How many positions your risk budget allows.
Educational tool only — not financial advice. Verify figures with your broker.
The Max Open Positions Calculator is a free position-budgeting tool that works backwards from a total risk ceiling. It answers one question: given the maximum total heat you're willing to run and the risk you take per trade, how many positions can you hold open at the same time before you breach that budget.
The core calculation divides Max total heat (%) by Risk per trade (%) and rounds down to a whole number, since you can't hold a fractional position — a 6% ceiling at 1% per trade allows six positions. Heat used at that count multiplies that whole-number result back by your per-trade risk, and Unused heat headroom is the gap between your ceiling and the heat actually used.
That's a risk-budget decision, not a fixed rule. A max open positions risk calculator divides your total heat ceiling by your per-trade risk, so a 6% limit at 1% per trade allows six simultaneous positions before you hit your budget.
Inversely: the more you risk per trade, the fewer positions fit under a fixed heat ceiling. Halving your risk per trade roughly doubles the positions your budget allows, since the calculator simply divides total heat by per-trade risk.
Because a partial position doesn't reduce your risk ceiling breach — if the math yields 6.5 positions, opening the seventh exceeds your budget. Rounding down keeps total heat at or under your stated maximum.
Keep in mind: This is a budgeting ceiling, not a signal to fill every slot — the maximum it reports is the point where your total risk hits your chosen limit, not a recommended number of trades. It assumes positions are independent and equally sized, so correlated trades consume more real risk than the count suggests, and it says nothing about whether holding that many positions is profitable.