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.