Risk and position sizing

Size positions against a fixed risk budget per trade - many traders cap single-trade risk at 0.5–2% of total equity. This means your stop placement determines how many shares you buy, not the other way around.

Stops and alerts help automate discipline; combine them with diversification so one symbol cannot dominate your book. Correlation matters: owning five tech stocks is not the same as owning five uncorrelated positions.

Track your expectancy - average win × win rate minus average loss × loss rate. A positive expectancy strategy profits over time even with a sub-50% win rate, if winners are meaningfully larger than losers.