The trading tools are not interchangeable. Each calculator answers one specific question, and reaching for the wrong one gives you a confident answer to a question you were not asking. This is a short decision guide: name the question in front of you, and it points to the tool that answers it. All of them are free, none of them place trades, and none of them tell you what to trade.
"What does this trade cost before it makes anything?"
Use the cost calculator. Enter the fee, the spread, an estimate for slippage, and a safety buffer, and it returns the cost-to-beat — the hurdle a trade must clear before it earns a cent. This is the same model the bot uses to reject weak signals, so it is usually the first tool to reach for when sizing up any idea.
"How large should this position be?"
Use the position-size calculator. Start from your fixed risk-per-trade and your stop distance, and it returns the order size that keeps the loss inside your limit. This is the tool that turns a risk rule into an actual order size — discipline math instead of a guess. Pair it with the cost calculator so fees and spread do not quietly push you over your risk.
"How far must price move just to break even?"
Use the break-even calculator. Enter the round-trip costs and the safety buffer, and it returns the distance price must travel before the trade is merely flat. Reach for it when a target looks thin: if your realistic target barely clears break-even, the trade is paying you to take risk for nothing.
"How bad is this drawdown to recover from?"
Use the drawdown and recovery calculator. Enter a percentage loss and it returns the larger percentage gain needed to get back to even — the asymmetry that makes deep drawdowns so punishing. This tool is less about a single trade and more about arguing, in advance, for a sensible maximum-drawdown threshold.
"Is this track record actually good?"
Use the Sharpe calculator. Feed it a series of returns and it scores reward earned per unit of risk, so a record is judged by more than its headline gain. Compare only like with like — same interval, same window — and read the result alongside the worst drawdown, because a smooth average can hide a brutal low.
A simple rule of thumb
Before a trade, run the cost and position-size calculators. When a target looks marginal, check break-even. When judging a strategy or a streak, use Sharpe and the drawdown tool together. The right calculator is simply the one whose question matches yours — and using the wrong one is how a precise answer becomes a misleading one.
For step-by-step use, read how to use the trading cost calculator, how to size a position from your risk limit, and how to compute your break-even after fees. The tools quantify scenarios; decisions and outcomes are yours, and nothing here is financial advice.