Eight statistics give a complete picture of trading performance: win rate, expectancy, profit factor, maximum drawdown, risk-reward ratio, R-multiples, average win vs. average loss, and your equity curve. No single one tells the full story — each answers a different question, and reading them together is what actually reveals whether a strategy works.
1. Win Rate — How Often You're Right
The percentage of trades that close as winners. Useful as a starting point, but misleading on its own — a high win rate can still lose money if losses are large enough. Full breakdown: Trading Win Rate: What It Means and How to Calculate It.
2. Expectancy — What You Actually Make Per Trade
Combines win rate with average win and loss size into the average dollar (or R) result per trade. This is the single closest thing to a "is this strategy worth trading" answer. Full breakdown: Trading Expectancy: How to Calculate Your Expected Return Per Trade.
3. Profit Factor — Gross Profit vs. Gross Loss
A quick ratio of total profit to total loss across a set of trades. Fast to check, but sensitive to small sample sizes — a single large win can inflate it. Full breakdown: Profit Factor: How to Calculate and Interpret It.
4. Maximum Drawdown — Your Worst Realistic Stretch
The largest peak-to-trough decline in your account. Tells you what the worst period actually looked like, which determines whether you can survive it financially and psychologically. Full breakdown: Maximum Drawdown: How to Measure Trading Risk.
5. Risk-Reward Ratio — What You Planned Before the Trade
How much you're risking versus how much you stand to gain, set before entry. Directly determines the win rate your strategy needs just to break even. Full breakdown: Risk-Reward Ratio: How It Actually Affects Trading Performance.
6. R-Multiples — Comparing Trades on Equal Footing
Expresses each trade's result as a multiple of what was risked, so trades of different sizes can be compared directly. Especially useful if your position sizing varies across trades. Full breakdown: R-Multiple in Trading: How to Measure Trades by Risk.
7. Average Win vs. Average Loss — Your Behavioral Fingerprint
Reveals whether you're cutting winners short or letting losers run — a pattern most traders don't notice until the numbers make it obvious. Full breakdown: Average Win vs Average Loss: What Traders Should Track.
8. Equity Curve — The Full Shape of Your Performance
A chart of account value over time that shows the complete picture the other seven statistics summarize into single numbers — consistency, drawdown recovery, and whether growth is accelerating or decelerating. Full breakdown: Equity Curve Analysis: How to Evaluate Trading Performance Over Time.
Why No Single Statistic Is Enough
A high win rate can hide a negative expectancy. A strong profit factor can be built on too few trades to trust. A great risk-reward ratio on paper doesn't guarantee it's being hit in practice. Real evaluation comes from reading these numbers together, not picking a favorite and ignoring the rest.
Tracking All Eight Without Manual Work
Calculating even one of these accurately requires a complete trade history. Calculating all eight, segmented by session, pair, and setup, from a manually maintained spreadsheet is realistically not sustainable for most traders — which is exactly the gap automated tracking is built to close.
All Eight Statistics, Calculated Automatically
LedgerPips syncs with your MT4/MT5 account and calculates win rate, expectancy, profit factor, drawdown, risk-reward, R-multiples, average win/loss, and your equity curve automatically — segmented by session, pair, and setup.
Conclusion
Win rate, expectancy, profit factor, drawdown, risk-reward ratio, R-multiples, average win/loss, and your equity curve — each answers a different question, and none of them alone tells you whether a strategy actually works. Track all eight, from a complete trade history, and read them together.
