DCA Ladder CalculatorThis script is a DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging) Ladder Calculator with Risk & Leverage Management baked in.
It’s designed for both LONG and SHORT positions, and helps you:
🎯 Strategically scale into positions across multiple entry points
🔐 Control risk exposure via defined capital allocation
⚖️ Utilize leverage responsibly — for efficiency, not destruction
🧮 Visualize risk, stop loss level, and entry distribution
🔁 Adapt to trend reversals or key zones, especially when combined with reversal indicators or higher timeframe signals
🧠 How It Works
This tool takes a capital allocation approach to building a ladder of positions:
1. You define:
- Portfolio value
- Risk per trade (as %)
- Leverage
- Number of DCA levels
- Entry multiplier (e.g. 1x, 2x, 4x...)
2. The script then:
- Calculates total margin to risk = Portfolio × Risk %
- Calculates total leveraged position size = Margin × Leverage
- Distributes entries according to exponential weights (1x, 2x, 4x...), totaling 7 for 3 levels
- Calculates per-entry:
- Entry price (based on price zone spacing)
- Multiplier
- Exact margin per entry
- Leverage per entry (margin × leverage)
- Computes:
- Average entry price (margin-weighted)
- Approximate stop loss level based on recent ATR and price structure
- % drawdown to SL
- Total margin and position size
3. Displays all this in a clean on-chart table.
📈 How to Use It
1. Apply the indicator to a chart (default: 1D — ideal for clean zones).
2. Configure your:
- Portfolio Value (total trading capital)
- Risk per Trade (%) (your acceptable loss)
- Leverage (exchange or strategy-based)
- DCA Levels (e.g. 3 = anchor + 2 entries)
- Multiplier (typically 2.0 for doubling)
3. Choose LONG or SHORT mode depending on direction.
4. The table will show:
- Entry price ladder
- Margin used per entry
- Total position size
- Approx. stop loss (where your full risk is defined)
Use in conjunction with price action, S/R zones, trendline breaks, volume divergence, or reversal indicators.
✅ Best Practices for Using This Tool
- Leverage is a tool, not a weapon. Use it to scale smartly — not recklessly.
- Use fewer, higher-conviction entries. Don’t blindly ladder; combine with price structure and signals.
- Stick to your risk percent. Never risk more than you can afford to lose. Let this calculator enforce discipline.
- Combine with other confirmation tools, like RSI divergence, momentum shifts, OB zones, etc.
- Avoid martingale-style over-exposure. This is not a gambling tool — it’s for capital efficiency.
🛡️ What This Tool Does NOT Do
- This is not a trade signal indicator.
- It does not place trades or auto-manage positions.
- It does not replace personal responsibility or strategy — it's a tool to help apply structure.
⚠️ Disclaimer
This script is for educational and informational purposes only.
It does not constitute financial advice, nor is it a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument.
Always consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Use of leverage involves high risk and can lead to substantial losses.
The author and publisher assume no liability for any trading losses resulting from use of this script.
Scalingin
Scale In : Scale OutScale In : Scale Out strategy is an adaptation and extension of dollar-cost-averaging.
As the name implies it not only scales in - allocates a given percentage of available capital to buy at each bar - it also scales out - sells a given percentage of holdings at each bar when a target profit level is reached.
The strategy can potentially mitigate risks associated with market timing.
Although dollar-cost-averaging is often recommended as a strategy for building a position, the management of taking and retaining profits is not often addressed. This strategy demonstrates the potential benefits of managing both the building and (full or partial) liquidation of an investment.
We do not provide any mechanism for managing stop losses. We assume a scale in/out strategy will typically be applied to investing in assets with a high conviction thesis based on criteria external to the strategy. If the strategy does not perform, then the thesis may need to be re-evaluated, and the position liquidated. Even in this case, scaling out should still be considered.
