Daily loss limit calculator
A daily loss limit should come from arithmetic, not from what feels tolerable on the morning you set it. Decide the monthly drawdown you would genuinely stop and reassess at, divide it across the losing days a normal month contains, then check the result against your average winning day. This calculator does that, in your browser, and writes the rule out as a sentence you can hold yourself to.
Your account
Four numbers. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
The capital you actually trade with, not your total net worth.
The loss at which you would stop and reassess, not the one that wipes you out. For most traders that is 6% to 10%.
Out of roughly 20 sessions. Six to eight is normal, and planning for fewer is optimism, not discipline.
Used to sanity-check the limit. Set it to zero if you do not know it yet.
Your daily loss limit
₹5,000
1.00% of your capital on a losing day, from a monthly budget of ₹40,000 spread across 7 losing days. Rounded down from ₹5,714, because a number you can recall under pressure is worth more than a precise one, and rounding down can only tighten the limit, never loosen it.
Workable
Your limit is up to one and a half average winning days. That is defensible, though tightening it costs you very little and buys a faster recovery.
- Trade cap
- 6 trades
- Cooldown after a loss
- 10 minutes
These two are rules of thumb rather than outputs of the calculation, and they matter more than the rupee figure: a loss limit is a lagging indicator. By the time you reach it, the sequence that got you there has been running for an hour.
Your rule, written out
Copy this somewhere permanent. A figure can be renegotiated; a sentence with the loopholes closed is much harder to argue with.
If my realised plus unrealised loss for the day reaches ₹5,000, I close everything and stop trading for the day. I take at most 6 trades in a session. After a losing trade I take no new position for 10 minutes. This limit counts every account and every open leg. It can be reviewed at the weekend. It cannot be raised during a session.
This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your capital, your drawdown and your average winning day are never sent to us, stored, or logged. There is no request behind this page at all.
How the number is worked out
Step one: decide what a bad month may cost. Take the capital you actually trade with and pick the drawdown at which you would genuinely stop and reassess. Not the figure that wipes you out; the figure at which you have a problem. For most traders that sits between 6% and 10% of capital.
Step two: divide it across the losing days. A month holds roughly 20 sessions and six to eight of them will lose. That is not pessimism, it is an ordinary distribution of outcomes. Planning for three losing days produces a limit you will breach in the first fortnight.
Step three: check it against a good day. If your daily limit is three or four times your typical winning day, it is not a limit, it is decoration: one bad day erases four good ones and you are still inside your own rules. A healthy limit sits at or below about one and a half average winning days. If it does not, either the limit is too wide or the strategy has a risk-reward problem the limit is hiding.
Step four: round down. ₹5,714 is a spreadsheet output. ₹5,000 is a rule you can recall at 1:30 PM with a red P&L. Rounding down rather than to the nearest value means the rounding can only ever tighten the limit.
Questions
What is a good daily loss limit for a retail trader?
There is no single figure. It comes from your capital. Take the monthly drawdown you would genuinely stop and reassess at, usually 6% to 10% of trading capital, and divide it across the six to eight losing days a normal month contains. On ₹5,00,000 at 8%, that is a monthly budget of ₹40,000 and a daily limit of about ₹5,000.
Should the limit count unrealised losses too?
Yes. Counting only booked losses means holding a losing position is how you stay under your limit, which is exactly the wrong incentive. Realised plus unrealised, across every account and every open leg.
How do I know my limit is not too wide?
Compare it to your average winning day. A limit at or below about one and a half average winning days is healthy. At three or four times a good day it is decoration: one bad session erases several good ones and you are still inside your own rules.
Can I raise my daily loss limit during a session?
No. Most limits are not broken, they are amended in the moment by the person least qualified to amend them. Review the number at the weekend with a month of data in front of you, and change it for next week.
Does this calculator send my numbers anywhere?
No. It is arithmetic that runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted, stored or logged, and the page makes no request while you use it.
A limit only works if you meet it
A number in a journal is checked when you feel like checking it, which is never the moment it matters. LossGuardian watches your positions across six Indian brokers and puts a hard-stop alert in front of you the moment you cross the line you wrote. It is read-only: it cannot place, modify or cancel an order. The closing is yours.