AlamToolKit - Trading Tools.
Trading Psychology Risk Calculator
Answer 12 short questions about what you actually do, and see which behaviour is most likely to undermine your discipline, risk management and decision-making — plus the one habit to fix first.
Please read: this is an educational self-assessment. It measures reported behaviour, not your skill, your strategy or your future results. It is not a psychological diagnosis, not financial advice, and it cannot predict whether you will make or lose money.
1 Assessment context (optional)
Context never changes your score by itself — it only changes how your result is worded. You can skip every field here.
If you have no written plan, your discipline score is capped, because rule compliance cannot be measured without written rules.
Defaults to today. Used on your copied report and score card.
Optional. Your own rule, in your own words — it is copied into your report.
Optional. One or two sentences is enough — it helps you connect the score to a real situation.
2 The 12 behaviour questions
3 Optional money & risk inputs
These fields do not change your behavioural risk score. They only convert the behaviour you reported into money and drawdown figures. Leave them blank if you prefer.
Used only for money estimates.
Your normal, planned risk — not the largest risk you have taken.
Leave blank to derive it from account size × planned risk.
Trades you took mainly to win money back or while still angry.
Blank = use your average loss per losing trade.
Prop-firm or personal limit as a percentage of equity.
Number of consecutive losses after which your rules usually bend.
0 = you keep size constant. 25 = you add a quarter each time.
Used for your Discipline Adherence Ratio (DAR).
Microcopy: risk per trade is normally entered as a percentage of account equity (1% is common, 2% is aggressive). R multiples describe a trade result in units of your planned risk, so a 2R win means you made twice what you risked. If a field is blank, the related estimate is simply hidden rather than guessed.
Your result dashboard
Trading behaviour risk score
Answer the 12 questions and your score appears here instantly. Nothing is uploaded — the calculation runs inside your browser.
Gauge showing your overall trading behaviour risk score from 0 to 100.
Behaviour profile (radar)
Orange = your reported risk. Dashed grey = a low-risk reference ring (15/100 on every axis). All six axes are risk, so further out is worse.
Dimension scores
Your #1 leak
Your first action
Your next 10 trades
Your copyable if-then rules
Money & risk estimates
Your score history
No saved assessments yet. Press “Save this result” to store one in this browser only.
Scoring methodology & limitations
How each answer becomes a risk score
Every answer on the 5-point scale is converted to risk points from 0 to 100. For a negatively worded question:
For a positively worded question, such as following your stop-loss rule, the scoring is reversed:
So “Never” = 0 points and “Almost always” = 100 points on a negative question, and the opposite on a positive one.
How dimension and overall scores are calculated
Each dimension has two questions with equal weight. Its score is the mean of those item scores:
The overall score blends the average with the two worst dimensions, so one severe weakness cannot be hidden by good answers elsewhere, and then adds a discipline adjustment:
The discipline score shown in the bar list is inverted, because a higher discipline score is better:
Risk bands
| Score | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–29 | Low reported risk | Few risky behaviours reported. |
| 30–54 | Moderate | Some habits worth monitoring. |
| 55–79 | High | Repeated habits may be undermining consistency. |
| 80–100 | Critical | Frequent reported rule-breaking or risk escalation. |
These bands are product-design thresholds, not validated clinical cut-offs.
Money, drawdown and expectancy formulas
Where \(N_{\text{revenge}}\) is revenge trades per month, \(k\) is the size increase per loss, \(n\) is the losing streak length, \(r\) is risk per trade as a decimal, \(W\) and \(L\) are win and loss rates, and \(A_w\) and \(A_l\) are average win and average loss in R multiples.
Limitations and what this tool cannot do
- A score of 72/100 does not mean 72% of your losses come from psychology. That would need your trade records.
- The dimensions are a transparent product design, not a validated psychological scale.
- Self-report can be wrong in both directions: traders under-report habits they are ashamed of and over-report ones they have read about.
- Position size can legitimately change for strategy reasons, so a size increase after a loss is a pattern to investigate, not proof of revenge trading.
- “Not sure” answers are excluded rather than treated as safe, and a dimension built on one answer is labelled as a limited indicator.
How to use your result
1. Treat the highest score as your single priority
One behaviour at a time. Traders who try to fix revenge trading, FOMO and overtrading in the same week usually change nothing. Your dashboard names the #1 leak and gives one rule for it.
2. Test the rule over your next 10 trades
Write the rule down before your next session and record two things per trade: did the entry match my plan, and did I stay inside my risk limit. Judge yourself on those two answers, not on profit or loss.
3. Re-take the assessment in 30 days
Your score history is stored in this browser, so you can see whether the reported behaviour actually moved. A small change is noise; a band change is meaningful.
4. Add evidence from your journal when you can
Self-report shows what you believe you do. A trading journal shows what you recorded doing — for example, average risk after a loss compared with average risk after a win. When the two disagree, the journal is usually the honest one.
Frequently asked questions
What is trading psychology?
Trading psychology is the study of how your emotions, habits and decision-making affect your trading behaviour. In practice it covers the gap between the plan you wrote and the trades you actually took: chasing entries, moving stops, sizing up after a loss and overtrading.
How do I know if I am revenge trading?
The clearest signals are behavioural and timed: you enter again very soon after a loss, the next trade is larger than your plan allows, or the trade has no valid setup and exists mainly to win money back. If the time between your loss and your next entry is measured in seconds or a couple of minutes, that is a strong indicator.
What is FOMO in trading?
FOMO — fear of missing out — is entering a trade because price is already moving and you do not want to be left behind, even though your entry conditions were never met. It typically produces late entries with a wide stop and a poor reward-to-risk ratio.
How do I stop overtrading?
Give the behaviour a hard boundary instead of a good intention: a maximum number of trades per session, a maximum number of losing trades per day, and a written definition of a valid setup. Then log every trade that breaks those limits. Counting violations is what makes the boundary real.
Why do traders move their stop-losses?
Moving a stop usually means avoiding the moment a loss becomes real. The trade is already wrong by your own criteria, so the rule is being edited to protect the position instead of the account. A documented, pre-defined rule for when a stop may be adjusted is the only safe version of this behaviour.
How does trading psychology affect discipline?
Discipline is not a personality trait, it is the gap between your rules and your actions. When a loss creates urgency, the fastest way to feel better is to break a rule, which is why rule-breaking clusters after losing trades and after winning streaks.
How can I improve my trading discipline?
Make the rule measurable and observable: a cooldown after a loss, a daily trade cap, a fixed risk percentage. Score yourself on process compliance separately from profit and loss, and review it weekly. A rule you cannot check is not a rule.
How can I stop increasing position size after losses?
Calculate the position size before you look at the chart, set a hard cap on risk per trade, and forbid discretionary size increases for the rest of the day after any loss. Then compare your average risk after a loss with your average risk after a win — if the first number is materially higher, the pattern is real.
What is loss aversion in trading?
Loss aversion is the tendency to feel a loss more strongly than an equivalent gain, which shows up as holding losers past your exit, refusing to accept a planned loss, or cutting valid winners early to lock in a comfortable feeling.
Can a trading psychology test predict profitability?
No. A questionnaire measures what you report about your habits; it cannot establish your edge, your execution quality or your future results. Use it to choose a process improvement, and judge the improvement by rule compliance rather than by profit.
How often should I retake a trading psychology assessment?
Every 30 days, or after roughly 20–30 trades, is enough to see a real shift. Retaking it daily turns it into a mood tracker rather than a behaviour check.
How can I use a trading journal to identify bad habits?
Export your trades and compare averages: risk after a loss versus risk after a win, time between a loss and the next entry, the share of trades with a stop adjustment, and rule compliance on winning versus losing days. Those four metrics expose most recurring behaviour patterns.
Is this calculator free and private?
Yes. There is no signup, nothing is uploaded, and everything is calculated in your browser. Your score history is stored only in this browser’s local storage, and clearing your browser data removes it.
Next step: put a number on the risk
Your behaviour score tells you which habit to fix. These companion tools tell you how much money and risk it involves.
AlamToolKit.com · Trading Tools
Trading Psychology Risk Calculator: Complete Guide to Results & Calculations
A complete, step-by-step user guide to every formula, field and result produced by the Trading Psychology Risk Calculator. Understand exactly how your score is built — from a single answer to your overall risk band, money estimates and 10-trade action plan.
Every number on your dashboard, explained step by step — what it means, how it is calculated, and how to read it without over-interpreting it.
Part 1 — Your Overall Score
How each answer becomes a risk score
Every question is answered on a 5-point frequency scale: 1 Never, 2 Rarely, 3 Sometimes, 4 Often, 5 Almost always. Each answer is converted to risk points from 0 to 100.
For most questions — the ones where more of the behaviour means more risk — the formula is:
So Never (1) = 0 points, Sometimes (3) = 50 points, Almost always (5) = 100 points.
Question 11 is worded positively (“How often do you follow your written rules exactly?”), so it is reverse scored — following your rules should lower your risk:
Now Almost always = 0 points and Never = 100 points.
“Not sure / does not apply” answers are excluded from the score entirely. They are never treated as zero (safe) and never counted as risky. A dimension built on only one answer is labelled a limited indicator.
How the six dimension scores are built
The 12 questions are grouped into six dimensions of two questions each:
| Dimension | Questions | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Revenge trading risk | Q1, Q2 | Higher = worse |
| FOMO risk | Q5, Q6 | Higher = worse |
| Overtrading risk | Q7, Q8 | Higher = worse |
| Loss-aversion risk | Q9, Q10 | Higher = worse |
| Position-sizing risk | Q3, Q4 | Higher = worse |
| Discipline score | Q11 (reversed), Q12 | Shown inverted: higher = better |
A dimension score is the mean of its answered item scores:
Weights are equal (each item counts the same). If only one of the two questions is answered, that one score is used and the dimension is flagged as a limited indicator.
Discipline display note: the bar list shows discipline inverted as D = 100 − discipline risk, because a higher discipline score is better. Every other dimension is shown directly.
No written plan: if you answer “No written plan” in the context section, your discipline risk is raised to at least 70/100 (displayed as 30/100 or lower), because rule compliance cannot be measured without written rules.
How the overall score is calculated
The overall score needs at least 6 answered questions and at least 3 behaviour dimensions. It blends the average with the two worst dimensions, then adds a discipline adjustment:
The 5 behaviour dimensions are revenge trading, FOMO, overtrading, loss aversion and position sizing. Discipline is not part of the average — it is an additive adjustment — so a severe discipline problem cannot be diluted by good answers elsewhere.
The 40% “top two” term ensures that one severe weakness cannot be hidden by good answers in other areas.
Why the overall score can be non-zero even with all “Never” answers: the discipline adjustment still applies. If you report never following your written rules, that is itself a risk.
Risk bands
| Score | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–29 | Low reported risk | Few risky behaviours reported. |
| 30–54 | Moderate risk | Some habits worth monitoring. |
| 55–79 | High risk | Repeated habits may be undermining consistency. |
| 80–100 | Critical risk | Frequent reported rule-breaking or risk escalation. |
These bands are product-design thresholds, not validated clinical cut-offs.
Part 2 — Dashboard Visuals
Gauge (0–100)
The circular gauge shows your overall score, colour-coded to your band (green, amber, red, dark red). It fills clockwise from 0 to 100 — a full circle means 100/100.
Radar chart (six axes)
The radar plots all six dimensions on one chart. All axes are risk, so further out is worse. The solid orange shape is your reported risk; the dashed grey ring is a low-risk reference (15/100 on every axis). A spike on one axis shows where your profile is most stretched.
Dimension bars
Each bar shows a dimension’s score out of 100, coloured by risk level. Discipline is shown inverted and labelled “higher is better”. A bar marked “limited indicator” means only one of the two questions was answered.
Coverage line
Shows how many questions you answered, and how many you marked “Not sure / does not apply”. If you answer 6–11 questions, the score is shown with a partial result caveat. If you answer fewer than 6, no score is shown.
Part 3 — Primary Leak and Bias Stack
#1 leak
The dimension with the highest reported risk. This is the behaviour to work on first. Your second-highest dimension and your strongest area are also named so you can see the shape of your profile.
Bias stack warning
Fires when two related dimensions are both at 55/100 or higher — for example, revenge trading + position sizing (the classic “double down after a loss” pattern). When two behaviours reinforce each other they usually share a trigger, so fixing the shared trigger moves both scores.
Plan check
If you report no written plan (or only mental rules), a note explains the discipline cap or the drift risk. Mental rules bend under pressure — exactly when you need them most.
Part 4 — Your Next 10 Trades and If-Then Rules
Next 10 trades plan
A five-item plan built from your primary leak: the behaviour, one rule to test, how to measure it, the review period, and the success criterion. Success is measured by rule compliance, not by profit.
Copyable if-then rules
Three implementation-intention rules generated from your three highest-risk dimensions. Example formats:
If you typed your own rule in the context section, it is used in the plan instead of the default wording.
Part 5 — Money & Risk Estimates (Optional Inputs)
These fields do not change your behavioural risk score. They convert the behaviour you reported into money and drawdown figures. Every field is optional — blank fields hide their estimate rather than guessing.
| KPI | Formula | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenge cost | Revenge trades per month × average loss per revenge trade | The money you are spending on trades taken mainly to win money back. If you leave “average loss on a revenge trade” blank, your average loss per losing trade is used. |
| Discipline adherence (DAR) | Rules followed ÷ trades reviewed × 100 | Based on your last 20 trades. 14 of 20 = 70/100. This is the share of recent trades where you followed every rule. |
| Drawdown at streak | Drawdown_n = 1 − (1 − r)^n | Compounded loss after n consecutive losses at risk r per trade. With 1% risk and a 3-loss streak: 1 − 0.99³ = 2.97%. This shows why a losing streak hurts more than three separate losses. |
| Escalated risk | Risk_n = base risk × (1 + k)^n | Your risk on the last trade of the streak if you increase size by k after each loss. With 1% risk, +25% per loss and a 3-loss streak: 1.00% × 1.25³ = 1.95%. |
| Trades to daily limit | Daily loss limit ÷ risk per trade | How many consecutive full-risk losses you can take before hitting your daily limit. With a 3% limit and 1% risk: 3 trades. |
| Expectancy | (W × A_w) − (L × A_l) | Expected result per trade in R multiples. With a 45% win rate, 2R average win and 1R average loss: (0.45 × 2) − (0.55 × 1) = 0.35R per trade. |
Input field definitions
- Account size — your current equity. Used to derive an average loss when that field is blank.
- Planned risk per trade (%) — your normal risk, not the largest you have taken. 1% is common; above 5% triggers a warning.
- Average loss per losing trade — leave blank to derive it from account size × planned risk.
- Revenge trades per month — your own estimate of trades taken mainly to win money back or while still angry.
- Average loss on a revenge trade — leave blank to fall back to your average loss per losing trade.
- Daily loss limit (%) — your prop-firm or personal limit as a percentage of equity.
- Losing streak where you start to deviate — consecutive losses after which your rules usually bend.
- Size increase per loss during a streak (%) — 0 means constant size; 25 means you add a quarter each time.
- Rules followed (of last 20) — used for DAR. Values outside 0–20 trigger a warning.
- Win rate, average win (R), average loss (R) — used for expectancy. R multiples describe a result in units of planned risk, so a 2R win means you made twice what you risked.
Part 6 — Pre-Trade Behaviour Check
A 20-second process gate with six checks: calm state, valid setup, stop and target defined, size matches plan, inside daily limits, and outside the cooldown window.
| Ticked | Gate | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 6 of 6 | GO | All process checks pass. This does not predict the outcome. |
| 4–5 of 6 | CAUTION | One or two gaps. Close them or reduce size deliberately. |
| 0–3 of 6 | STAND DOWN | This is the state in which rules get broken. Step away. |
Part 7 — Score History
Press “Save this result” to store a dated entry in your browser’s local storage (maximum 12 entries). Each entry shows the date, the primary leak and the score, with an arrow showing the change from the previous entry. The data never leaves your device, and “Clear history” removes it.
Read history with care: a small change (a few points) is noise. A band change — moving from High to Moderate, for example — is meaningful.
Part 8 — Copy, Share and Print
Visual: Worked Example Profile (Radar Chart)
The chart below shows a worked example profile — the same numbers used in the calculator’s pre-filled sample run. The orange shape shows the reported risk per dimension. The dashed grey ring is the low-risk reference (15/100 on every axis). All six axes are risk, so further out is worse.
Part 9 — Worked Example
Account $10,000 · 1% risk · 4 revenge trades/month at $250 average · streak 3 · +25% per loss · 3% daily limit · 14 of 20 rules followed · 45% win rate · 2R average win · 1R average loss:
| Output | Value |
|---|---|
| Overall score | 71/100 — High risk |
| Revenge / FOMO / Overtrading / Loss-aversion / Position-size | 88 / 38 / 13 / 63 / 63 |
| Discipline (inverted) | 38/100 |
| #1 leak | Revenge trading risk (88/100) |
| Monthly revenge cost | $1,000 |
| Discipline adherence | 70/100 |
| Drawdown at a 3-loss streak | 2.97% |
| Escalated risk on trade 3 | 1.95% |
| Trades to daily limit | 3 |
| Expectancy | 0.35R |
Boundary cases: all answers “Never” → 8/100 (Low), because the discipline adjustment is non-zero. All answers “Almost always” → 100/100 (Critical). Fewer than 6 answers → no score shown, only a prompt.
Part 10 — What This Tool Cannot Tell You
- A score is not a percentage of losses caused by psychology. That would need your trade records.
- The weights are a transparent heuristic, not a validated psychological scale.
- Self-report can be wrong in both directions — under-reporting habits you are ashamed of, over-reporting ones you have read about.
- Position size can legitimately change for strategy reasons; a size increase after a loss is a pattern to investigate, not proof of revenge trading.
Accuracy Note: What This Calculator Can and Cannot Do
- Self-report bias exists in both directions. Traders under-report habits they are ashamed of and over-report habits they have read about. The score reflects what you reported, not an objective audit.
- A dimension with one answer is labelled “limited indicator”. It is still shown, but the page tells you it rests on a single data point.
- No written plan caps the discipline score. Rule compliance cannot be measured without written rules, so the page caps the discipline risk at 70 and says so plainly.
- The score is not a percentage of losses. A score of 72/100 does not mean 72% of your losses come from psychology. That would require your trade records.
- The bands are product-design thresholds. They are useful for tracking change over time, not for clinical classification.
Input Validation and Common Mistakes (Microcopy)
The calculator validates optional money inputs and shows inline warnings rather than silently accepting implausible values. Common mistakes to avoid:
| Field | Validation rule | Common mistake | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned risk per trade | Must be > 0; values above 5% trigger a warning | Entering 10% because “that is what I actually risk” | Enter your planned risk. If your actual risk is 10%, that is itself the finding. |
| Win rate | Must be between 0 and 100 | Entering 45 instead of 0.45 in a decimal field | Enter 45 for 45% — the field expects a percentage, not a decimal. |
| Rules followed (of last 20) | Must be between 0 and 20 | Entering a number greater than 20 | Count only the trades you actually reviewed. If you reviewed 10, enter the rules followed out of those 10 and adjust the denominator in your own notes. |
| Average loss (currency) | Blank is allowed; derived from account size × planned risk if blank | Leaving it blank and then wondering why the revenge cost is missing | Leave blank only if account size and risk % are filled in — otherwise the estimate is hidden. |
| Daily loss limit | 0–100 (% of equity) | Entering a currency amount instead of a percentage | Enter 3 for 3% of equity — not $300. |
Key User Pain Points and How This Calculator Solves Them
The #1 leak names the single highest-risk behaviour, ranked by your own answers. One target, not six.
The five behaviour dimensions separate revenge trading, FOMO, overtrading, loss aversion and position sizing, so you can see which cluster is driving your score.
The optional money inputs convert reported behaviour into a monthly revenge cost, drawdown at your deviation streak, and escalated risk — in your own currency.
Score history is stored in your browser. A band change is meaningful; a small change is noise. Re-take every 30 days or after 20–30 trades.
The pre-trade behaviour gate gives a GO / CAUTION / STAND DOWN verdict from six process checks — not a prediction of the trade outcome.
The share score card exports a PNG with your score, band and #1 leak only. Nothing is uploaded; the export runs in your browser.
Worked Example: What a 71/100 Result Looks Like
Suppose you answer the 12 questions and fill in the optional fields as follows:
- Account size: $10,000
- Planned risk per trade: 1%
- Revenge trades per month: 4
- Average loss on a revenge trade: $250
- Deviation streak: 3 consecutive losses
- Size increase per loss during a streak: 25%
- Daily loss limit: 3%
- Rules followed in your last 20 trades: 14
- Win rate: 45%
- Average win: 2R
- Average loss: 1R
The calculator returns an overall score of 71/100 — High risk. The #1 leak is Revenge trading risk (88/100). The bias-stack warning fires because revenge trading and position sizing are both elevated. Your monthly revenge cost is $1,000, your discipline adherence is 70/100, and your drawdown at a 3-loss streak is 2.97% — slightly less than 3% because losses compound. The escalated risk on the third trade is 1.95%, not 1.75%, because the 25% size increase is also compounded. The calculator also shows that you have only 3 trades before hitting your daily loss limit, and your expectancy is 0.35R per trade.
