Free trading calculator
Kelly criterion calculator
A Kelly criterion calculator gives the share of your account that would grow it fastest over time, using f = W − (1 − W) ÷ R. Enter your win rate (W) and your payoff (R, average win ÷ average loss).
Free tier: 2 accounts, no card required.
The Kelly criterion for trading is f = W − (1 − W) ÷ R, with W the win rate and R the average win divided by the average loss. At a 55% win rate and a 1.2 payoff, full Kelly is 17.5% of the account per trade, half Kelly 8.75% and quarter Kelly 4.4%. Most traders use a fraction.
Kelly criterion calculator
- Half Kelly
- –
- Quarter Kelly
- –
- Expectancy per trade
- –
Kelly assumes your win rate and payoff are exact. They never are, so most traders use a fraction of it.
Quick answers
What is the Kelly criterion formula?
The Kelly formula is f = W − (1 − W) ÷ R, where W is your win rate and R is your average win divided by your average loss. At W = 55% and R = 1.2: 0.55 − 0.45 ÷ 1.2 = 0.175, or 17.5% of the account.
What is half Kelly?
Half Kelly is half of the Kelly result: 8.75% if full Kelly is 17.5%. It gives up some growth for smaller swings, and leaves room for your win rate and payoff being lower than you think.
Why do traders use a fraction of Kelly?
Full Kelly assumes your win rate and payoff are known exactly, and they never are. If your real edge is smaller, full Kelly over-bets, and even when it is right the drawdowns are deep. Fractional Kelly trades some growth for less volatility and less risk of ruin.
26 seconds
Watch a trade log itself.
A real MetaTrader terminal. Close the trade, open Dusk Analyst, and it’s already there: symbol, direction, entry, exit and P&L. Nothing to export, nothing to type, nothing forgotten.
Auto-sync (MT4, MT5, cTrader, NinjaTrader) is on Pro. The free plan imports your history files.
Get started, freeAt a glance
Dusk Analyst at a glance.
- Price
- $0 or $25/monthFree forever. Pro is one flat price.
- Free plan
- 2 accounts, no cardManual entry, file import, tags, calendars and weekly reports. No time limit.
- Auto-sync
- MT4 · MT5 · cTrader · NinjaTraderOn Pro. Your first 5 trading days are free, no card.
- How sync works
- EA, cBot or NinjaTrader add-onRuns in your own terminal and sends each closed trade.
- Your password
- Never asked forNothing logs into your broker account from our servers.
- Brokers
- 365 checkedAny broker or prop firm on MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8 works.
- Setup
- About 2 minutesPer account, once.
- Where it runs
- In your browserDesktop and phone. Nothing to install except the EA, cBot or NinjaTrader add-on.
- AI
- Dusk QuantAnswers questions about your own trades. Pro, 1,000 trade-analyses a month.
How it works
How the Kelly percentage is calculated
- Win rate (W). The share of your trades that win. 55% is 0.55.
- Payoff (R). Average win ÷ average loss. 1.2 means winners are 1.2 times the size of losers.
- Kelly. f = W − (1 − W) ÷ R = 0.55 − 0.45 ÷ 1.2 = 17.5%. The calculator also shows half (8.75%) and quarter (4.4%) Kelly, and your expectancy: 0.55 × 1.2 − 0.45 = +0.21R per trade.
If the result is 0% or below, there is no edge in your numbers and Kelly says not to trade the setup.
Examples
Kelly results at a glance
50% win rate, payoff 2
f = 0.5 − 0.5 ÷ 2 = 25%. Half Kelly is 12.5%, still far more than most traders risk on one trade.
40% win rate, payoff 1.5
f = 0.4 − 0.6 ÷ 1.5 = 0%. The expectancy is zero, so Kelly says risk nothing.
Kelly as a ceiling
Kelly is the most you could justify, not a target. Many traders risk well below it and test the result in the risk of ruin calculator.
Use your real numbers
Feed Kelly your real win rate
Kelly is only as good as the win rate and payoff you put in, and small errors change the answer a lot. Dusk Analyst works it out from your closed trades. Calculate this from your real trades: import your MT4/MT5 history on the Free plan, or auto-sync MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8 on Pro.
Related tools: win rate calculator, profit factor calculator, risk reward calculator, risk of ruin calculator.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
How it works
Live in two minutes.
Create your account
Sign up and grab a per-account API key from the connectors panel.
Drop in the EA, cBot or add-on
One file into MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8. No extra software.
Trades sync themselves
Every close pushes into the vault automatically. Journal complete, always.
See it in action
Ask your trading data anything.
Your journal isn't a logbook, it's a dataset. The AI reads your actual trade history and answers the questions that move your edge.
- Why do my losses cluster on Fridays?
- Which strategy am I actually profitable in?
- What happens when I break my 1% risk rule?
Trading psychology
Mistakes, habits and what the numbers say
Auto-sync setup
How do I connect my platform?
Auto-sync (MT4, MT5, cTrader, NinjaTrader) is on Pro ($25/month), free for your first 5 trading days with no card. The Free plan imports your platform's history file.
Broker search
Does my broker work?
Each broker was checked against its own site in our 2026 audit. See all 365.
Pricing
Free is enough to build the habit. Pro is where it runs itself.
Start manual and free. Upgrade to MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader auto-sync when you're ready to stop touching it.
Free
$0
A real journal, free from day one. $0 forever, up to 2 accounts, no credit card required, weekly reports included, and CSV import from any trading platform.
- Up to 2 accounts
- Manual entry + CSV import from any platform
- Tags, calendars & core analytics
- Weekly reports
No terminal connection. Upgrade to Pro when you want the vault to fill itself.
Start freePro
$25/month
The journal that journals itself. $25/month auto-syncs MT4, MT5, cTrader and NinjaTrader 8 across unlimited demo, live and funded accounts, with 1,000 AI trade-analyses a month, monthly reports and full export.
- Auto-sync MT4, MT5, cTrader and NinjaTrader 8 (terminal connection)
- Unlimited accounts, demo, live & funded
- AI insights & automated session reviews
- 1,000 AI trade-analyses every month
- Monthly reports + full export
- Priority support
5 trading days free, no card. Then $25/month.
Start your free Pro week See auto-sync in 26 secondsNo setup fees. No card for Free, and no card for your first week of Pro: every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days. After that it is $25/month. We email you before billing starts.
Size from your real edge, not a guess.
Import your history or auto-sync your platform. $0 to start.
Get started, freeNo card required.
FAQ
Kelly criterion questions, answered.
Who invented the Kelly criterion?
John L. Kelly Jr., a researcher at Bell Labs, published it in 1956 in the paper "A New Interpretation of Information Rate" in the Bell System Technical Journal.
Is full Kelly too aggressive for trading?
For most traders, yes. It assumes exact inputs and accepts deep drawdowns. A small error in your win rate can turn full Kelly into over-betting, which is why fractions such as half or quarter Kelly are common.
Does Kelly work for prop firm accounts?
Kelly ignores hard loss limits. A funded account with a maximum loss needs far smaller risk than Kelly suggests. Check your sizing against the limit with the risk of ruin calculator.
Is this Kelly criterion calculator free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no sign-up.
Is Dusk Analyst really free?
Yes. The free tier costs $0 forever and includes two accounts, manual trade entry and CSV import - enough to journal a live account properly, with win rate, P&L and equity curve all calculated for you. There is no credit card required to start. Pro ($25/month flat) adds unlimited accounts, MT4/MT5/cTrader/NinjaTrader auto-sync, AI insights on your trading (1,000 trade-analyses a month), monthly reports and full export, and every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days with no card. The pricing is deliberately simple: one plan, one price, no per-feature upsells.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, and it needs no card. Every new Dusk Analyst account gets Pro free for 5 trading days from sign-up: auto-sync from MT4, MT5, cTrader and NinjaTrader 8, AI Insights with 1,000 credits, monthly reports and unlimited accounts. After that Pro is $25/month, and you can cancel anytime from Billing in the app. If you skip it, the account moves to Free with every trade kept.
Can I import my existing trade history?
Yes - CSV import is available on every plan, including free. If you've been tracking trades in a spreadsheet, broker export or another journal, export the CSV from wherever it lives and import it into Dusk Analyst; the journal matches it against your accounts and keeps your history continuous. Import is also the fallback for platforms that don't run MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8. For MT4/MT5/cTrader/NinjaTrader terminals, Pro auto-syncs going forward and the EA backfills any trades your terminal missed while it was off. Any platform that exports a CSV of your trade history works. Dusk Analyst recognises TradingView, Tradovate, cTrader, MT4 and MT5 exports on sight; for anything else you map your columns once and that parser is saved for next time. Comma, semicolon and tab files are all handled, day-first and month-first dates are detected from the file itself, and any row that cannot be read is listed for you rather than dropped quietly.
How many AI credits do I get with Dusk Analyst Pro?
Pro includes 1,000 AI trade-analyses every month. One credit covers one trade, so asking a question about a 40-trade week costs 40 credits and you can keep asking. The allowance resets on the 1st of each month and the counter sits in the top bar of the app, so you always know where you stand. Narrowing a question to one account or a shorter date range makes the same allowance go much further. Free accounts get a small number of AI credits to try AI Insights, alongside the full journal, analytics and weekly reports, and the free Pro week (5 trading days, no card) includes the full monthly allowance.
Guides
Find the setup for how you trade.
Calculators10
Platforms17
- MT4 Trading Journal
- MT5 Trading Journal
- XAUUSD Trading Journal
- cTrader Trading Journal
- Connect MT5
- Connect MT4
- Connect cTrader
- Connect NinjaTrader
- NinjaTrader Commission Tracking
- Export NinjaTrader Trades
- NinjaTrader Prop Firm Journal
- Thinkorswim Journal
- TradingView Journal
- NinjaTrader Journal
- NinjaTrader vs Tradovate
- Export MT5 Trade History
- MT4 Account History
Prop firms5
Markets5
Crypto exchanges7
Compare13
- Best Trading Journal Software
- TradeZella Alternative
- TraderSync Alternative
- Tradervue Alternative
- Edgewonk Alternative
- Dusk Analyst vs TradeZella
- Dusk Analyst vs TraderSync
- Dusk Analyst vs Tradervue
- Dusk Analyst vs Edgewonk
- Dusk Analyst vs TradesViz
- Best Trading Journal
- Journal vs Spreadsheet
- Myfxbook Alternative
Templates & guides21
- Tradovate Trading Journal
- Automated Trading Journal
- No Investor Password Journal
- Free Trading Journal
- Beginners Journal
- Excel Journal Template
- Google Sheets Journal
- Notion Trading Journal
- Best Free Journal
- How to Journal Trades
- How to Review Trades
- Swing Trading Journal
- Trading Log
- Trading Diary
- Trading Journal for Mac
- Paper Trading Journal
- Revenge Trading
- Overtrading
- Common Trading Mistakes
- How Many Day Traders Are Profitable
- Trading Metrics Explained
