Enter, stop and target — get the ratio, and the win rate you'd need just to break even at it. The second number is the one people skip.
Direction is inferred from your stop: below entry means long, above entry means short. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
With the defaults: risk is 1,200, reward is 2,600, so the ratio is 2.17. That means you'd need to win about 31.5% of the time just to break even before costs — and anything above that is where profit starts.
"3:1 minimum" is repeated everywhere as if the ratio alone were the point. It isn't. A ratio is only meaningful next to the win rate it demands, because the two trade off directly:
| Risk / reward | Breakeven win rate | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 : 1 | 66.7% | You must be right two times out of three |
| 1 : 1 | 50.0% | A coin flip, before costs |
| 1.5 : 1 | 40.0% | Wrong more often than right is still fine |
| 2 : 1 | 33.3% | One win covers two losses |
| 3 : 1 | 25.0% | Right one time in four |
| 5 : 1 | 16.7% | Rare, and usually means the target is fantasy |
The trap in that table is the bottom row. Ratios improve on paper simply by moving the target further away — and a target far enough to look attractive is often a target price never reaches. A high ratio you don't actually hit is worse than a modest one you do. The honest test is whether the target sits at a level the market has respected, not whether the arithmetic looks good.
There's no universal answer — a 1:1 with a 60% hit rate beats a 3:1 with a 20% hit rate. What matters is whether your actual win rate clears the breakeven rate the ratio demands, after costs. Judge the pair, never the ratio alone.
Divide the distance from entry to target by the distance from entry to stop. Both distances are absolute — direction doesn't change the arithmetic.
Because 1 ÷ (1 + ratio) assumes zero costs. Every trade pays spread, fees and some slippage, which raises the bar. On short-timeframe trading the gap is not small.
Calculate both. Partial exits change your effective ratio, and a plan that only pencils out at target 2 is a plan you'll abandon at target 1.
These numbers tell you how much to risk. They can't tell you whether the setup is worth risking anything on — that's a different question, and it's the one we built Tickrify for: paste a chart, get entry, stop, targets and risk, or an honest "no trade". Three analyses free, no card.
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