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GOTAFIMAInstitute of Financial Markets
Risk ManagementBeginnerFree

Risk Management and Position Sizing

The arithmetic that decides whether an edge survives: size, stops, and the maths of drawdown.

Not yet rated2 hr 3 min8 lessonsEnglishGOTAFIMA Faculty

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Curriculum

3 modules

About this course

Risk management is usually taught as advice — "do not risk more than you can afford". This course teaches it as arithmetic, because the arithmetic is unforgiving and does not care how confident anyone feels. You will calculate position size from a stop distance rather than choosing a lot size and hoping, work through what a run of losses actually does to an account, and see why recovering from a large drawdown is harder than avoiding one. This is the course the Academy considers non-optional. A strategy without it is a way of losing money more precisely.

What you will learn

What you will be able to do at the end — not what was covered.

  • Calculate a position size from account size, risk percentage and stop distance
  • State the loss a position can produce before you open it
  • Work out the return required to recover from any given drawdown
  • Compute expectancy, and explain why win rate alone is meaningless
  • Apply a written pre-trade checklist consistently rather than occasionally

Requirements

  • Arithmetic; no algebra beyond multiplication and division
  • A demo account, so sizing can be practised on real instrument specifications
  • The willingness to accept an answer you do not like

Who this course is for

  • Every trader, at every level — this course has no upper bound on usefulness
  • Beginners who have not yet formed habits that will have to be unlearned
  • Experienced traders whose position size is chosen by feel

Course resources

Workbooks, templates and practice files that go with the lessons. Yours to keep.

  • Position sizing calculatorResourceA spreadsheet that turns account size, risk percentage and stop distance into a position size. Open it in any spreadsheet application and change the inputs.Enrol on this course to download
  • Pre-trade checklistResourceThe eight questions to answer before a position is opened. Printable, and short enough to actually be used.Enrol on this course to download

Instructor

GOTAFIMA Instructors

Institute of Financial Markets

GOTAFIMA Institute of Financial Markets writes and maintains the Academy curriculum. Every course is built the same way: state the mechanism, show it on real market structure, drill it on a demo account, and say plainly what it does not cover. The Academy teaches method and risk control — it does not sell signals, forecasts or income expectations, and no lesson in the catalogue predicts a market.

Experience

Curriculum maintained continuously since the Academy opened, revised against live market conditions rather than republished unchanged.

Specialisation

  • Market Structure
  • Risk Management
  • Technical Analysis
  • Trading Psychology
  • Strategy
  • Curriculum reviewed against the GOTAFIMA Education Standard
  • Every course states its methodology and its limits
  • Risk framing required in every module
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Frequently asked

  • Is there a correct percentage to risk per trade?

    There is no universally correct figure, and any course that gives you one is selling certainty it does not have. The course teaches you to compute the consequences of whichever figure you choose, so the choice is informed rather than inherited.

  • Does this course guarantee I will stop losing money?

    No. Risk management does not make a losing method profitable — it makes a profitable method survivable and a losing one slower to ruin you. Trading involves significant risk and is not suitable for everyone.

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Take it further

You have learned it — now practise it

Risk management is only understood by using it. Test it on a demo account before you commit real capital.

GOTAFIMA teaches the method. Practice and execution happen with a partner broker — start on a demo account. Trading carries the risk of losing your capital.

GOTAFIMA maintains disclosed affiliate partnerships with regulated brokers. Broker services are provided by the brokers themselves. Trading involves significant risk.

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