Trading stats

[peter2]

I am curious to know how people collate their trade stats.
Consider these results: -8, +14, -6, +34(+22,+12), -4

The +34 result includes an additional entry (pyramid) and the total position is managed with one exit.

5 trades: 2W(40%) +48 with AW = 24, 3L -18 with AL = -6, Expectancy = (0.4 x 24)-(0.6 x 6) = 6.0 )

OR

6 trades: 3W(50%) +48 with AW = 16, 3L -18 with AL = -6, Expectancy = (0.5 x 16)-(0.5 x 6) = 5.0 )

I use the first method. Does it matter, not really. It may depend on where your focus is. Do you work on your W% or do you work on improving your expectancy?

I don't worry about my W% as long as its >50%, but I do try and improve my AW/AL by keeping my losses small and add to winning trades to increase my AW.

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There is another aspect relating to our stats. How do you describe those break even trades? If you win only a few dollars when you exit after moving your SL to BE is this a winning trade? I class all my very small wins (<0.1R) as losers, because I have risked a much larger amount and not profited significantly for that risk. This decision lowers my W% but again I am not too concerned by this.

 

[beamstas]

For breakeven trades it can depend on your account size.
You'd probably want a > 0.1% gain to call it better than breakeven


IE: for a $50,000 account you'd probably want to make 50 bucks to call it a winner

Brad

 

[nomore4s]

I personally use the second method when I pryamid a trade and also partially exit a trade - it is treated as a seperate trade. Doesn't really matter imo as it will all come out in the wash - the overall profit is what matters.

For breakeven trades if I return even 10c after brokerage it is considered a win. if it loses 10c it is a loss. The only time I count a true breakeven trade is if it returns $0.00. This obviously affects my ave win & ave loss, but again this all comes out in the wash over time, I'm more concerned about my overall profitability then the stats.

 

[skc]

All pyrimid / partial exits are one single trade for me. Because they are the same signals / trade management etc.

Slightly trickier to record on a spreadsheet, however.