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Risk:Reward Ratio. What is it?Risk to reward ratio. What is it? What does it mean and how do we use it? Now, if you made it to the point where you're here on TradingView, there's a good chance that you have heard about Risk to Reward ratio. Today, I want to dive into what it really means and how to actually utilize it. I see so many beginners missing out on huge profits and opportunities because of their risk reward ratio and I want to share my knowledge of this tool and how to actually use it in the future. Firstly, let's dive into what is the risk/reward ratio? The RR ratio is a tool that can accurately predict by expected returns based off of previous results. This tool measures how much reward you are estimated to gain based off of the dollar amount you risk. For example, if you have a risk to reward ratio of 1:3, it means for every $1 you risk, you will gain a return of $3 in the event of a positive trade. Using the same example in the FX market, let's say you're risking 10 pips on EURUSD, your take profit is at 30 pips. This means you gain 30 pips in the event of a win, lose 10 pips in the event of a loss, giving you a 1:3 risk/reward ratio. This is a very powerful tool because compared with the win rate and in correlation, you can actually predict based off of your previous results, you're expected returns on investment. Being able to predict what you're expected returns are are great way of giving you milestone targets, but also when you're looking at getting funded with prop firms, you also know what you are actually able to achieve in what time frame. Now, it goes without saying, the higher your risk to reward ratio, the less you need to win in order to maintain profitability. The opposite, the lower your risk reward ratio, the higher win rate is required to maintain profitability. But this is where we get into where I find beginners struggle. A lot of people will base their strategies on their risk/reward ratios, which is understandable if you're building the strategy from scratch. If you're using a prebuilt strategy or something that doesn't really correlate with risk/reward ratio. Then it makes it obsolete and just confusing. Going back to my first point, risk to reward ratio is a tool that you can use to estimate future potential returns based off of previous results. Let's say you have 100 trades worth of data. You can accurately have a look at what is your risk to reward ratio is and compare that with your win rate. From there you can make a decision whether or not that is a profitable strategy. On top of that, you can then start to look to improve either your win rate and risk to reward ratio, knowing that that is an area that needs improvement. When it comes to improving your risk to reward ratio, one thing that always grinds my gears with traders, is when they enter a trade, they'll set their stop loss and take profits based on their risk to reward ratio not based on the actual analytics of the trade. While I understand this and with some strategies, this can work. For most, they end up setting those take profits in areas that is just realistically is going to be really hard for the price to get to. What professionals do when trying to improve the risks of reward ratio is only take those setups where a good take profit is viable around that level of risk to reward. For example, in this chart, we are looking at buying the USDCAD over the next couple of weeks. We like this setup. We've had our entry signal and we're going to place a stop loss below that recent low, which was created early last week. We are not happy with our risk to reward ratio. We think we're leaving too much profit on the table and want to increase our overall results. So I'm only taking trades that have close to a three to one risk to reward ratio. But as you can see by this chart that dotted lines are areas of resistance which we are going to have to break in order to achieve that level of profitability. There are 5 different zones we are going to have to get through in order for my take profit to be hit, it is fair to say the odds are not in my favor. Now a beginner Trader will still enter this trade with the same take profit and the same stop loss and just hold on. The reason they'll do that is because they want the 1:3 risk reward ratio. They don't care where the profit target is. What matters is it is 3 times worth what they're risking. On the other hand, A professional trader will actually either let this trade go and not enter it, or look for another entry point later on on smaller timeframes to where you can fit that risk to reward ratio and you're not going to hit the high levels of resistance. To sum up what my point is, risk to reward ratio is a very powerful tool to understand what you are capable of the trader and also where you can improve. It is not a valid take profit selection strategy. Yes, it can definitely help with guidelines on where to set your take profit, but it should not be the sole reason your take profit is set at a certain price just because it is X amount whatever you are risking. Have a look at what the chart is telling you and what your analysis is telling you. Then, only take the trades which coincide with the risk to reward ratio. You want to achieve. I hope you enjoyed this insight and I hope it was beneficial to you. I recommend highly diving into your previous trading data. Have a look at your win rate. Have a look at your risk reward ratio and understand what your profitability expectation really is and base your future decisions off of that data. Have a fantastic trading we can I look forward to seeing your comments. - Jordon
FOREXCOM:XAUUSDEducation
by the5erstrading
5
EUR/USD Long Opportunity Price on the 15 Min chart has just tapped into a previous demand zone / OB area. I'm looking for price to mitigate the 50% level of this demand and bounce from it. The SL is just below the zone (12 Pips) incase price wicks down to mitigate the local low and claim this liquidity before a larger push up as this is quite a likely scenario which I want to be safe from. My target is the Equal highs which is storing a lot of downside liquidity which must be mitigated before a continuation downwards.
Long
by elliotthforex
3
Education: Why your trading strategy win rate doesn't matter!What makes a profitable automated strategy? Probably the biggest misconception for trading perpetuated in the mainstream is that you need to have a greater than 50% win rate to be profitable. This is followed by a close second, of constantly assuming you need to have a risk-reward ratio of greater than 1:1 (e.g. 1:2, 1:3 etc). This one is perpetuated mostly by forex and stock market gurus. By the end of this article, I hope to dispel these myths and aim to shed some truths on how to assess a profitable strategy. Why your win rate doesn't matter: Let's simplify this down using an example. Consider the following two strategies. Which one would you rather trade? Strategy A: 50% win rate - When you win you make 2 dollars, but when you lose, you lose 1 dollar Strategy B: 50% win rate - When you win you make 5 dollars, but when you lose, you lose 1 dollar This one was a very obvious case of choosing Strategy B. In this case, both strategies have the same win rate, but Strategy B nets you 5 dollars per win, whereas Strategy A only makes you 2. Let's take another example. A little less obvious this time. Which one would you rather trade here? Strategy A: 90% win rate - When you win you make 1 dollar, but when you lose you lose 50 dollars Strategy B: 10% win rate - When you win you make 200 dollars, but when you lose, you lose 1 dollar Now the 90% win rate strategy may look attractive on the surface, but when you dig into it, you realise that you could get a massive 50 dollar loss in the 10% of times you do lose! For those of you who chose strategy B, this is the correct answer. One way we can assess the above strategies is using Expectancy . The formula for Expectancy is as follows: (Win % x Average Win Size) – (Loss % x Average Loss Size) We can calculate the expectancies of the strategy below: Strategy A: (0.9 * 1) - (0.1 * 50) = -4.1 Meaning you are expected to lose an average of $4.10 per trade using strategy A. Not a good sign. Strategy B: (0.1 * 200) - (0.9*1) = 19.1 Meaning you are expected to win an average of $19.10 per trade using strategy B. This is a major winner here! As you've probably realised. It is possible to have a profitable strategy using a low win rate. Many trend trading/breakout strategies tend to have lower win rates, but with larger rewards to risk, whilst mean-reversion strategies tend to have higher win rates with less frequent but larger drawdowns. The backtest shown in this post shows an example of a low win rate, and high win amount strategy using the Smoothed Heikin Ashi Trend on Chart indicator which I have developed, with an overall positive expectancy, backtest (note, no strategy is perfect, should not just blindly trust backtest data). Why you may still choose to define a risk/reward Better consistency of your strategy Psychological factor of knowing that you can be expected to lose only x amount (assuming no slippage etc) As an aside, note that defining a fixed risk-reward may hurt your win rate (which could impact your expectancy) so it's important to backtest to see if you get better results with defined risk-reward parameters. This is beyond the scope of the current article, but an important consideration. Why do traders gravitate toward a higher win rate? The simple answer here is that everyone wants to be a winner! It's human nature to want to be right, whether this be about a market direction or when to open or close a trade. It's often easier to brag about how much you win whether that be on social media or just feeling good about yourself. For algorithmic traders, having a higher win rate may also provide psychological benefits, as losing 20 times in a row can sometimes be very daunting for traders and can throw doubt into the efficacy of your system. I hope that through this article, I have managed to convey that it may be prudent consider strategies with low win rates also, as these can be very profitable in their own right. Digging further: This article is only just scratching the surface of how to create and validate if a strategy is something that you should consider trading. There are many aspects of backtesting including Monte Carlo simulation, understanding standard deviation of returns and risk, Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, walk-forward analysis, and out-of-sample analysis to name a few that you should conduct before you evaluate a strategy as suitable for live trading. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. If you like the content, feel free to like and share, as well as check out some of the free scripts, strategies and indicators that I have published under the scripts tab. Thank you! Disclaimer: Not to be taken as financial advice, anything published by me is purely for education and entertainment purposes
INDEX:BTCUSDEducation
by TraderHalai
3
Don't worry there will be many more opportunities!sometimes you dont get what you give or what you are expecting! ive been looking this chart for few weeks now and i was expecting a nice trade from this, i did what i had to i read the chart understood it, and made a decision to look over the price and the structure that i drew. and after these days of analysis and studying the idea i had for this market didn't do what i expected. that also happens during our course of life, you want to see the things as you wish but they dont go that way. THATS NORMAL! JUST KEEP ON LEARNING FROM EVERY SITUATION, EVERY UPs & DOWNs, DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE CONCEPT OF RESULTs AND WININGs JUST GO WITH THE FLOW. LOVE THE PROCESS. and you'll sure find satisfaction.
TVC:USOILEducation
by lofitrend
XAU/USD June 1st Trade SetupHello all here is the Gold setup for the day: Short: Look for a break and close below 1832.02 to fill the range down to 1815. Long: Look for a break above 1838.255 to fill the range up to 1846. Risk Management: Stop loss: Previous candle high (1-2% Risk) Strategy: When the Trade is in 10 Pip's profit close 50% and add a stop loss breakeven allowing runners to final take profit. Advance traders look for larger plays when available. Blue Vertical Lines: Major News Events
OANDA:XAUUSD
by GenesisGo