Free stop-loss and reward-to-risk visualizer for futures, forex, crypto, and stocks. Enter your entry and stop — see your 1R through 5R targets plotted on a price ladder, plus exact position size with proper lot tiers for forex (standard/mini/micro/nano) and fractional unit sizing for crypto. Mode B reverses it: enter a target and get the R-multiple plus the break-even win rate that R demands.
What this calculator does
This tool answers two questions traders ask before every setup:
- Plan a Trade (Mode A): "I want to risk 1% of my account on this trade. My entry is X, my stop is Y — how many contracts/shares should I buy, and what does my profit look like at 1R, 2R, 3R targets?"
- Evaluate a Setup (Mode B): "I want to enter at X, stop at Y, and take profit at Z. Is this a 2R setup or a 0.7R setup? What win rate do I need to break even at this R:R?"
The visualization is the differentiator. Most R:R calculators output a number. This one renders your entry, stop, and 1R-5R targets on a vertical price ladder so you can see proportionally where each level sits. Green zone above entry (or below for shorts) shows your reward space; red zone shows the risk side. The ladder makes it instantly obvious whether your stop is sensibly placed or whether your target is wishful thinking.
How it handles futures contracts
Most "stop-loss calculators" online treat every trade like a stock — they output share count and assume $1 of price movement equals $1 of P&L. That's wrong for everything except cash stocks. Futures contracts have tick sizes and tick values baked into their specs, and getting the math wrong by treating them like stocks costs traders money every day.
This calculator has the current 2026 specs for the most-traded futures contracts hard-coded:
| Contract | Tick Size | Tick Value | 1-Point Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| ES — E-mini S&P 500 | 0.25 | $12.50 | $50 |
| MES — Micro S&P | 0.25 | $1.25 | $5 |
| NQ — E-mini Nasdaq-100 | 0.25 | $5.00 | $20 |
| MNQ — Micro Nasdaq | 0.25 | $0.50 | $2 |
| YM — E-mini Dow | 1.0 | $5.00 | $5 |
| RTY — E-mini Russell 2000 | 0.10 | $5.00 | $50 |
| CL — Crude Oil | 0.01 | $10.00 | $1,000 |
| GC — Gold | 0.10 | $10.00 | $100 |
| SI — Silver | 0.005 | $25.00 | $5,000 |
| ZB — 30-Year T-Bond | 1/32 (0.03125) | $31.25 | $1,000 |
| 6E — Euro FX | 0.00005 | $6.25 | $125,000 |
For complete contract spec reference including margins and trading hours, see the dedicated Futures Tick Values Reference tool.
How it handles forex (with proper lot sizes)
Forex sizing is tricky because brokers use a four-tier lot system, and most retail forex actually trades in micros or nanos — not the "standard" lots most calculators default to. This tool handles all four tiers:
- Standard lot (1.0) — 100,000 units of base currency. Typical pip value on USD-quoted pairs: $10/pip.
- Mini lot (0.1) — 10,000 units. Pip value: $1/pip on USD-quoted majors.
- Micro lot (0.01) — 1,000 units. Pip value: $0.10/pip. This is what most retail forex traders use.
- Nano lot (0.001) — 100 units. Pip value: $0.01/pip. For very small accounts or learning.
Pick your pair, choose the lot tier you're trading in, and the tool computes how many lots fit your risk budget. The "Stop Distance" card displays pips (the unit forex traders actually think in) instead of points or ticks. The "$ Per Lot" card shows exact dollar risk per one lot at your chosen tier.
For USD-quoted pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD), the pip value is exactly $10 per standard lot. For JPY-quoted pairs (USD/JPY, EUR/JPY), the math is different — one pip is the second decimal place (0.01), not the fourth, and the dollar value varies with the current USD/JPY exchange rate, typically around $6.67 per standard lot. The tool uses approximated current values for non-USD-quoted pairs; verify against your broker's exact pip value before placing large trades. Most retail forex traders should default to micro lots — they're sized small enough to survive a learning curve and let you trade dollar-risk amounts that match your account size.
How it handles crypto (fractional units, not contracts)
Crypto sizing is fundamentally different from futures. There are no contracts — you buy fractional amounts of a coin. The tool supports four crypto modes:
- Bitcoin (BTC) — 5-decimal precision (most exchanges allow positions down to ~0.00001 BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH) — 4-decimal precision
- Solana (SOL) — 4-decimal precision
- Other Crypto — for altcoins with arbitrary prices
The position-size math collapses to a clean formula: position size = dollar risk ÷ (stop distance in dollars). If BTC is at $95,000 and your stop is at $93,500, your risk per coin is $1,500. Risking $250 (1% of a $25k account) means buying 0.16666 BTC. The tool also computes your "notional position" — the total dollar value of the coins you're holding — which matters for spot trading without leverage. For perpetual futures or margin trading on Bybit, Binance, etc., the same math applies but you'd then divide your notional by the leverage to find your required margin.
Crypto and leverage: the calculator sizes for spot trading without leverage. If you're trading BTC perpetuals at 10x or 20x leverage, your liquidation price gets dragged closer to entry as leverage rises — which means your "stop" is no longer the only thing that can take you out. Always check your exchange's liquidation calculator separately. For non-leveraged spot trading, this tool is correct.
Why R:R matters more than win rate
R-multiple (reward-to-risk ratio) is the single most underrated number in retail trading. The calculator computes it because the math behind it is the lever traders actually control. You cannot will a higher win rate into existence — that takes years of skill development and is partly determined by the markets you trade. You can choose where to place your stop and where to take profit. R:R is engineering, not hope.
The break-even win rate at any given R:R is 1 ÷ (1 + R). The table below explains why high-R:R setups are so much easier to be profitable with than low-R:R ones — even when the high-R setups hit less often.
| R:R Ratio | Break-even Win Rate | What this means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5:1 | 66.7% | You'd need to win 2 of every 3 trades. Most "scalping" setups live here and quietly bleed accounts. |
| 1:1 | 50.0% | Coin flip. Any edge above 50% is profit; any edge below is loss. No margin for commissions. |
| 1.5:1 | 40.0% | The minimum most professionals aim for. Achievable with discipline at 50-55% win rates. |
| 2:1 | 33.3% | Classic trend-following target. Only 1 in 3 trades needs to win. |
| 3:1 | 25.0% | Long-tail traders. Can lose 3 of every 4 trades and still profit. |
| 5:1+ | ≤16.7% | Lottery-ticket strategies. High variance, long droughts between wins, requires patience. |
The lesson: chasing a tight stop to maximize position size is almost always a bad trade. A 5-tick ES stop with a 5-tick target is a 1:1 setup — 50% win rate just to break even. A 10-tick ES stop with a 20-tick target is 2:1 — 33% win rate breaks even. Same instrument, same market, dramatically different mathematical survivability.
The seductive trap: tight stops let you size bigger, which makes potential profits feel larger when the trade works. But the R:R math is the same — and if your tight stop is inside the typical noise of the contract, you'll get stopped out on otherwise-winning trades constantly. The size doesn't matter if your win rate craters.
How position sizing actually works
The formula for position size on any instrument is:
Position Size = Dollar Risk ÷ Risk per Contract
Where:
- Dollar Risk = Account × Risk % (e.g., $25,000 × 1% = $250)
- Risk per Contract = Stop distance in points × Point value (e.g., 5 ES points × $50 = $250)
So for a $25K account, 1% risk, 5-point ES stop: position size = $250 ÷ $250 = 1 contract. Increase the stop to 10 points and your position size drops to 0.5 contracts — which rounds to zero, meaning you can't safely take the trade unless you either use micros (MES) or trade a different setup with a tighter stop.
The calculator does this math automatically, rounds down to whole contracts (because brokers don't fill partials), and tells you the actual percentage of your account you're risking after the rounding. That last detail matters: if your theoretical size is 2.7 contracts, your actual size is 2, which means you're risking only 74% of what you intended. For prop firm traders this can be the difference between an aggressive day and a conservative one.
Micro contracts solve the rounding problem. If your math says 2.7 ES contracts, you can trade 27 MES instead and capture the full intended risk. Micros are 1/10 the size of the E-minis (MES = $1.25/tick vs ES = $12.50/tick). They're not just for small accounts — they're a precision tool for sizing.
When to use each mode
Use Mode A (Plan a Trade) when:
- You're sizing a real trade you're about to place
- You want to enforce a fixed risk percentage across all trades
- You're on a prop firm evaluation and need to respect drawdown limits
- You're testing whether a setup fits your account before committing
Use Mode B (Evaluate a Setup) when:
- You're chart-reading and want to see if a setup has acceptable R:R before sizing
- You're reviewing a past trade to ask "was that even a good setup mathematically?"
- You're testing whether a target is realistic given the stop you'd use
- You're explaining setups to other traders (Mode B output is screenshot-friendly)
Many professional traders run Mode B first (does this setup have edge?) and only switch to Mode A if the answer is yes (how much should I trade?). This two-step process is more disciplined than the typical "I'll buy here and figure out the stop after I'm in" approach that destroys retail accounts.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between R:R and risk-to-reward ratio?
Nothing — they're the same thing, just written differently. "R:R" is shorthand for reward-to-risk ratio, expressed as reward÷risk. A 2:1 R:R means you stand to make twice what you risk. Some sources reverse the convention (writing it as risk:reward, e.g., 1:2 for the same trade), which is why the calculator outputs it as a single R-multiple ("2.0R") to avoid ambiguity.
Why does the calculator round position size down?
Because you can't trade a fraction of a contract — your broker fills in whole contracts only. Rounding up would mean you'd risk more than you intended. Rounding down is the safe default. If you want to trade closer to your intended risk, use the micro version (MES instead of ES, MNQ instead of NQ, MGC instead of GC) which has 1/10 the tick value and allows finer position sizing.
What if my stop loss is on the wrong side of entry?
The calculator detects this and warns you. For a long trade, your stop must be below entry; for a short trade, your stop must be above entry. If the prices don't match the direction, either you've entered the prices wrong or you've selected the wrong direction. The verdict bar will tell you which.
Are the futures tick values accurate?
Tick values are baked into the contract specifications by the exchange and don't change without official notice. The numbers in this calculator reflect specifications as of March 2026 as published by CME Group and verified against current broker platforms. Margins, trading hours, and tick sizes can occasionally change — always verify against your broker's current specs before placing a trade with a contract you haven't traded recently.
Can I use this for stocks and crypto, not just futures?
Yes. The instrument dropdown has Stock (per-share), Forex (per-lot), and Crypto (per-unit) modes that compute risk per share/lot/unit instead of per contract. The R:R math and ladder visualization work identically across all asset classes.
Why does the tool show 1R-5R but not higher targets?
Because targets above 5R are rare in honest setups. If your "target" is 8R away from entry, you're probably looking at a longer-term swing trade (in which case daily/weekly chart sizing rules apply differently) or you're being optimistic. Mode B lets you enter any target you want and will tell you the R-multiple, so use that if you have specific levels in mind.
How does this compare to your existing Position Size Calculator?
The Position Size Calculator focuses on getting one number right: how many contracts to trade. This Visualizer does the same calculation but adds the R-target ladder, the break-even win rate at each R, the two-mode workflow (planning vs evaluating), and a price-ladder chart. Use the simpler Position Size Calculator when you just need a size; use the Visualizer when you're planning the whole trade including target selection.
