Risk management: the 1% rule
You can have the best strategy in the world and still blow up. You can have a mediocre one and survive for years. The difference is almost never the strategy: it's how much you risk.
The cruel math of drawdown
Losing isn't symmetric. Lose 50% of your account and you don't need a 50% gain to recover: you need 100%. Lose 20% and you need 25%; lose 50% and you must double; lose 90% and you need 900%. That's why protecting capital matters more than chasing maximum profit: the hole you climb out of gets exponentially deeper.
The 1% rule
The rule most professionals use: never risk more than 1% of your account on a single trade. At 1%, it takes a huge losing streak to seriously hurt you. Risk 10% "to win fast" and a normal bad run (they come for everyone) wipes you out. Our risk of ruin calculator proves it: same system, 0.5% risk → 0% ruin; 5% risk → 70% ruin.
Fixed risk, variable size
The beginner mistake is picking the lot first. Do it the other way: fix your risk in money (1% of the account) and let the stop-loss set the size. Far stop, small lot; close stop, bigger lot — but the risk in money is always the same. That's what our position size calculator does.
1. Never trade without a stop-loss. 2. Never risk more than 1-2% per trade. 3. Never move your stop-loss against you "to see if it comes back". Break one and it's only a matter of time.
Leverage is not your friend
High leverage doesn't make you win more; it makes you win AND lose faster. 1:500 doesn't change your edge — it only changes how quickly you blow up if you don't control size. Use it for headroom, not to risk more.