Documentation
3. Reading Backtest Results
- Created
- Jun 5, 2026
- Updated
- Jun 5, 2026
After a run, the Strategy Tester reports performance from three angles: headline statistics, the equity curve, and the individual trades. This page explains what each shows.
Performance metrics
The Performance tab leads with the headline numbers and then expands into detailed breakdowns. Key metrics include:
| Metric | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Net profit | Total profit and loss, net of commissions. |
| Return % | Net profit as a percentage of starting capital. |
| Profitable trades (win rate) | Winning trades divided by total closed trades. |
| Profit factor | Gross profit divided by gross loss. |
| Max drawdown | Largest peak-to-trough equity decline, in cash and percent. |
| Sharpe / Sortino | Risk-adjusted return ratios (Sortino uses downside deviation). |
| Avg trade / Expected payoff | Average P&L per closed trade. |
| Exposure | Fraction of bars with an open position. |
| CAGR | Compound annual growth rate. |
The detailed breakdowns group these into Returns, Benchmarking, Risk-adjusted performance, Trades analysis, Capital usage, and Run-ups / Drawdowns, including averages and durations for run-ups and drawdowns.
Equity curve and buy-and-hold
The result plots the strategy's cumulative P&L as an equity curve, alongside a buy-and-hold benchmark — the return of simply buying and holding the instrument over the same period. The outperformance figure is the difference between the two, so you can tell whether the strategy actually beat holding.
The trades list
The Trades tab lists every trade with its side (long/short), quantity, entry and exit (time and price), bars held and duration, gross and net P&L, commission, and the maximum favorable/adverse excursion reached while the trade was open. The tab label shows the total trade count.
Open positions
If the strategy is still in a position at the last bar, its unrealized P&L is reported separately as open P&L, so closed and open results are not conflated.
Next steps
Adjust the broker model that shapes these results.
Next: Strategy & Test Settings