Most new traders don't blow up their account because of a bad strategy — they blow up because of position sizing.

Here's a mistake I see constantly: a trader has a 70% win-rate strategy, but risks 10-20% of their account per trade. Statistically, even a great strategy will eventually hit a losing streak (5-7 losses in a row is completely normal over hundreds of trades). At 15% risk per trade, just 6 consecutive losses wipes out ~62% of the account. The strategy wasn't the problem — the sizing was.

The fix: the 1% rule

Risk no more than 1-2% of total account equity on any single trade. Concretely:

1. Define your stop-loss first — before entry, know exactly where you're wrong.

2. Calculate position size from the stop distance, not the other way around. Formula: Position Size = (Account Balance × Risk %) / Stop Distance

3. Never move your stop-loss further away to "give the trade room" — that's revenge-sizing in disguise.

Why this matters more than your entry

A trader risking 1% per trade can lose 20 times in a row and still have ~82% of their account left to trade with. A trader risking 10% per trade is functionally eliminated after 10 losses. Same market, same setups — completely different outcomes based on sizing alone.

Win-rate gets all the attention. Risk management is what actually keeps you in the game long enough for your edge to play out.

What's your risk-per-trade rule? Curious how others here size positions.