Win% & Risk-Reward Ratio (2024)

FAQs

Win% & Risk-Reward Ratio? ›

The risk/reward ratio helps investors manage their risk of losing money on trades. Even if a trader has some profitable trades, they will lose money over time if their win rate is below 50%. The risk/reward ratio measures the difference between a trade entry point to a stop-loss and a sell or take-profit order.

Risk/reward is a ratio of the size of winning trades compared to losing trades. If lose $100 on a losing trade but make $200 on a winning trade your risk/reward is 100/200=0.5. You can also think of it as reward/risk = 200/100 = 2. Meaning your win is twice as big as your loss.

If you have a high win rate, your risk to reward can be lower. You are profitable with a 60% win rate and a risk-to-reward of 1. Now, you will have more profit with a 60% win rate and a high risk-to-reward ratio. If you have a win rate of 50% or less, your winning trades should be higher than your losing trades.

The 1.5 Risk-Reward Ratio: Balancing Risk and Reward

A commonly cited benchmark in trading is the 1.5 risk-reward ratio. This ratio suggests that for every unit of risk taken (usually measured as a percentage or dollar amount), an investor should aim for a potential reward that is one and a half times greater.

The actual calculation to determine risk vs. reward is very easy. You simply divide your net profit (the reward) by the price of your maximum risk.

Defining a good win rate depends on your company, niche market, and product. However, a rate of over 60% is considered a strong indicator that you have efficient and effective sales strategies. Some industries might have lower success rate expectations because of the size and complexity of the target market.

So the general rule is a risk-to-reward ratio of over 1.0 means the possible risk is greater than the possible reward, and anything below 1.0 means the possible profits are greater than the potential risk.

A sales win rate is the percentage of closed-won deals against the number of deals lost. In contrast, a sales close rate, also known as the win ratio, is the percentage of closed-won deals against the total number of sales opportunities closed (won or lost).

It is calculated by dividing the number of winning trades by the total number of trades and multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage. For example, if a trader executes 100 trades and wins on 60 occasions, their win rate would be 60% (60/100 x 100).

A 1:1 ratio means that you're risking as much money if you're wrong about a trade as you stand to gain if you're right. This is the same risk/reward ratio that you can get in casino games like roulette, so it's essentially gambling. Most experienced traders target a risk/reward ratio of 1:3 or higher.

Is 2 a good risk reward ratio? ›

The general theory is that if the risk is greater than the reward, the trade will not be worth it. A good risk/reward ratio could be seen as greater than 1:3, where you would risk 1/4 of the overall potential profit.

For any stock you plan to scalp, you must understand the price supports, resistances and the set-up. From there, you can calculate the share sizing and the probabilities versus the risk. In scalping, a 3:1 risk to reward ratio is common (although, lower risk/reward is always more favorable).

Generally, a 1:2 risk-reward ratio is favorable for short-swing trades.

This enables traders to express profit and loss as a ratio of R. An example might be a trade with 1R risk of 100 USD which returns 200 USD on winning trades, on average: a 2R return—a R multiple of 2. The same is said for losses.

Profit factor measures the ratio of total profits generated by a trading system or strategy to total losses incurred by that system or strategy. Risk-reward ratio, on the other hand, measures the ratio of the potential profit from a trade to the potential loss from that same trade.

A risk ratio (RR), also called relative risk, compares the risk of a health event (disease, injury, risk factor, or death) among one group with the risk among another group. It does so by dividing the risk (incidence proportion, attack rate) in group 1 by the risk (incidence proportion, attack rate) in group 2.

A positive reward:risk ratio such as 2:1 would dictate that your potential profit is larger than any potential loss, meaning that even if you suffer a losing trade, you only need one winning trade to make you a net profit.

What is the risk-reward ratio? The risk-reward ratio is a way of assessing potential returns that you stand to make for every unit of risk. For example, if you risk $100 and expect to make $300, the risk-reward ratio is 1:3 or 0.33.

Risk Management: Successful trading involves effective risk management. If a trader is managing risk well and limiting losses on losing trades, a 40% win rate can still lead to profitability. Consistently controlling the size of losing trades is essential for long-term success.