Published 2026-08-18
GRID vs MARTINGALE: what actually differs
Both average in when price moves against you. What differs is the size of the next leg — and that single difference reshapes the whole risk profile.
The two words get used interchangeably. In the WinFex tools they are two clearly different lot-sizing rules, and you choose between them.
What they share
Both start from a single leg and add more in the same direction each time price moves against the basket by a set distance — 300 points, say. Every leg in the group counts as one basket, and that basket carries a single shared take-profit computed from the volume-weighted average entry of all its legs.
The effect of that shared TP is that a deeper basket exits closer to the current price: the average entry moves with every leg added, so the basket can close without price ever returning to the first entry.
What differs
- GRID — the next leg reuses the smallest lot in the basket. Exposure grows linearly and predictably.
- MARTINGALE — the next leg steps up in size by the configured rule. The average moves faster, but the margin required and the floating loss grow faster too.
In practice MARTINGALE closes a basket sooner on a bounce, but in a sustained one-way move the difference in lot size becomes a difference in damage. That is why our tools always cap the number of legs per direction.
No averaging scheme is safe by itself. Both grow exposure while price moves against you. What actually limits the damage is the starting lot, the leg cap, and a stop loss measured against your capital.
See it before you risk it
The cheapest way is TrainerTool in the Strategy Tester: open the legs yourself and watch the average and the TP price move with each one. Ten minutes, no real money.