Quick one, no pitch (well, mostly).

Every blown account I've ever reviewed — my own included, early on — had the same root cause. It wasn't a bad entry. It was position sizing that only worked if you were right.

Here's the number that changes how you think about risk: if you lose 50% of an account, you need a 100% gain just to get back to even. Lose 80%, and you need a 400% gain. Drawdowns aren't linear on the way back — they're exponential. Risking 5-10% of your account on a single idea "because you're confident" is how you end up needing a miracle instead of a strategy.

The fix isn't complicated, it's just unglamorous: risk a fixed, small percentage per trade (most professional desks run 0.5-2%), size positions off your stop distance instead of a gut-feel dollar amount, and track portfolio heat — your total open risk across all positions, not just the last trade you placed.

None of this makes you money. It just keeps you in the game long enough for your edge to play out. Most traders never get there because they're doing the math on the way down, not before.

If you want the full systematic breakdown — position sizing, stop placement, correlation risk, the actual drawdown math — that's Module 3 of Apex Trading Lab. Waitlist's open now.