Open positions
O-Risk is what a position loses if its current stop is hit. A stop above your average buy price makes it negative: that profit is locked in, and it frees budget for new trades.
| Stock | Live ₹ | Avg buy ₹ | Current stop ₹ | Qty | O-Risk ₹ |
|---|
Next trades
Search a stock and its entry follows the live price until you type your own; set where the stop goes. Quantity = risk per trade ÷ (entry − stop), rounded down, so a loss never costs more than you chose.
| Stock | Live ₹ | Entry ₹ | Stop ₹ | Qty | Position value ₹ | Risk ₹ |
|---|
Your positions, stops and quantities, from your own trades — with the stops sent to your broker.
A calculator for the numbers you enter, long positions only. It is not investment advice. A gap can open past a stop, so a real loss can be larger than planned.
How much open risk should a swing trader carry?
Open risk is what your whole book loses if every stop-loss is hit at once. A swing trader holding several positions should know this number every evening and hold it under a ceiling, set as a percentage of capital, that they have decided in advance. There is no single right ceiling; there is only one you chose deliberately and one you drifted into.
How to work out open risk
For each open position, take the distance from your price to the current stop and multiply by the quantity:
- Long: (average buy price − current stop) × quantity
- Short: (current stop − average sell price) × quantity
Add these up across every position. That total is your open risk.
Two points matter:
- Use the current stop, not the original one. When you trail a stop up, the risk on that position falls. When the stop is above your average buy price, the figure turns negative: that profit is locked in if the stop is hit, and it frees budget for new trades.
- It assumes the stop fills at the stop. A gap can open past it, so a real loss can be larger than planned.
Setting a ceiling
The ceiling is the most your book may lose if every stop is hit together. It sits above your risk per trade because you hold several trades at once. One simple way to set it:
- decide your risk per trade, say 1% of capital;
- decide how many full-risk positions you are willing to carry at once, say six;
- the ceiling is then 1% × 6 = 6% of capital.
Traders choose lower ceilings when their positions are concentrated in one sector, when the market is weak, or when they are still proving a method. A higher ceiling means a deeper drawdown when many stops go together — and in a sharp market fall, they often do.
Worked example
Capital ₹10,00,000, ceiling 6% = ₹60,000, split into six trades of ₹10,000 risk each.
| Position | Avg buy | Current stop | Qty | Open risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock A | ₹500 | ₹470 | 200 | (500 − 470) × 200 = ₹6,000 |
| Stock B | ₹1,200 | ₹1,140 | 100 | (1,200 − 1,140) × 100 = ₹6,000 |
| Stock C | ₹250 | ₹262 | 400 | (250 − 262) × 400 = −₹4,800 |
| Stock D | ₹800 | ₹760 | 250 | (800 − 760) × 250 = ₹10,000 |
| Total | ₹17,200 |
Stock C's stop has been trailed above its buy price, so it locks in ₹4,800 and reduces the total.
- Open risk: ₹17,200, which is 1.72% of capital.
- Budget left: ₹60,000 − ₹17,200 = ₹42,800.
The next trade. Entry ₹640, stop ₹610, so risk per share is ₹30.
- Quantity = floor(₹10,000 ÷ ₹30) = floor(333.33) = 333 shares
- Risk = 333 × ₹30 = ₹9,990
- Position value = 333 × ₹640 = ₹2,13,120
After this trade, open risk is ₹17,200 + ₹9,990 = ₹27,190, or 2.72% of capital — still well inside the ₹60,000 ceiling. The Position Size Calculator works this out for any entry and stop.
Why the ceiling matters more than any one trade
A single stop costs one unit of risk. A market-wide fall can hit most of them in the same week. The ceiling caps that week. Without one, a good run tends to add positions until a bad week takes back several months of gains at once.
Check two things before every new entry:
- what your open risk is now;
- what it becomes if you take the trade.
If the second number is past your ceiling, the trade waits — or something already open has to be de-risked first, by trailing its stop or by booking part of it.
Pair the ceiling with an honest expectancy: the Edge Calculator shows whether your win rate and reward-to-risk clear the breakeven line, and the Drawdown Recovery Calculator shows what a deep loss costs to climb out of.
Educational content only. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Prices in examples and illustrations are made up. Patterns and rules fail often; past behaviour guarantees nothing.