ICC Dollar results are hard to compare. Making 200 on one trade and losing 80 on another says little when you risked 50 on the first and 80 on the second. Traders who study their results use a simple fix: measure every trade in R, the amount they planned to risk. This article explains R, average R and expectancy in plain words, with small examples.
What is R?
R is your planned risk on one trade, the distance from entry to stop expressed in money. If you buy and your stop is placed so that a loss would cost 50, then 1R = 50.
- You make 100: that is +2R.
- You lose the full 50: that is -1R.
- You close at breakeven: about 0R.
- You lose 25 because you exited early: -0.5R.
The formula is simply: R multiple = result of the trade ÷ planned risk. Now a 50-risk trade on gold and a 300-risk trade on an index can sit in the same list and be compared fairly.
Why R is better than money
- Account size does not matter. A trader with 1,000 and one with 100,000 can compare quality of trading.
- Position size does not hide the truth. A big lot size in one week does not make that week look like a better week.
- It shows discipline. A loss of -3R when your plan said -1R means you moved or removed your stop.
Average R and total R
Add up the R of all trades for total R. Divide by the number of trades for average R. Suppose five trades give +2R, -1R, -1R, +3R and -1R. Total R is +2 and average R is +0.4 per trade.
Expectancy: what a trade is worth on average
Expectancy is the average result per trade over many trades. In R terms:
Expectancy = (win rate × average win in R) − (loss rate × average loss in R)
Example: you win 40% of trades, your average win is 2.5R, and your average loss is 1R.
- 0.40 × 2.5 = 1.0
- 0.60 × 1.0 = 0.6
- Expectancy = 1.0 − 0.6 = +0.4R per trade
Another trader wins 70% of the time with an average win of 0.5R and an average loss of 1.5R: 0.7 × 0.5 = 0.35, then 0.3 × 1.5 = 0.45, so expectancy is -0.10R. High win rate, negative expectancy. This is why a journal that only shows win rate can mislead you.
Win rate and reward-to-risk go together
Neither number means much alone. A low win rate works if your winners are much larger than your losers, and a high win rate needs small losses. Expectancy combines the two into one figure. As a rough guide, if you risk 1R to make 2R, you break even at a win rate of about 33% before costs; if you risk 1R to make 1R, you need above 50%. Costs such as commission and swap move those lines a little, so look at results after costs.
How to get R into your journal
R needs a planned risk. Each trade must have either a stop loss or a planned risk amount. In ICC Zillas, a trade with a stop loss (or planned risk in money) gets its R multiple automatically; a trade without either shows no R. The dashboard shows the total R, and the reports have an R multiple tab, a playbook page with expectancy, and a Glossary entry for each term in the guide. Two habits make the numbers trustworthy:
- Always set a stop (or write the planned risk) when you enter, not afterwards.
- Do not edit the stop later to make a bad trade look better.
What sample size is enough?
Twenty trades is a start, and fifty is better. With a small sample, luck dominates: a few big winners can make a weak method look great. Look at expectancy per setup rather than for everything mixed together, and treat results from a handful of trades as a question, not an answer.
Using expectancy in the weekly review
- Compare expectancy for each playbook. Drop or fix the negative ones.
- Compare expectancy by mistake tag. The average R of "moved stop" trades is often the most useful number in the whole report.
- Check whether big losses (-2R or worse) come from a single habit.
Open the ICC Zillas app after importing your trades and look at the R multiple report; start with the tab that has the most trades.
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