R-Multiple Calculator

Example: reviewing a trade in R

Assume you took a long trade with an entry at 100 and a stop loss at 98. Your initial risk was 2 points.

If you exited at 104, the trade made 4 points. Since 4 points is two times the initial risk, the result is +2R.

This makes trades easier to compare. A $50 win and a $500 win can both be +2R if they were sized differently.

How the calculation works

R-multiple compares the trade result to the original planned risk.

Initial risk = distance between entry and stop loss

Price result = distance between entry and exit

R-multiple = price result / initial risk

Positive R means the trade made money relative to the original risk. Negative R means the trade lost money relative to the original risk.

Why R-multiple matters in trade review

R-multiple helps separate trading quality from raw profit and loss. This is useful because account size, position size and instrument price can make P/L misleading.

Useful review questions:

Are your winners large enough compared to your losers?
Are you often closing good trades at less than +1R?
Are your losing trades staying close to -1R, or becoming much worse?
Does one large mistake erase many smaller wins?

Over many trades, R-multiple can show whether your edge comes from clean execution or from a few oversized outcomes.

Common questions

What does 1R mean in trading?

1R means one unit of planned risk. If you risk $100 on a trade, then 1R equals $100. A +2R result means you made twice your planned risk.

What does -1R mean?

-1R usually means the trade lost the full planned risk. If your stop was followed as planned, a normal losing trade should often be close to -1R before costs and slippage.

Why use R instead of dollars?

Dollar results are affected by position size and account size. R-multiple makes trades easier to compare because every result is measured against the risk taken on that specific trade.

Does this calculator include partial exits?

No. This calculator uses one exit price. If you scale out at multiple targets, use a multiple take profit calculator or calculate the weighted average exit first.

Related trading tools

Continue the review with these free browser-based tools:

Risk Reward Calculator
Position Size Calculator
Expectancy Calculator
Drawdown Recovery Calculator
Daily Loss Limit Calculator

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