Questions About Keeping Score

[TraderBG 10]

I have a question about keeping stats on trades, mainly concerning break even trades. Most of my break evens end up being 1 or 2 ticks loss while some 1 or 2 ticks profit. How do you record these? Do you record these as a loss or record them in a seperate category? I've been treating them as losses even the ones that end up a small profit, simply because my idea didn't play out. With this, my win rate is only 50% even though my profit is up quite substantially (which I know is what really matters). But if I didn't record these as losses my win rate would be more like 75% which sounds more accurate considering how much I'm up in my account. In short, I'm just curious to know how other successful traders keep score.

 

Thanks

[trader273 10]

I record them as a separate category. Basically, a Loss, Break-even and Win. The BE trades are not full winners so I dont feel they should be counted as such, as well as they are not full losers either. If keeping track in excel, its pretty easy to set something up like that.

[Kiwi 16]

How you treat them depends on what you need from them. There is an old management dictum that your performance will reflect your measurement (e.g., if you want customer satisfaction you'd better measure it, not just the bottom line).

 

For me, a loss of any scale is a loss, and a win a win. But that's because I don't have a scratch trade policy. If I chose to scratch trades and treat those trades as "non-trades" I might record them as a separate category (win, loss, scratch) so that I could more accurately measure and change my performance.

[bootstrap 47]

i am like Kiwi, a loss is a loss and a win a win.

 

but i do keep track of the scratch trades. they are used to determine when my entry/exit plan is starting to falter. too many scratches in a row, and the market is changing and i need to either wait for it to settle back into its rhythm or change the current plan being used.

[TraderBG 10]

Thanks I appreciate your replies. I guess all that matters is the bottom line. It just seemed like 50% didn't sound right for a profitable system. Oh well I'll keep it as is.

 

Thanks again