R-Multiple & Expectancy Calculator
R normalises every trade to the risk you took on it: a +2R win made twice what you risked, a −1R loss lost exactly your planned risk. Thinking in R makes trades comparable across account sizes and instruments — and it leads to the one number that says whether a system makes money over many trades: expectancy, the average R you earn per trade.
- • 1R = your initial risk, |entry − stop|.
- • Trade result in R = (exit − entry) ÷ (entry − stop) — signed, so it works for longs and shorts.
- • Expectancy = win rate × average win − (1 − win rate) × average loss, in R.
Worked example: a 45% win rate with a 2R average win and a 1R average loss gives 0.45 × 2 − 0.55 × 1 = +0.35R per trade — a genuine edge, before costs.
Expectancy is before costs and slippage, which eat into every R. A positive expectancy still needs enough trades to show up through variance. Educational tool, not advice.
A calculator shows what a rule should do on paper. Whether a strategy actually beats simply buying and holding — costs on, losses shown, no hindsight — is a different question, and the only one that pays. Test one on real data, free, no sign-up.