Every metric here is computed by fixed, deterministic code over your exact
rules and real historical prices — the AI never invents a figure. P&L is
net of modeled slippage and commission (defaults: 1 tick slippage, 2.50/side full-size commission). Same rules + same data = the same
numbers, every time. See Is the backtest real?
Headline metrics
The five numbers under the equity curve. Read them together — no single one tells the story.| Metric | Definition | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Trades | Count of completed (entry-to-exit) trades over the test window. | Too few (a handful) is too small a sample to trust; too many can mean costs quietly eat the edge. |
| Total P&L | Net profit or loss summed across all trades, after slippage and commission. | The bottom line — but always weigh it against drawdown and trade count, never alone. |
| Average P&L per Trade | Total P&L ÷ Number of Trades. | Your per-trade edge. A few ticks either side of zero usually means no real edge once costs are paid. |
| Win Rate | Share of trades that closed profitable (winners ÷ total trades). | A high win rate alone is not profitability — many small wins and a few large losses still lose money. |
| Max Drawdown | Largest peak-to-trough drop in cumulative P&L over the window. | The worst stretch you’d have sat through. A drawdown larger than total profit is a red flag. |
Profit & loss distribution
How the P&L was actually made — the shape behind the average.| Metric | Definition | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Profit Factor | Gross profit ÷ gross loss (sum of all winning P&L over the absolute sum of all losing P&L). | Above 1.0 means wins outweigh losses; the further above, the more cushion. Right around 1.0 is a coin flip once real-world frictions are added. |
| Average Win | Mean P&L of the winning trades only. | Pair with Average Loss and Win Rate — a low win rate can still be very profitable if winners dwarf losers. |
| Average Loss | Mean P&L of the losing trades only (a negative number). | A high win rate can still bleed if the typical loser is much larger than the typical winner. |
| Largest Win | The single most profitable trade in the run. | If it dwarfs the average win, check whether one outlier is carrying the whole result. |
| Largest Loss | The single worst trade in the run. | Should sit near your intended stop. A largest loss far beyond the stop hints at gaps or a missing exit. |
Average Win and Average Loss are averages of only the winners and only the
losers — not the all-trades average. A trade that closed exactly flat counts
toward neither.
Streaks
How wins and losses clustered in time — useful for the pain you’d have to sit through, not just the totals.| Metric | Definition | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Max Consecutive Wins | The longest unbroken run of winning trades. | Long winning streaks can flatter a strategy — make sure the edge isn’t one hot patch. |
| Max Consecutive Losses | The longest unbroken run of losing trades. | The real-world test of whether you’d have kept trading through the worst skid. |
Long vs. short breakdown
The same metrics split by trade direction, so you can see whether the edge is genuinely two-sided.| Metric | Definition | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Long Trades / Short Trades | Count of trades taken in each direction. | A lopsided count can mean the entry condition fires far more on one side. |
| Long Win Rate / Short Win Rate | Win rate computed within each direction. | One direction winning while the other loses is a sign you may have a one-sided edge. |
| Long P&L / Short P&L | Total P&L attributed to each direction. | If all the profit comes from longs and shorts lose, consider restricting it — “make it long-only.” |
Trade structure
What the trades looked like as events — how long they ran and why they ended.| Metric | Definition | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Average Hold Time | Mean duration a trade stayed open, entry to exit. | Confirm it matches intent — a “day-trading” idea showing multi-day holds means a rule isn’t doing what you thought. |
| Exit-reason breakdown | Count (and share) of trades that closed via each exit reason. | The fastest read on whether your risk rules are actually shaping trades. |
The exit reasons
Every closed trade records exactly one reason it ended:| Reason | What it means |
|---|---|
stop | The stop loss triggered. |
target | The profit target was reached. |
trailing stop | The trailing stop was hit after price pulled back from its high-water mark. |
time | The max-time-in-trade limit force-closed the position. |
session close | The end-of-day flat closed an open position at the session end. |
signal | A conditional exit rule fired (the mirror of an entry condition). |
Verify it yourself
Because the engine is deterministic, the downloadable trade list always reconciles to the metrics above — every count and average is recomputable from the raw rows. See Backtesting for the exportable detail.Next steps
Run and read a backtest
See where each metric appears on the card and what “good” looks like.
Is the backtest real?
Why these numbers are reproducible — and what they don’t model.
Risk & trade management
The stops, targets, and exits behind the exit-reason breakdown.
Indicators and functions
Every indicator and series builder you can put into a rule.