Stop Loss & Take Profit Calculator
Plan your exits: reward-to-risk, exit distances, and dollar PnL
Reward : Risk = Target Distance / Stop Distance
Profit at Target = Qty x (Target - Entry) - Fees
Loss at Stop = Qty x (Stop - Entry) - Fees
Break-Even = Entry x (1 + Fee% x 2)
Stop Loss and Take Profit Explained
A stop loss is a resting order that closes your position at a set price to cap the loss when the market moves against you. A take profit does the opposite, closing the position once the market reaches your target. Deciding both before you enter turns a trade into a plan with a known worst case and a known objective, which removes the in-the-moment emotion that causes most avoidable losses. Set your stop where your thesis is invalidated, not at an arbitrary round number, and set your target where price realistically has room to travel.
Understanding Reward-to-Risk
Reward-to-risk compares how far your target sits from entry against how far your stop sits from entry. A 3:1 setup risks one unit to make three. The ratio matters because it sets the win rate you need to break even: at 2:1 you only need to win about a third of your trades to come out ahead, while a 1:1 setup needs more than half. Always know the ratio before entering. If a trade only offers 1:1 or worse, it usually is not worth taking, no matter how confident the setup looks.
Where to Place Your Stop
Good stops are placed at a level that, if reached, means your reason for the trade is wrong: below a support level for a long, above a resistance level for a short, or beyond a recent swing point. Avoid stops so tight that normal volatility knocks you out before the idea plays out, and avoid stops so wide that a single loss exceeds your risk budget. Combine this calculator with a position size calculator: pick the stop first, then size the position so the distance to that stop equals the fixed percentage of your account you are willing to risk.
Fees and Break-Even
Every trade pays a fee on the way in and on the way out, so your true break-even sits slightly beyond your entry: a long has to rise a little to cover the round trip, and a short has to fall a little. This calculator subtracts round-trip fees from the dollar profit and loss and reports the fee-adjusted break-even, so your take profit clears costs and your stop reflects the real loss. On high-frequency or tight-target trades, fees can turn a nominally positive setup into a losing one, so always plan exits net of cost.
Your next step
Check liquidity before placing an order
Your position size and stop distance are a plan. Explore order-book liquidity to assess execution conditions and potential slippage.
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Results depend on your inputs and the assumptions shown by this calculator. Reference links explain the model; they do not supply a live price feed. Fees, execution and changing market conditions can affect actual outcomes.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set a stop loss and take profit?
Place your stop loss at the price where your trade idea is proven wrong, and your take profit at a realistic target that gives a favorable reward-to-risk ratio. Enter your entry, stop and target here and the calculator shows the distance to each in percent, the resulting reward-to-risk ratio, and the exact dollar profit or loss at each exit.
What is a good risk-to-reward ratio?
Many traders aim for at least 2:1, meaning the target is at least twice as far from entry as the stop. A higher ratio lets you be profitable even with a win rate below 50%. This calculator computes the ratio as target distance divided by stop distance, so you can size your exits before entering the trade.
Do fees change my stop and target?
Fees do not move your stop or target prices, but they reduce net PnL and shift your break-even away from the entry price. This calculator subtracts round-trip trading fees from the dollar profit and loss and reports the fee-adjusted break-even so your real exit levels account for cost.
Practise with worked lessons
- Choose between stop-market and stop-limit orders
A stop's trigger is not its fill. Compare gaps, partial fills, reduce-only and exchange protection rules before relying on a stop-market or stop-limit exit.
- Calculate Parabolic SAR before treating it as an active stop
Calculate the SAR value and its range constraint, then turn it into an order: a computed 99.20 becomes a 98.80 stop, and the assumed exit fills at 97.20.
- Calculate break-even after a partial exit
Separate an entry-price stop, the remaining position's break-even and whole-trade break-even. Include earlier partial profits and every fee paid.