One number is decided before any trade: your 1R
Short · Risk & sizing · October 5, 2026
Olympia publishes educational content for learning purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Nothing here is investment advice.
Before a dollar goes on a trade, one number is already decided: the most it's allowed to hurt. That's your 1R, one unit of risk. It doesn't come from the stock — it comes from your account, a percent you pick once while you're calm, the same in every fight.
The lesson in writing
Before a dollar goes on a trade, one number is already decided: the most it's allowed to hurt before you tap out.
That's your R. One unit of risk — the ruler you measure the whole fight with.
What it is
It doesn't come from the stock. It comes from your account: a percent you pick once, while you're calm, the same in every fight.
Whether a trade pays isn't up to you. How much you lose is — and that part is decided before anything moves.
How it's worked out
A percent of the account, and that is the whole calculation. Twenty-five thousand dollars in an account at one percent is two hundred and fifty dollars. That is what this fight is going to cost you if you lose and you throw in the towel.
Picking it once, in the calm, is the point. A number chosen while a trade is moving is not a rule, it is a reaction.
Where Olympia calculates it
Olympia shows it where you log a trade: sizing from one percent, two hundred and fifty dollars at risk per trade — your percent, your capital, its arithmetic.
It sits at the top of that window on purpose, above every other number, because every share count and every dollar figure underneath is worked out from it.
Example numbers, not a member's: a $25,000 account at 1% risk, in Olympia's I'm In window. Arithmetic on those inputs, not a forecast.
