A strategy is only as good as the numbers it returns be it profit, loss, number of wins etc.
It's not only important to know your strategy's metrics you need to keep them evaluated to determine changes in the strategy’s performance due to changes in the market and/or perhaps dues to changes in characteristics of traded instruments.
With this in mind - I went cap in hand as usual to Steve and asked him to code an analyser for me to tell me what GTWV is doing in numbers and the result in the Analyser EA attached below.
Thank you Steve ! 
The setfile is very easy to understand and perhaps needs no changes for most users except for display purposes.
The output is also very easy to understand but allow me to elaborate a few points
The EA will report on what is in your account history tab based on the filter applied - Thus Today will show today's results and all history will show ..... yip ! You got it in one !
In the setfile you have two switches :
1) Showsorteddata - This allows you to see how each pair you trade is contributing (or not) towards your bottom line
2) Showunsorteddata - This allows you to see a consolidated total rather than broken down by pairs
These switches are not mutually exclusive and you can set both to true so that you see individual pair results AND a consolidated total at the bottom of the chart.
Note - I am trading 7 pairs so the EA is set up for displaying results for 7 pairs + the consolidated data - you may have to play around with the settings to get it to fit your monitor.
The Output
1) Closed - Total trades closed
2) Winners - Total winners
3) Losers - Total losers
4) Won - Total won
5) Lost - Total lost
6) Avg won = Total won / total winners
7) Avg lost = Total lost / total losers
8) Win rate = total winners / total trades
9) loss rate = total losers / total trades
10) Exp per trade = Expected return per trade in account currency over the long term
11) Exp per account unit = Expected return in percentage terms per unit of account currency traded over the long term
The last two numbers become more reliable the more data in your account however these are extremely important because NO strategy will earn its user a living if these are negative !!
Clearly the analyser gives dynamic feedback as each trade closes - but because it uses the entire dataset you provide in your history tab, unless you are changing strategy parameters daily and reporting on daily results, it will take time for new closed trades to influence past results.
However, you will be able to see what changes to your setfiles are doing to your results in due course.
In Practice
The formulae for expectancy (No 10 above) = (Avg win * win rate) - ( Avg loss * loss rate)
if this number is negative play around with the components above in your trade management to get it positive.
The formulae for expectancy (No 11 above) = (1+ (Avg win / avg loss)) * win rate - 1
if this number is negative play around with the components above in your trade management to get it positive.
Example of practical application:
As a result of last weeks results I decided I needed to increase average wins and lower average losses on my test TF's.
Well I have by playing around with BE, TP, trails
However, in doing so I also increased the loss rate too much by manipulating the SL. Consequently even though each trade is now on average winning more than the average loser, due to the high loss rate GTWV is losing rather than making money.
Now I can keep my BE etc steady and play around with the SL
I would have struggled to pinpoint this without the analyser !
Finally as usual - no change requests to Steve -This is coded as I requested - any and all output or logic errors are my sole responsibility.
Charles
Gravy Train Analysis EA.mq4
ps - As a bonus for other strategy users, if you leave the magic number as is at -1 it will report on whatever is in your history tab, they do not have to be trades created by GTWV.
All strategies can therefore have these key metrics reported by use of this EA  |
