Trading Metrics Encyclopedia
Master the essential metrics that separate profitable traders from the rest. Get precise definitions, formulas, calculators, and advanced insights that go beyond basic explanations.
Why Our Metrics Encyclopedia Is Different
Competitors give you definitions. We give you actionable trading intelligence and teach you where to find them on the TradesViz dashboard.
Formulas & Calculators
Not just definitions, get the exact formulas and worked examples so you can calculate metrics yourself.
Advanced Insights
"Why generic Profit Factor is misleading" - we explain what others miss, based on real trading data.
TradesViz Integration
See how TradesViz automatically calculates and visualizes each metric. No spreadsheets needed!
Browse by Category
Find the trading metrics you need to understand and improve your performance.
Trading Metrics
28 termsProfit Factor
The ratio of profit to loss, measuring overall trading profitability.
Win Rate
The percentage of trades that result in a profit.
Expectancy
The average amount you expect to win (or lose) per trade.
R-Value (R-Multiple)
Trade outcomes measured relative to initial risk. 1R = your risk amount.
Hit Ratio (Win Rate)
The percentage of trades that result in a profit, a fundamental measure of trading accuracy.
Relative Volume
The volume of the underlying at the time of your trade entry, used to correlate market conditions with your trading performance.
Returns Distribution
A visualization showing how your trade returns are distributed across different outcome ranges.
Maximum Drawdown
The largest peak-to-trough decline in account value before a new high.
Reward-Risk Ratio
The ratio comparing potential profit to potential risk for a trade.
Average Win / Average Loss
The mean profit on winning trades and mean loss on losing trades.
Payoff Ratio (Adjusted Win-Loss Ratio)
The ratio of average winning trade to average losing trade. Also called Adjusted Win-Loss Ratio in TradesViz.
Trade Duration / Holding Period
The length of time a position is held from entry to exit.
Commission & Fee Impact
The total cost of trading fees and how they affect net profitability.
Consecutive Wins/Losses (Streaks)
The number of winning or losing trades in a row, measuring trading streaks.
Time of Day Performance
Analyzing trading performance by time of day to identify optimal trading hours.
Trade Setup / Strategy Tagging
Categorizing trades by strategy type to analyze performance of each approach.
Adjusted Win-Loss Ratio
A ratio that adjusts for both win rate and average win/loss sizes, measuring overall trading edge.
Kelly Criterion
A formula for optimal position sizing based on edge and odds, maximizing long-term growth.
Equity Curve
A chart showing account value over time, visualizing trading performance and drawdowns.
Profit Per Day / Daily P&L
Average daily profit or loss, measuring consistency and sustainability of returns.
Maximum Favorable Excursion (MFE)
The maximum amount of price movement in your favor during the duration of a trade, used to optimize profit-taking and exit strategies.
Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE)
The maximum amount of price movement against your favor during the duration of a trade, used to optimize stop-loss placement and evaluate risk exposure.
Best Exit
A simulation answering 'what if you moved the last execution around a little bit further in time?' while respecting your stop loss constraints.
Running PnL
A continuous time-series of your trade's profit/loss taken every 5 seconds to 1 minute, revealing the complete journey of your position's equity.
EOD Exit Analysis
A 'what if' analysis simulating your profit/loss if you had held your trade until end of day (market close).
Multi-Timeframe Exit Analysis
Exit simulation analyzing what your PnL would have been if you exited at specific time intervals (EOD, EOD+1, EOD+2, SOD+1, etc.).
System Quality Number (SQN)
A metric developed by Dr. Van Tharp to evaluate the 'quality' of a trading system by balancing expectancy with volatility.
Gain-to-Pain Ratio
A metric popularized by Jack Schwager measuring net profit relative to total losses, indicating return consistency.
Options Trading
18 termsOptions Flow Analysis
Tracking and analysis of institutional options trading activity to identify market sentiment.
Sweep Order
A large options order that is split across multiple exchanges and executed rapidly to fill immediately at the best available prices.
Block Order
A large options trade executed as a single transaction, typically negotiated off-exchange between institutions.
Split Order
A large options order executed piecemeal on a single exchange over time to minimize market impact.
Options Premium
The total dollar amount paid for an options contract, calculated as the option price multiplied by 100 (contract multiplier).
Cumulative Flow
The running total of bullish minus bearish options premium throughout the trading day, showing net institutional sentiment.
Flow Divergence
A discrepancy between price direction and options flow direction, often signaling potential reversals.
Unusual Options Activity
Options flow scanner that finds trends in premium, volume, and trade count to detect institutional footprints before big moves.
Delta (Options Greek)
Measures an option's directional exposure - how much the option price changes for a 1 dollar move in the underlying.
Gamma (Options Greek)
Measures how fast Delta changes as the underlying price moves - the acceleration of an option's price.
Theta (Options Greek)
Measures daily time decay - how much value an option loses each day just from the passage of time.
Vega (Options Greek)
Measures sensitivity to implied volatility - how much an option's price changes when IV moves by 1%.
Options Greeks
A set of risk metrics (Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega) that measure how an option's price responds to various factors.
Cash-Secured Put (CSP)
An options strategy where you sell a put while holding enough cash to buy the underlying if assigned.
Capital at Risk (Options)
The total capital deployed or reserved for options positions, calculated differently for long vs short options.
Payoff Diagram
A visual chart showing an options position's profit and loss across a range of underlying prices.
Days to Expiration (DTE)
The number of calendar days remaining until an options contract expires, crucial for time decay analysis.
Net Greeks (Portfolio)
The aggregated Greeks across all open options positions, showing overall portfolio risk exposure.
TradesViz Features
11 termsPivot Grid
A multidimensional data analysis tool for grouping, pivoting, and visualizing trade data dynamically.
Trade Plans & Checklists
Customizable checklists and data fields to track qualitative metrics, rule adherence, and psychology.
AI Q&A (Natural Language Query)
Query your trading database using plain English questions to generate charts and stats.
Options Execution Simulator
A backtesting tool for simulating complex options strategies using historical options chain data.
Custom Dashboard
A personalized interface with 600+ widget types to create bespoke trading views.
Trading Goals
Automated tracking for daily, weekly, and monthly performance targets.
Advanced Commission Profiles
Custom commission and fee structures for accurate Net PnL calculation.
Auto-Sync & Import
Automated trade data import from brokers via API and other methods.
Tag Groups
Hierarchical system for organizing trade tags into categories for advanced analysis.
Seasonality Analysis
Charts visualizing recurring price trends over specific calendar periods.
Universal Trading Simulator
A global market simulator supporting 50,000+ international symbols with flexible timeframe configurations.
Charts & Visualizations
4 termsTreemap Chart
A hierarchical chart displaying data as nested rectangles, useful for spotting outliers in PnL or Volume across sectors or tags.
Box Plot (Whisker Plot)
A statistical chart describing the distribution of data points using quartiles, highlighting medians and outliers.
Funnel Chart
A chart showing values across progressive stages, useful for analyzing the 'conversion rate' of setups to wins.
Seasonality Charts
Charts visualizing recurring price trends over specific calendar periods (Monthly, Yearly, Week-of-Year).
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