Trading Metrics That Actually Matter
Understand the key metrics that separate profitable traders from the rest
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Equity Curve
Your equity curve is a visual plot of your account balance over time. A healthy curve trends upward with controlled drawdowns — not spikes and crashes.
Learn more PerformanceTrading Expectancy
Positive expectancy means each trade has a positive expected value. If your expectancy is above 0, your system makes money over time — regardless of win rate.
Learn more PerformancePayoff Ratio
Payoff ratio is your average win divided by your average loss — above 1.5 is good, above 2.0 is excellent for most strategies.
Learn more PerformanceAverage Pips Per Trade
A good average is 10-30 pips per trade for day traders and 50-150+ for swing traders. But pip value varies by pair — 10 pips on XAU/USD is not the same as 10 pips on EUR/USD.
Learn more PerformanceProfit Factor
A good profit factor is above 1.5. It means your gross profits are 1.5x your gross losses. Below 1.0 means you're losing money overall.
Learn more PerformanceRecovery Factor
Recovery factor divides net profit by maximum drawdown — a value above 3 indicates strong recovery capability.
Learn more PerformanceRisk-Reward Ratio
A good risk-reward ratio in forex is at least 1.5:1, meaning you risk 1 unit to make 1.5. Most consistently profitable traders target 2:1 or higher.
Learn more PerformanceSharpe Ratio
A good Sharpe ratio for trading is above 1.0. It measures risk-adjusted returns — how much return you earn per unit of volatility.
Learn more PerformanceSortino Ratio
A good Sortino ratio is above 2.0, measuring risk-adjusted returns using only downside deviation rather than total volatility.
Learn more PerformanceWin Rate
A good win rate in forex trading is 40-60%, but it depends entirely on your risk-reward ratio. A 40% win rate with 2:1 R:R is more profitable than 70% with 0.5:1.
Learn moreCalmar Ratio
Calmar ratio divides annualized return by maximum drawdown — above 1.0 is acceptable, above 3.0 is excellent.
Learn more RiskMaximum Drawdown
An acceptable maximum drawdown is under 20% for retail traders and 5-10% for prop firm traders. FTMO enforces a strict 10% max drawdown rule.
Learn more RiskMaximum Consecutive Losses
At a 50% win rate over 100 trades, expect a max losing streak of 7. At 40%, expect 9-10. Size your positions so the worst streak doesn't breach drawdown limits.
Learn more RiskMaximum Drawdown
Maximum drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough decline in account equity. Pro traders target under 10%, beginners under 20%. Above 30% signals overleveraging.
Learn moreConsistency Score
Consistency score measures how evenly your profits are distributed across trades. Prop firms require it — one lucky trade shouldn't account for most of your P&L.
Learn more ConsistencyTrade Frequency
Trade frequency measures how often you trade, helping identify overtrading or undertrading relative to your strategy.
Learn moreAverage Hold Time
Average hold time varies by style: scalpers hold 1-15 minutes, day traders 15 minutes to hours, swing traders hold days to weeks. Consistency matters more than duration.
Learn more ExecutionAverage Risk-Reward Ratio
A good average R:R is 1.5:1 or higher. But your actual R:R matters more than your planned R:R — most traders give back 30-50% of their target.
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