What is Risk Reward? And how to get it when your trade has no stop loss
Norden team · Last updated
Risk Reward is a trade's profit or loss divided by the amount you risked on it. Risk 200 and make 500, and the trade's Risk Reward is +2.5. Lose the full 200, and it is −1. Risk Reward turns trades of different sizes into one comparable unit, so you can judge your decisions instead of your position sizes.
The Risk Reward formula
Risk Reward = profit or loss ÷ initial risk
- Initial risk is what you stood to lose when you entered: usually the distance from entry to stop loss, times your position size, in money.
- Profit or loss is the trade's net result. Decide once whether you include commission and swap, and keep it the same for every trade.
A losing trade that hits its stop is about −1. A loss bigger than −1 means slippage, a gap, or a stop that moved further away.
Worked examples
| Trade | Risked | Result | Risk Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hit the target | 200 | +500 | +2.5 |
| Hit the stop | 200 | −200 | −1 |
| Closed early | 200 | +80 | +0.4 |
| Moved stop to entry, stopped out | 200 | 0 | 0 |
| Slipped past the stop | 200 | −260 | −1.3 |
Planned vs actual Risk Reward
Planned Risk Reward is the reward you aimed for divided by the risk: a target 3 times as far as the stop is a planned 3. Actual Risk Reward is what the trade really made, divided by the same risk. The gap between the two shows how often you leave a trade before your plan says to, in either direction.
What about partial closes?
Split the risk with the position. If you close half of the position at +1.5 and the other half at breakeven, the trade's Risk Reward is +0.75 in total: (0.5 × 1.5) + (0.5 × 0).
Some platforms record each partial close as its own trade. Norden's cTrader import does this: a partial close counts as two trades. In that case, give each part its share of the risk (half the position, half the risk), so the two Risk Reward values add up to the whole trade.
Average Risk Reward and expectancy
Add up the Risk Reward of a set of trades and divide by the number of trades. That average is your expectancy: what an average trade earned per unit of risk. Positive expectancy over a meaningful number of trades says the approach made money per unit of risk in that sample. A handful of trades says little.
How to get Risk Reward when your trade has no stop loss
Risk Reward needs a risk figure, and a stop loss is the usual source. Without one, use the amount you were actually prepared to lose on the trade: a mental stop, a fixed amount you risk per trade, or the most you would have accepted before closing.
Risk Reward ≈ profit or loss ÷ the amount you risked
This is an estimate, so label it as one. It is only as honest as the risk number you write down, so record it the same way every time, ideally before you see the result.
Why your journal may have no stop loss
It depends on where the trades come from. In Norden:
- cTrader trade history has no stop loss, whether it comes from live sync or the statement CSV. See the cTrader integration.
- TradeLocker provides the stop loss if you set it on entry. See the TradeLocker integration.
- MetaTrader 5 HTML reports include the stop loss, so planned and actual Risk Reward come in. See the MT5 integration.
For a trade without a stop loss, Norden shows an amount field in the RR column. Type what you risked, and the trade shows an estimated Risk Reward, marked ≈, calculated as the trade's P&L divided by that amount.
Common mistakes
- Using the final stop instead of the first one. If you moved the stop after entry, your risk is still the risk at entry.
- Mixing gross and net. Commission and swap can turn a small win into a small loss. Pick one and stick to it.
- Judging Risk Reward on too few trades. A good average over 10 trades can be luck.
Related
This article is general education, not investment advice. Prop-firm rules change: check your firm's current rules.