What is win rate vs payoff?
Win rate is the percent of your trades that made money; payoff is how much winners earn against losers. The two dials trade against each other.
Win rate is the percent of your trades that made money; payoff is how much winners earn against losers. The two dials trade against each other.
Win rate vs payoff, explained
Of your trades that made or lost money, win rate is the percent that made money; a trade that closed at zero is left out. A 60% win rate means six of your last ten were winners. By itself that is not enough: a high win rate with tiny winners and a low win rate with large ones can earn exactly the same. Neither figure means anything on its own — the pair does. The quiet failure is a falling payoff hidden behind a comfortable win rate.
A worked example
70% wins at +$100 against 30% losses at −$200 earns $10 a trade. 35% wins at +$500 against 65% at −$150 earns $77.50.
Where win rate vs payoff shows up in a journal
A trading journal is where this stops being a definition and becomes your own number. sizeforzero computes it from the trades you import or log, alongside the rest of your analytics vocabulary, and every figure in the app carries an (i) that explains it in the same plain English you just read.