Interactive toolRuns in your browser

Portfolio Heat Calculator

Add up the risk on every open position to see your total open risk as a percentage of capital — the exposure a single bad session could remove.

Quick answer: Portfolio heat is the sum of the money at risk across all your open positions, expressed as a percentage of capital. Sizing each trade correctly is not enough on its own: five trades each risking 2 percent put 10 percent of the account on the line at once, and if they are correlated they can all lose together. This tool totals the per-position risk you enter, divides by capital, and classifies the result against a labelled rule-of-thumb band so you can see when your open exposure has quietly grown too large.

Trading capital (₹)

Position 1 risk (₹)Position 2 risk (₹)Position 3 risk (₹)

Position 4 risk (₹)Position 5 risk (₹)Position 6 risk (₹)

How to use it

Enter your trading capital, then the rupee amount you would lose on each open position if its stop were hit (leave unused slots at zero). The tool sums the risks, shows total open risk in rupees and as portfolio heat — the percentage of capital exposed — and places you in a labelled rule-of-thumb band. The bands (roughly under 6% conservative, 6 to 12% moderate, above 12% high) are an educational heuristic for capital preservation, not advice, and the total assumes the worst case that every stop is hit together.

Formula

Total open risk = Σ ( per-position risk at stop ) ; Portfolio heat% = Total open risk ÷ Capital × 100

Each per-position risk is |Entry − Stop| × Quantity for that position (the same figure the Risk Per Trade tool produces). Heat is the sum as a percentage of capital and represents the loss if every open stop is hit at once — a worst case that becomes realistic when positions are correlated. The band thresholds are heuristics, not regulatory limits.

Frequently asked questions

Why is portfolio heat necessary if I size each trade correctly?

Sizing controls one trade in isolation, but risk adds up across open positions. Ten trades each risking 2 percent expose 20 percent of the account at once, and in a sharp move they can lose together. Heat measures that aggregate exposure, which single-trade sizing cannot see.

What does correlation have to do with it?

If your positions move together — several Nifty and Bank Nifty longs, say — a single adverse session can trigger many stops at once, so the real joint loss approaches the full summed heat. Uncorrelated positions are less likely to all fail together, but correlation tends to rise precisely in the crises that matter.

Are the band thresholds official limits?

No. The roughly 6 and 12 percent boundaries are illustrative rules of thumb for framing total exposure, not SEBI rules or guarantees. Your own tolerance, strategy and correlation should set the ceiling; the bands are only a prompt to think about aggregate risk.

Does this include margin or leverage risk?

No. It measures the loss if your stops are hit, not the SPAN plus exposure margin the positions block or the danger of a gap through the stop. In leveraged F&O, a gap can skip your stop and cause a loss larger than the heat figure, so treat heat as a planning floor.

What risk figure should I enter for each position?

The rupee you would lose if that position hit its stop — the same number the Risk Per Trade calculator gives, equal to the stop distance times the quantity. Enter it as a positive amount and leave unused slots at zero.

Why assume every stop is hit at once?

Because that is the worst case a risk manager must be able to survive. Planning around the assumption that only some stops trigger leaves you exposed on the day they all do, which is exactly when survival is tested.

Runs entirely in your browser — no data leaves your device. Illustrative and educational only; real-world charges and market conditions apply in practice.