The Risk of Ruin Handbook
Quick answer: at 10% risk per trade, 7 losses in a row take half your account — and at a 45% win rate that streak appears about once every 66 trades. At 1% you would need 69 in a row, which never happens. This free 15-page handbook shows the arithmetic and the four settings that move ruin from “possible” to “irrelevant”.
What you get
- The capacity table — how many consecutive losses it takes to lose 25%, 50% or 90% of your account at every risk level from 1% to 10%.
- The frequency table — how often a streak that long actually appears, from “three times a year” to “never”.
- The recovery trap — why a 90% drawdown needs a 900% gain, and roughly three thousand disciplined trades.
- Win rate versus size — why going from 45% to 70% accuracy makes you 70 times safer, and cutting risk from 10% to 2% makes you ten million times safer.
- Correlation — how three positions at 1% quietly become one position at 3%.
- The four rules that each close a different hole in the maths.
- The daily limit explained in full: how it turns a seven-loss streak into four ordinary bad days.
- Funded accounts — static versus trailing drawdown, and planning backwards from the limit.
- A printable survival audit to find your own number in ten minutes.
Who it's for
Traders who have never worked out how many losses in a row their current position size can actually absorb — and anyone who has been told to risk 1% without being shown why that number, and not 5%.
Inside the handbook
| Chapter | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1–3 — The maths | What ruin means, what your size absorbs, how often streaks happen |
| 4–6 — The traps | Recovery asymmetry, win-rate illusion, correlation |
| 7–9 — The fixes | The four rules, the daily limit, funded accounts |
| 10–12 — Tools | Printable audit, FAQ and glossary |
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Add it to your cart at $0 and the download link arrives by email straight after checkout.
What format is it?
A 15-page PDF, readable on desktop, tablet and phone.
Is risking 2% twice as dangerous as 1%?
Considerably more than twice. The relationship is not linear, and chapter 3 has the full table.
Is 1% risk too conservative?
It is conservative on purpose: at 1%, ruin by losing streak stops being a realistic outcome at all.
Does it apply to automated trading?
Entirely. An automated system takes every signal without hesitation, so the risk setting is the only thing protecting the account.
Disclaimer: educational content only. Cortex Next is not a financial service, does not manage money and guarantees no results. All figures are illustrative and assume independent outcomes, which markets do not provide. Trading involves risk of loss.
