Trade planner: odds, position size and alerts for a trade

The trade planner measures a trade idea against the symbol's own history: how often price reached your first target before your stop, what the trade is worth after fees and how big the position should be for the risk you choose. It can then set price alerts at every level at once. It is a Pro Lab tool, part of the Pro and Elite plans.

Planning a trade

1. On a computer, press Pro Lab on the right-hand toolbar; on a phone, open the analysis centre from the chart's bottom bar and choose Pro Lab. Then choose Trade planner.
2. Enter the symbol and the timeframe, choose Long or Short and how many bars the trade may take (5 to 300).
3. Enter the entry, the stop and one or two targets, or use the quick buttons: a stop 1, 1.5 or 2 ATR away and targets at 1R, 2R or 3R. You can also drag the levels on the price ladder.
4. Enter your account size, your risk per trade and fees, and choose whether the stop stays or moves to the entry after the first target.

Reading the plan

• Two estimates of target before stop: history, which treats every past bar as an entry scaled to its volatility, and a simulation of 3,000 paths built from past bars at today's volatility. When they differ, read them as a range.
• Expectancy after fees, reward to risk and the break-even win rate tell you whether the trade has an edge.
• Position size is your risk divided by the stop distance plus fees, so a stopped trade loses exactly your risk. Half Kelly suggests a risk per trade, or says to skip a trade without an edge.
• The cone shows where the simulated paths went, and the histogram the result of each trade in R.

Good to know

• Create alerts sets a price alert at the entry, the stop and each target. They appear in your Alerts panel and count toward your plan's price alerts.
• A bar that touches both the stop and the target counts as a stop.
• These are estimates from the symbol's own past bars, not investment advice.