On this page
- 1How does Tradijourney calculate trading metrics?
- 2What is net P&L?
- 3What is win rate?
- 4What are average win and average loss?
- 5What is expectancy?
- 6What is profit factor?
- 7What is an R-multiple?
- 8What is max drawdown?
- 9How are winning and losing streaks counted?
- 10How do breakdowns by tag, symbol, weekday, session and hour work?
- 11How many trades do you need before the numbers mean anything?
How does Tradijourney calculate trading metrics?
From your closed trades, every time you look, using net P&L after commission, swap and fees. Nothing is stored or cached, so editing a trade can never leave a stale number.
Each account is worked out on its own, because two accounts can hold different currencies. Open trades are left out of every figure until they close. All of it happens in your browser; see where your data is stored.
The examples on these pages all use one sample account: a $5,000.00 deposit, then 10 closed trades.
Sample account
| Trade | Net P&L | Outcome | Balance after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +$120.00 | Win | $5,120.00 |
| 2 | +$90.00 | Win | $5,210.00 |
| 3 | $0.00 | Breakeven | $5,210.00 |
| 4 | +$30.00 | Win | $5,240.00 |
| 5 | −$60.00 | Loss | $5,180.00 |
| 6 | −$75.00 | Loss | $5,105.00 |
| 7 | −$45.00 | Loss | $5,060.00 |
| 8 | +$150.00 | Win | $5,210.00 |
| 9 | −$60.00 | Loss | $5,150.00 |
| 10 | −$50.00 | Loss | $5,100.00 |
What is net P&L?
Net P&L is the sum of the net P&L of your closed trades, after commission, swap and fees. Open trades are left out until they close, and a trade with partial exits counts once, in full, on the day it closes.
Definition, as the journal computes it
Net vs gross. Every figure uses net P&L, after commission, swap and fees, unless it says otherwise. The only gross figures are the gross line of the P&L breakdown, and 1R, which is the price loss at the stop before costs (see R-multiple).
From the journal's written definitions: Conventions
Each trade’s net is its gross P&L with its commission, swap and fees added in, where costs are negative and credits positive. The sample account’s net P&L is +$100.00, which is why its balance ends at $5,100.00.
What is win rate?
Win rate = winning trades ÷ closed trades, where a win is any trade with net P&L above zero. Breakevens count as closed trades, so the sample account’s 4 wins out of 10 trades is 40.0% even with a breakeven among them.
There is no band around zero: a trade that made $7.00 and paid $7.00 in commission is a breakeven, and +$0.01 is a win. More on win rate.
What are average win and average loss?
Average win = net P&L of winning trades ÷ number of winning trades, and average loss is the same for losing trades, so it is negative. In the sample account they are $390.00 ÷ 4 = $97.50 and −$290.00 ÷ 5 = −$58.00.
Each is rounded to the cent, halves away from zero. With no winning trades there is no average win, and the journal says so rather than showing $0.00. The largest win and largest loss are single trades: +$150.00 (trade 8) and −$75.00 (trade 6) in the sample.
What is expectancy?
Expectancy = net P&L ÷ closed trades: what an average trade made, breakevens included. The sample account made $100.00 over 10 trades, so its expectancy is +$10.00 per trade.
It also equals win rate × average win + loss rate × average loss: 0.40 × $97.50 + 0.50 × (−$58.00) = $10.00. More on expectancy.
What is profit factor?
Profit factor = what your winning trades made ÷ what your losing trades lost, without the minus. In the sample account that is $390.00 ÷ $290.00, about 1.34.
With no losing trades there is nothing to divide by, so the journal shows “no losses” rather than infinity. More on profit factor.
What is an R-multiple?
A trade’s R is its net P&L divided by 1R, the loss it would have taken at its initial stop before costs. Average R is the sum of R ÷ the trades that have one, so trades logged without a stop are left out.
R lets you compare a 0.10-lot trade with a 2-lot trade, because each is measured against what it risked. More on R-multiples, or check a plan before you enter with the risk reward calculator.
What is max drawdown?
Max drawdown is the largest fall from a peak to a later low in your balance after each closed trade. In the sample account the balance peaked at $5,240.00 and fell to $5,060.00, a drawdown of $180.00, or 3.4%.
It’s measured on the balance after each closed trade, not on open positions, and deposits and withdrawals don’t count as gains or falls. More on max drawdown.
How are winning and losing streaks counted?
A streak is a run of wins, or of losses, in the order trades closed, and a breakeven neither ends it nor adds to it. So win, breakeven, win is a streak of 2 wins.
Definition, as the journal computes it
A streak is a run of wins, or of losses, in close order.
Breakevens don’t end a streak and don’t extend it. Win, breakeven, win is a streak of 2 wins.
From the journal's written definitions: Streaks
- Longest win streak:3 wins, trades 1 to 4 (trade 3 was a breakeven).
- Longest loss streak:3 losses, trades 5 to 7.
- Current streak:2 losses, trades 9 and 10.
If two streaks are equally long, the earlier one is shown. Streaks count within the period you’re looking at, so a run that started before it counts from the period’s first trade.
How do breakdowns by tag, symbol, weekday, session and hour work?
Each group gets the same figures as the whole account, worked out by the same code over just that group’s trades. Money goes by when a trade closed, but weekday, hour and session go by when you entered it, because they ask when you took the trade.
- Symbol, weekday, session and hour:every trade is in exactly one group, so the groups add up to the account’s trade count and net P&L.
- Tags:a trade with two tags counts under both, so tag rows don’t add up to the total. Each category also gets an “any tag” and a “no tag” row, which do split the trades between them.
- Sessions:Asia is 09:00–18:00 Tokyo time, London 08:00–17:00 London time and New York 08:00–17:00 New York time, each on its own clock. A trade entered while two are open goes in their overlap row, so it counts once.
- Weekday:the trading day the trade opened in, using the account’s day end, so a Sunday-evening entry on a 17:00 New York account is a Monday trade.
Streaks and drawdown aren’t given per group, because they belong to the account’s balance over time, which a group doesn’t have.
How many trades do you need before the numbers mean anything?
The journal flags fewer than 30 closed trades as a small sample. Even at 30, a strategy that truly wins half the time will usually show a win rate somewhere between about 32% and 68%, so early figures move a lot.
That range comes from ±1.96 × √(0.5 × 0.5 ÷ 30), about ±18 percentage points. Each breakdown group is flagged on its own trade count, so most groups in a young journal are small samples. The sample account on these pages, at 10 trades, would be flagged too.