Risk + Scaling Guide
Risk and scaling decisions decide whether a trading account survives. This guide brings together risk-per-trade rules, drawdown limits and position-size growth into one framework you can apply to personal accounts and funded prop accounts.
The focus is practical: simple formulas, clear examples and written rules you can plug into your plan. No promises, no guarantees – just a structure for running risk like a trading business.
Who This Guide Is For
- Futures, FX, CFD and index traders who use leverage and want clear risk limits.
- Prop-firm traders coordinating several evaluations, PAs and funded accounts.
- Traders who increase size too fast after a payout or a strong month.
- Traders who have good entries but inconsistent account results.
What This Guide Helps You Do
- Define risk per trade, daily loss limits and maximum drawdown in numbers, not feelings.
- Build position-size tables that match your strategy statistics and prop rules.
- Plan how and when to increase size – and how to reduce it during drawdown.
- Coordinate risk across multiple accounts and firms so exposure stays controlled.
All numbers are examples only. You are responsible for choosing your own risk and confirming that it fits your financial situation, objectives and firm rules.
The Three Pillars: Risk, Drawdown & Scaling
The Risk + Scaling Guide is organized around three main pillars that need to work together. The examples are written in plain language so you can adapt them whether you trade manually or with systems and bots.
1. Risk Per Trade & Session
Position size · R-multiple · risk budgetThis pillar sets the basic unit of risk – how much you are willing to lose when a trade is wrong and how much total risk you allow in a session.
- Choosing a base risk per trade (for example 0.25%–1% of account equity).
- Expressing risk in both currency and R-multiples so you can compare setups.
- Setting a daily risk budget and maximum open exposure across correlated products.
- Aligning stop placement with volatility and product structure, not random distances.
2. Account Drawdown & Protection
DD limits · recovery rules · capital safetyDrawdown management keeps the account alive long enough for your edge to play out. This pillar connects your risk numbers to clear protection rules.
- Definitions of intraday drawdown, closed-equity drawdown and trailing limits.
- Daily, weekly and monthly loss limits, each with specific actions attached.
- Criteria for switching to reduced size, sim-only or full pause during deeper DD.
- Rules for when to stop trading new evaluations and focus only on existing accounts.
3. Scaling Up & Scaling Down
Growth plan · multi-account structureScaling is not only about bigger size. It is about controlled growth when the data supports it, and controlled reduction when conditions change.
- Step-based scaling plans – increasing size only after stable performance thresholds.
- Percentage-of-equity and fixed-step models, with pros and cons for each.
- Coordinating growth across personal and funded accounts.
- De-scaling rules: how and when to cut size after losses, payouts or life changes.
Frameworks, Tables & Worksheets Inside the Guide
The Risk + Scaling material is written so you can calculate your own numbers step by step. It does not tell you what risk to use – it shows you how to choose and manage it.
Risk & Drawdown Worksheets
- Risk Matrix – table to test different risk-per-trade levels against your typical win rate and average R.
- Drawdown Scenario Sheet – estimates how deep a losing streak might be at your chosen risk level.
- Session Risk Planner – defines max concurrent trades and total risk for a single session.
- Capital Map – overview of how capital is distributed across prop firms and personal accounts.
Scaling & Multi-Account Frameworks
- Step function scaling (for example: 0.25% → 0.35% → 0.5% risk per trade).
- Rules for adding new funded accounts only after specific performance checkpoints.
- Methods for splitting risk between several accounts so total exposure stays sane.
- Guidelines for withdrawing profits, paying debts and rebuilding reserves.
How the Risk + Scaling Guide Fits Into MRSLM Group
Risk and scaling are at the centre of everything MRSLM Group publishes. This guide connects directly with the other sections of the site so your decisions stay aligned.
- Market Guides: product-specific education for futures, forex and indices, plus risk and drawdown concepts that support this guide.
- Trading & Prop Firms: explains evaluation rules and drawdown models that your risk numbers must respect.
- Broker Accounts: your own broker accounts carry margin and leverage that interact with the risk and scaling decisions you make.
- Trading Psychology eBooks: support the behavioural side of following your risk plan under pressure.
- AI Tools & Bots: indicators, dashboards and algos can help you enforce risk limits and monitor exposure in real time.
Together these elements are designed to help you think like a risk manager for your own trading business, not just a trader reacting to the market.
Risk & Legal Notice
MRSLM Group LLC provides educational information only. The Risk + Scaling Guide does not provide financial, investment, tax or legal advice and does not recommend any specific level of risk, position size, account type, broker or prop firm. All risk examples and numbers are illustrative only. Trading futures, foreign exchange, contracts for difference (CFDs), index products, options, cryptoassets and other leveraged instruments involves a high level of risk and can result in substantial losses, including more than your initial capital in some cases. Prop firm rules, margin requirements and regulations change over time; always consult the official documentation from your brokers, platforms and firms and consider independent professional advice before trading with real capital or applying any framework described on this site. Past performance, backtests and examples do not guarantee future results.