss)
Example with real numbers:
\- Account: $10,000
\- Risk per trade: 1% = $100
\- Entry: $65,000
\- Stop loss: $63,700 (2% below entry)
\- Position size: $100 ÷ 0.02 = $5,000
That's it. You're risking exactly $100 on this trade — not "some BTC", not "a bit". Exactly $100.
Why does this matter? At 1% risk you need 100 consecutive losing trades to blow your account. At 5% risk you need just 20. I was risking 15-20% per trade without realising it.
The part most people skip: your position size changes with every trade because your stop loss distance changes. A tight stop = bigger position. A wide stop = smaller position. Same dollar risk either way.
I got tired of calculating this in a spreadsheet every time so I built a free calculator: riskdesks.com http://riskdesks.com
It also shows your implied leverage and R:R ratio automatically. No sign-up, no BS.
Hope this helps someone avoid the mistakes I made.
#cryptocurrency
source
I blew up two accounts before I figured out what I was doing wrong.
It wasn't my entries. It wasn't my indicators. It was that I had no idea how much to actually risk per trade.
I was just "buying some BTC" without thinking about position size at all.
Here's the formula that changed everything:
Position Size = (Account Balance × Risk%) ÷ (Entry − Stop Loss)
Example with real numbers:
\- Account: $10,000
\- Risk per trade: 1% = $100
\- Entry: $65,000
\- Stop loss: $63,700 (2% below entry)
\- Position size: $100 ÷ 0.02 = $5,000
That's it. You're risking exactly $100 on this trade — not "some BTC", not "a bit". Exactly $100.
Why does this matter? At 1% risk you need 100 consecutive losing trades to blow your account. At 5% risk you need just 20. I was risking 15-20% per trade without realising it.
The part most people skip: your position size changes with every trade because your stop loss distance changes. A tight stop = bigger position. A wide stop = smaller position. Same dollar risk either way.
I got tired of calculating this in a spreadsheet every time so I built a free calculator: riskdesks.com http://riskdesks.com
It also shows your implied leverage and R:R ratio automatically. No sign-up, no BS.
Hope this helps someone avoid the mistakes I made.
#cryptocurrency
source
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