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R-multiple calculator
R turns every trade into the same unit. A +2R on gold and a +2R on EUR/USD mean exactly the same thing, at any account size, which is what makes a hundred trades on eight instruments into one distribution you can actually read.
The formula
Long: R = (exit − entry) ÷ (entry − stop)
Short: R = (entry − exit) ÷ (stop − entry)
Break-even win rate = 1 ÷ (1 + reward-to-risk)
- Entry — your fill, not the price you wanted. The gap between them is slippage, and it is part of the trade.
- Stop — where the stop was when you entered. Not where you moved it to.
- The denominator must be positive. A stop on the wrong side of the entry is not a small error; it is a trade that was never risk-defined, and there is no R for it.
Nothing in the formula mentions lot size, account size or instrument. That is the feature: R is what remains after all of those are divided out.
Worked: a long that went to target
| Entry | 1.10000 |
| Initial stop | 1.09500 |
| Risk | 1.10000 − 1.09500 = 0.005 |
| Exit | 1.11000 |
| Result | 1.11000 − 1.10000 = 0.01 |
| R-multiple | 0.01 ÷ 0.005 = +2.00R |
| Planned target 1.11500 | planned reward-to-risk 3.00 : 1 |
The win rate each plan needs just to break even
This is the table worth memorising. It is the answer to "my win rate is only 40%", and the answer is usually: that is fine, and your problem is elsewhere.
| Reward-to-risk | Break-even win rate | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0.50R | 66.7% | You must win far more often than you lose just to stand still. |
| 0.75R | 57.1% | You must win far more often than you lose just to stand still. |
| 1.00R | 50.0% | The coin-flip line. Every cost you pay comes straight out of the edge. |
| 1.50R | 40.0% | Losing more often than you win is perfectly compatible with making money. |
| 2.00R | 33.3% | Losing more often than you win is perfectly compatible with making money. |
| 2.50R | 28.6% | Comfortable on paper — but distant targets are hit much less often, so the win rate falls too. |
| 3.00R | 25.0% | Comfortable on paper — but distant targets are hit much less often, so the win rate falls too. |
| 4.00R | 20.0% | Comfortable on paper — but distant targets are hit much less often, so the win rate falls too. |
| 5.00R | 16.7% | Comfortable on paper — but distant targets are hit much less often, so the win rate falls too. |
A trader winning 40% of the time at 2R has an expectancy of +0.20R per trade and is doing well. A trader winning 60% at 0.5R has an expectancy of -0.10R and is losing money while feeling successful, because most of their trades are winners. Win rate alone is not a measure of anything.
Expectancy in R, by win rate and plan
Assuming losers cost a full 1R and winners make the stated multiple. Anything above zero makes money over enough trades; anything below it does not, however it feels.
| Win rate | 1.0R | 1.5R | 2.0R | 3.0R | 5.0R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30% | -0.40R | -0.25R | -0.10R | +0.20R | +0.80R |
| 40% | -0.20R | +0.00R | +0.20R | +0.60R | +1.40R |
| 50% | 0.00R | +0.25R | +0.50R | +1.00R | +2.00R |
| 60% | +0.20R | +0.50R | +0.80R | +1.40R | +2.60R |
| 70% | +0.40R | +0.75R | +1.10R | +1.80R | +3.20R |
What R is actually for, and why not money
A list of P&L figures across different instruments and sizes cannot be compared, so people compare them anyway and reach wrong conclusions. A −$340 loss on gold and a −$85 loss on EUR/USD look like a big mistake and a small one. In R they might both be −1.0R: two stops working exactly as designed, and nothing to learn from either.
Converted to R, a hundred trades become a distribution. The questions that were unanswerable become obvious ones — is the left tail fatter than −1R, which means stops are not holding; do the winners cluster just above +1R, which usually means targets are being taken early; is one +9R trade carrying the entire expectancy, which means the record describes that trade rather than a method.
R depends entirely on the risk being real. If the planned risk was never decided before entry, or the stop moved and you recomputed against the new one, the R-multiples are decoration. This is the one metric where the discipline has to come before the number.
Questions
What does 1R mean?
1R is the amount you decided to lose on the trade before you entered it — the distance from your entry to your initial stop, in money. A +2R trade made twice that. A −1R trade is a stop working exactly as planned. The unit is per-trade and personal: your 1R and somebody else’s are different amounts of money, which is precisely why the comparison works.
Should I measure R from the original stop or the one I moved to?
The original, always. R exists to measure a result against the risk you accepted when you had no information about how the trade would go. Recomputing it from a stop you moved to breakeven flatters every trade you managed and quietly erases the ones you did not. If you want to know whether moving stops helps, that is a separate question and it needs both numbers.
Is a high reward-to-risk always better?
No, and the break-even table shows why the question is wrong. A 5R target needs to be hit only 17% of the time to break even, which sounds easy until you try to hit it — distant targets are hit far less often, and a plan that needs 5R and delivers 20% win rate is barely above water. The pairing of a reward-to-risk with the win rate it can actually sustain is the whole thing; neither number means anything alone.
Why does TapeSheet need me to type the risk in?
Because a statement does not record it. MT4 and MT5 write the stop-loss level that was attached to the order at the time the file was exported — which for a closed trade is often blank, and for a managed one is wherever the stop finished rather than where it started. The only reliable source for planned risk is you, at the moment of entry, which is why it is a field in the journal panel rather than something we infer.
Your whole statement in R, not one trade at a time
Type the planned risk into a trade's journal panel and TapeSheet converts its result into R for you — then does it across every trade in the file, so the distribution is something you look at rather than something you assemble by hand. Free, no signup, and the file never leaves your device.
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