A common guideline among disciplined traders is risking no more than 1–2% of total account capital on any single trade. This isn't a magic number — it's a range that tends to let you survive a losing streak without severe account damage. If you're currently sizing trades based on conviction ("I really like this one, so I'll go bigger"), that's a sign your risk management is being overridden by your prediction instinct. The two should be separate decisions.
Instead of deciding "I want to buy 100 shares" and then figuring out where to put a stop, flip the order. Decide where the trade is actually invalidated — the price level at which your original reasoning is proven wrong — and then size your position so that hitting that stop only costs your predetermined risk amount. This keeps your position sizing tethered to the trade's actual risk profile rather than an arbitrary round number.
These get conflated constantly. A trade that hits its stop-loss because the setup didn't play out is not a failure if you followed your plan — it's the cost of doing business. A trade that makes money because you ignored your own rules and got lucky is not a success, even though it feels like one. Judging trades by process rather than outcome is one of the hardest habits to build and one of the most valuable.
Alpivesta's order tools support this kind of discipline directly. You can set stop-loss and take-profit levels at the same time you place an entry order, which removes the temptation to "decide later" once a position is open and your judgment is compromised by having money on the line.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tryalpivesta/
Instead of deciding "I want to buy 100 shares" and then figuring out where to put a stop, flip the order. Decide where the trade is actually invalidated — the price level at which your original reasoning is proven wrong — and then size your position so that hitting that stop only costs your predetermined risk amount. This keeps your position sizing tethered to the trade's actual risk profile rather than an arbitrary round number.
These get conflated constantly. A trade that hits its stop-loss because the setup didn't play out is not a failure if you followed your plan — it's the cost of doing business. A trade that makes money because you ignored your own rules and got lucky is not a success, even though it feels like one. Judging trades by process rather than outcome is one of the hardest habits to build and one of the most valuable.
Alpivesta's order tools support this kind of discipline directly. You can set stop-loss and take-profit levels at the same time you place an entry order, which removes the temptation to "decide later" once a position is open and your judgment is compromised by having money on the line.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tryalpivesta/