A prop firm risk check that runs on your own stop, your own instrument and your own trading hour. Nothing here is a sample. Every figure moves when you change a number.
Download this kitOne file. Works offline. Yours to keep.
Half of all NQ five-minute candles in the day session travel at least 28 points high to low, even on a perfect trade idea. A stop placed inside that range isn't risk management. You're letting ordinary price movement decide the trade before your idea does.
Measured from real NQ/ES 1-minute bars: median high-low range per candle, regular trading hours only (09:30 to 16:00 New York). 41,813 five-minute NQ candles (Jun 2024 to Sep 2026) & 40,087 ES candles (Jul 2024 to Jul 2026). Not a live feed.
The stop never left the shaded band. This isn't a rare event. Half of all day-session candles on this timeframe are at least this tall. A stop that was never measured against the median range can get taken by ordinary price movement, again and again.
You were right about direction. You were wrong about room.
That's why this mistake feels so unfair. Price does exactly what you expected, just after your stop is gone.
“I only want to risk $200”, so the stop goes wherever that math lands. Risk decides the stop.
The market does not know you want to risk $200. It only knows how far it normally travels. Your dollar limit is invisible to it.
Risk does not decide where the stop belongs. Risk decides how big your position can be, once the market has told you where the stop belongs.
This calculator compares the room you give your trade with the median high-low range of a day-session candle on the timeframe you trade.
“Median range” = the median high-low range of one candle during regular trading hours (09:30 to 16:00 New York), measured from real NQ/ES 1-minute price history, not a live feed. Half of all day-session candles are bigger than this, half are smaller. The all-hours average is a lower number because it includes the quiet overnight session; this book uses the day-session median because that is when you trade. Your own market’s current volatility may differ. This is a principle check, not a trade signal.
You're not trading a $2,000 account.
You're trading against a scoreboard that can end it in one five-minute stretch: a daily loss limit that doesn't care how right you were, a consistency rule that punishes your best day, a trailing drawdown that follows you even while you're winning.
Most traders don't blow the account because they can't read a chart. They blow it because nobody told them the rules were built to catch instinct, not reward it, and by the time they figure that out alone, the account is already gone.
Let the market decide the room.
Let your risk decide the size.
Stop distance and position size are one decision, not two.
6 risk traps, 6 interactive tools, and your own numbers in every one, so you can see exactly where your sizing breaks before the market shows you.
Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. You can lose more than you expect, and past results, yours or anyone’s, do not guarantee future results.
This material is for education only. It is not investment, financial or trading advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy or sell any instrument or to take any specific trade. EID Trading Lab does not provide personalized advice.
The tools use the numbers you enter and the simplified assumptions stated next to each one. Their results are illustrations, not predictions. Any historical market figures shown describe past market behavior only. Prop firm rules differ by firm and change over time, so always check your own contract.
You are solely responsible for your own trading decisions and their results.