It all depends on the signal and what I'm trading. Using a one size fits all does not work when trading different instruments.

Made a post about it in my journal

The general takeaway is I trade less than 1% per trade but as I reach new milestones, I earn the right to increase my size. It has incentivized me to hold onto winners longer (In my head, the more I make now, the quicker I can make more in the future) but also, it has helped me stay sane during some gnarly drawdowns.

Big Mike 

This poll idea was suggested by @planetkill I listed percentages because it is more useful than dollar amounts for comparison between members. However, I doubt many people know their % risk per trade (unfortunately). For those traders, dollar amounts would be better. Mike

Does anyone else base risk on consecutive losses rather than percentage.

Big Mike 

Did you know your percentage risk per trade off the top of your head? Or did you have to calculate it? If you did calculate it, what method did you use? Mike

I know the % off the top of my head because I program it into the strategy. With Blackbird I use "Trade Fit". I tell Blackbird how much to risk on each trade per order. If a trade is one position, 1% risk. If two positions, 0.5% account risk per position. I can even tell the program how to distribute the risk, with more of the trade being allocated to the 1st profit target. Once I set the stop loss, the $ risk per trade is automatic. I can also know and adjust before I enter the trade what my R:R is. It's a wonderful benefit.

2-3 % most of the time, and never more than 5%.

sometimes as high as 50 % and it depends on what I am doing in the mkts ans what kind of trade we are involved with and what the data is suggestion or showing.
THIS 1 size fits all mentality is what is killing most retail traders. how can everyone do the same thing and expect different results?

im serious. obviously if for every winner there is a loser then you must do something different than all the others and it starts with a radical
adjustment of how you view risk probability and the mkts.

if you have 100k to trade or invest i mean really you will risk 2k on a trade that is it? how can you ever make any money at all and how can your trade breathe i fyou are in and out in and out a loss. being on this site has been a wake up call as to why over and over so many retail guys just keep losing.

if we are all trying to learn how to beat each other at checkers and we follow the same methods what do you think will be the outcome.

jamrock 

1) sometimes as high as 50 % 2) and it depends on what I am doing in the mkts 3) and what kind of trade we are involved with 4) and what the data is suggestion or showing.

And you are measuring all of this and it's quantified ?
Otherwise, you are a hopeless discretionary trader.
Good luck.

syswizard 

And you are measuring all of this and it's quantified ? Otherwise, you are a hopeless discretionary trader. Good luck.

discretionary traders are not on a hopeless path as you put it and every trade anyone makes is discretionary because at some point in time no matter how small
your data or your signal is biased so to think for a second that all data in the mkts has a quantifiable result and blindly following it is exactly what
happened to LTCM and many others along the way of using big data.

What i do is what I do and how I do it wasn't the question in this thread. it was how much do you risk

jamrock 

what happened to LTCM and many others along the way of using big data.

That's stupid thinking....as that was a once in one-hundred year event likely never to happen again.
Look at all of the other quant successes: Renaissance Technologies, DE Shaw, Citadel, Two Sigma, etc.
Their results would make you look silly.

syswizard 

That's stupid thinking....as that was a once in one-hundred year event likely never to happen again. Look at all of the other quant successes: Renaissance Technologies, DE Shaw, Citadel, Two Sigma, etc. Their results would make you look silly.

you just named the winners there have been lots and lots of losers along the way but they sure as hell dont publicise them do they and
most of the ones you named have access to the mkt in ways you will never have no matter what your data says.

I can put together in 10 minutes a strat in R that in demo will make me 10 % a day and always work but in real life with slippage and fees and competition for my same
price and contracts it will lose money. theoretically based on math it always works and in application it usually fails unless you have and edge and right now the only edge is

1. speed and priority
2. member fees (low)
3. discretionary edge skill level

amaranth is one that failed
ljm partners
knight
fortuantely citadel etc hve a monopoly on speed and the regualtors to solidify their position in this NON FREE MARKET of ours