[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1175},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length-related":253},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":238,"date":239,"description":240,"draft":241,"extension":242,"meta":243,"navigation":241,"path":244,"related":245,"seo":250,"stem":251,"term":137,"updated":239,"__hash__":252},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length.md","What Is Average Trade Length? Formula and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":230},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,32,35,43,50,53,57,60,79,92,96,107,118,129,133,148,170,197,201,223],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Average trade length is the mean time a position stayed open, measured from the moment it was opened to the moment it was closed, across every closed trade on the account. It describes the holding period a strategy actually used, as recorded by the broker, rather than the one it was designed around. It is the fastest single check on whether a described strategy and a published track record are the same thing.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,19,20],{},"Every closed trade carries an open time and a close time. The metric is the arithmetic mean of the gaps, calculated on our servers from the account's trade log and sent to the page ready to display.",[22,23,28],"pre",{"className":24,"code":26,"language":27},[25],"language-text","Avg. trade length = Σ (close time − open time) \u002F closed trades carrying both timestamps\n","text",[29,30,26],"code",{"__ignoreMap":31},"",[10,33,34],{},"Three properties of that formula decide how to read it.",[10,36,37,38,42],{},"It is a ",[39,40,41],"strong",{},"mean, not a median",". One position left open for three months sits in the same average as four hundred trades that lasted ninety seconds, and moves the result far more than any of them. A short average is therefore strong evidence of short trades; a long one can come from a handful of outliers.",[10,44,45,46,49],{},"It counts ",[39,47,48],{},"closed trades only",", and only buy and sell orders — deposits, withdrawals and cancelled pending orders are excluded. A floating loser held open for a year contributes nothing until the day it is finally closed, at which point the average jumps.",[10,51,52],{},"Positions are counted separately, not merged. A grid running twenty concurrent orders logs twenty durations, so the figure answers \"how long was a trade open\", not \"how long was the account exposed\".",[14,54,56],{"id":55},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,58,59],{},"Holding period is the one structural fact about a strategy that a trade log cannot hide. A track record described as swing trading, with a four-minute average, is not swing trading, whatever the description says. Neither reading is better than the other; the mismatch is the finding.",[10,61,62,63,68,69,73,74,78],{},"It also decides ",[64,65,67],"a",{"href":66},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-cost-percentage","which costs dominate",". ",[64,70,72],{"href":71},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","Spread"," and commission are paid once per trade, so they weigh heaviest on the shortest holds. ",[64,75,77],{"href":76},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-swap-in-forex","Swap"," accrues per night and only touches positions carried through the rollover. Two systems with identical gross results and different holding periods pay for entirely different things.",[10,80,81,82,86,87,91],{},"And it sets ",[64,83,85],{"href":84},"\u002Fguides\u002Fhow-much-history-a-track-record-needs","how much a track record can prove per unit of time",". An account averaging two hours produces evidence quickly; one averaging three weeks needs years to reach the same number of independent outcomes, which is why holding period and ",[64,88,90],{"href":89},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","profit factor"," have to be read together.",[14,93,95],{"id":94},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,97,98,99,102,103,106],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. Across the published accounts with trading history (August 2026), the ",[39,100,101],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account holds ",[39,104,105],{},"171 closed trades",".",[10,108,109,110,113,114,117],{},"That is an intraday population. The median account opens and closes inside the same session, so most of its positions never reach a rollover — yet the same records carry ",[39,111,112],{},"$862,547 in swap",", and ",[39,115,116],{},"86.3% of accounts with any swap pay net negative swap",". The overnight cost is concentrated in the minority of accounts that carry positions, and for them it is a real line item rather than a rounding error.",[10,119,120,121,124,125,128],{},"The automation figures explain the short median. The ",[39,122,123],{},"median autotrading share is 99%"," and ",[39,126,127],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated",". Programs close positions when a rule fires, not at the end of the working day.",[14,130,132],{"id":131},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,134,135,138,139,143,144,147],{},[39,136,137],{},"Avg. Trade Length"," is the last row of the ",[140,141,142],"em",{},"Trades"," column in ",[39,145,146],{},"Advanced Statistics",", in the Table view, on the owner's dashboard and on the public account page alike. It adapts its unit: minutes below an hour, one decimal of hours below a day, then days and hours above that.",[10,149,150,151,154,155,158,159,124,162,165,166,169],{},"The same panel turns holding time into a distribution. The ",[39,152,153],{},"Duration"," button, fourth in the Table \u002F Weekday \u002F Hourly \u002F Duration switch, opens a scatter plot titled ",[140,156,157],{},"Trade Duration vs Profitability",": hours held on the horizontal axis, profit or loss on the vertical, bubbles sized by volume in lots and split into ",[140,160,161],{},"Winning Trades",[140,163,164],{},"Losing Trades",". One limit worth knowing: it plots the ",[39,167,168],{},"most recent 200 closed trades",", not the whole history, so it reads current behaviour rather than a lifetime. Every result on it is net of commission and swap. Hovering gives the ticket, symbol, volume, duration, P\u002FL and the open and close times to the minute.",[10,171,172,173,176,177,179,180,183,184,183,187,183,190,193,194,106],{},"Per trade, the ",[39,174,175],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," table carries an optional ",[39,178,153],{}," column — closed trades only, off by default, switched on from the column menu — formatted as ",[29,181,182],{},"2d 5h",", ",[29,185,186],{},"3h 14m",[29,188,189],{},"12m",[29,191,192],{},"4m 20s"," or ",[29,195,196],{},"42s",[14,198,200],{"id":199},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[202,203,204,211,217],"ul",{},[205,206,207,210],"li",{},[39,208,209],{},"\"The average is the typical trade.\""," It is a mean, and holding times have a long right tail. Check the Duration scatter before assuming the average describes any real trade.",[205,212,213,216],{},[39,214,215],{},"\"A short average proves scalping.\""," It can also come from a system that closes winners in minutes and holds losers for weeks — the average shortens while the risk lengthens.",[205,218,219,222],{},[39,220,221],{},"\"Open trades count.\""," They do not, until they close. A long-running floating position is invisible here by construction.",[10,224,225,226,106],{},"For how holding period reads alongside every other number on an account page, see ",[64,227,229],{"href":228},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","how to read a trading account dashboard",{"title":31,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":232},2,[233,234,235,236,237],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":55,"depth":231,"text":56},{"id":94,"depth":231,"text":95},{"id":131,"depth":231,"text":132},{"id":199,"depth":231,"text":200},"Metrics","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","Average trade length is the mean time a closed position stayed open. The formula, why it is a mean rather than a typical trade, and what thousands of accounts show.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length",[246,247,248,249],"what-is-expectancy","what-is-a-profit-factor","what-is-a-lot-in-forex","what-is-terminal-ping",{"title":5,"description":240},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","9YnXyNSu-z6VH6wi48WXe0RefoTtl4UCdlKjuXMrfUQ",[254,447,725,946],{"id":255,"title":256,"body":257,"category":434,"date":239,"description":435,"draft":241,"extension":242,"meta":436,"navigation":241,"path":437,"related":438,"seo":443,"stem":444,"term":445,"updated":239,"__hash__":446},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-lot-in-forex.md","What Is a Lot in Forex? Standard, Mini and Micro",{"type":7,"value":258,"toc":427},[259,262,264,267,273,276,282,290,292,295,302,318,320,334,351,353,372,384,390,398,400,420],[10,260,261],{},"A lot is the unit in which trade size is measured. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency of the pair, a mini lot is 10,000 and a micro lot is 1,000, so a position of 0.10 lots on EUR\u002FUSD controls 10,000 euro. Every volume figure on a track record — and almost every cost a broker charges — is denominated in lots.",[14,263,17],{"id":16},[10,265,266],{},"The lot is a multiplier applied to a contract size that the broker defines per symbol.",[22,268,271],{"className":269,"code":270,"language":27},[25],"Units traded = Lots × Contract size\n\nStandard lot   1.00  = 100,000 units\nMini lot       0.10  =  10,000 units\nMicro lot      0.01  =   1,000 units\n",[29,272,270],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,274,275],{},"Contract size is what converts a price movement into money. One pip is 0.0001 on a five-digit forex pair and 0.01 on a yen pair, so the value of a pip follows directly:",[22,277,280],{"className":278,"code":279,"language":27},[25],"Pip value = Lots × Contract size × pip size, converted into account currency\n          = 1.00 × 100,000 × 0.0001 = $10 per pip on EUR\u002FUSD\n",[29,281,279],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,283,284,285,289],{},"The 100,000 figure is a forex convention, not a rule. Gold, indices, energies and crypto CFDs each carry their own contract size, set by the broker and visible in the symbol specification, so \"one lot\" on XAUUSD is not \"one lot\" on EUR\u002FUSD. On a ",[64,286,288],{"href":287},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-cent-account","cent account"," the account currency is scaled instead, which shrinks the effective size of the same nominal lot again.",[14,291,56],{"id":55},[10,293,294],{},"Lots are the unit brokers bill in. Commission is quoted per lot, per side or round turn. Swap is quoted per lot, per night. Spread cost is the spread in pips multiplied by the pip value, which is itself a function of contract size. Nothing in that list scales with the number of trades — it all scales with volume.",[10,296,297,298,106],{},"That makes total volume the denominator that makes two accounts comparable: cost in dollars says nothing on its own, because a large account trading big size should pay more. Cost per lot divides the account size out, and it is the only form in which ",[64,299,301],{"href":300},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","one broker's charges can be held against another's",[10,303,304,305,309,310,312,313,317],{},"Volume is also the one number a trader chooses outright. ",[64,306,308],{"href":307},"\u002Fguides\u002Fwin-rate-is-not-an-edge","Win rate",", drawdown and ",[64,311,90],{"href":89}," are outcomes; lot size is an instruction, given before the market has any say, which is why a volume column read on its own reveals ",[64,314,316],{"href":315},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","position sizing"," discipline faster than any performance metric.",[14,319,95],{"id":94},[10,321,322,323,326,327,330,331,106],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. The public accounts here have traded ",[39,324,325],{},"1,724,575 lots"," (August 2026) — roughly ",[39,328,329],{},"770 lots per published account with history"," — across ",[39,332,333],{},"703 distinct broker servers",[10,335,336,337,124,340,346,347,350],{},"The cost side of that volume comes to ",[39,338,339],{},"$4,782,670 in commissions",[39,341,342,343],{},"$862,547 in ",[64,344,345],{"href":76},"swap"," on the trades synchronised here, with ",[39,348,349],{},"86.3% of accounts that pay any swap net negative on it",". Resist dividing one by the other for a headline rate: the totals cover different populations, and the mix underneath contains symbols with unequal contract sizes, brokers quoting per side against round turn, and spread-only accounts paying no commission at all. Cost per lot is the right comparison — it is simply one to run on a single account, where both numbers come from the same trades.",[14,352,132],{"id":131},[10,354,355,358,359,361,362,364,365,124,368,371],{},[39,356,357],{},"Total Lots"," sits in the ",[140,360,142],{}," column of ",[39,363,146],{},", shown to two decimals, directly above ",[39,366,367],{},"Total Commissions",[39,369,370],{},"Total Swap Paid",". All three are sums over the account's closed buy and sell trades, calculated on our servers, with deposits and withdrawals excluded. Both cost rows keep the sign the broker recorded, so commission normally reads as a negative number and swap turns red when the account paid more than it earned. Reading the three rows together gives the cost-per-lot arithmetic above for one account, on real broker records rather than a published price list.",[10,373,172,374,143,377,379,380,383],{},[39,375,376],{},"Volume",[39,378,175],{}," carries the size of every ticket, to two decimals. Account owners can remove it from public pages and widgets with the ",[39,381,382],{},"Lots"," toggle in the account's privacy settings, so a public account page without a volume column is a deliberate choice rather than missing data.",[10,385,386,387,389],{},"The ",[39,388,153],{}," view in the same Advanced Statistics panel encodes volume as bubble size — over the most recent 200 closed trades — which is where an escalating lot progression becomes visible as growing circles rather than a column of numbers.",[10,391,392,393,397],{},"To size a position before placing it, the ",[64,394,396],{"href":395},"\u002Ftools\u002Fposition-size-calculator","position size calculator"," takes account balance, risk and stop distance and returns the lot size, with the contract size selectable as Micro Lot (1,000), Mini Lot (10,000) or Standard Lot (100,000).",[14,399,200],{"id":199},[202,401,402,408,414],{},[205,403,404,407],{},[39,405,406],{},"\"0.01 lots is a small position.\""," Relative to what. A micro lot on EUR\u002FUSD risks about $0.10 per pip; on a $200 account with a 50-pip stop that is 2.5% of equity.",[205,409,410,413],{},[39,411,412],{},"\"Total Lots shows the size I trade.\""," It is a sum. The same total can come from ten thousand micro trades or one hundred standard ones — the trade table is where the distribution lives.",[205,415,416,419],{},[39,417,418],{},"\"More volume means a better trader.\""," Volume measures activity and cost. It carries no information about whether any of it was profitable.",[10,421,422,423,106],{},"For reading a volume column as a risk fingerprint, see the ",[64,424,426],{"href":425},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-volume-analysis","trading volume analysis guide",{"title":31,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":428},[429,430,431,432,433],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":55,"depth":231,"text":56},{"id":94,"depth":231,"text":95},{"id":131,"depth":231,"text":132},{"id":199,"depth":231,"text":200},"Costs","A lot is the unit trade size is measured in: 100,000 units of base currency for one standard lot. The contract size arithmetic, and 1.7 million real lots.",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-lot-in-forex",[439,440,441,442],"what-is-position-sizing","what-is-a-spread","what-is-a-swap-in-forex","what-is-average-trade-length",{"title":256,"description":435},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-lot-in-forex","Lot","JciCfYjJ3q1fyMdS6We0M0PVmIiJgVcO0mug9Dlj2AE",{"id":448,"title":449,"body":450,"category":238,"date":239,"description":715,"draft":716,"extension":242,"meta":717,"navigation":241,"path":89,"related":718,"seo":722,"stem":723,"term":618,"updated":239,"__hash__":724},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor.md","What Is Profit Factor? Formula, Good Values, Real Data",{"type":7,"value":451,"toc":708},[452,455,457,463,466,469,475,478,546,548,551,559,567,569,583,590,595,602,612,614,641,666,668,701],[10,453,454],{},"Profit factor is gross profit divided by gross loss: the total won across all winning trades, divided by the total lost across all losing trades. A profit factor of 1.50 means the account made $1.50 for every $1.00 it gave back. Below 1.00 the account loses money by construction, regardless of how often it wins.",[14,456,17],{"id":16},[22,458,461],{"className":459,"code":460,"language":27},[25],"Profit Factor = Gross Profit \u002F |Gross Loss|\n",[29,462,460],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,464,465],{},"Note what the formula ignores: how long the account traded, how much capital it used, and how deep it fell along the way.",[10,467,468],{},"It can also be written in terms of win rate and average trade size, which is where it becomes diagnostic:",[22,470,473],{"className":471,"code":472,"language":27},[25],"Profit Factor = (Win Rate × Avg Win) \u002F ((1 − Win Rate) × Avg Loss)\n",[29,474,472],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,476,477],{},"Two very different systems can land on the same value. A 30% win rate with winners four times the size of losers gives 1.71. An 80% win rate with winners half the size of losers gives 2.00. Both work; they fail differently and feel completely different to trade.",[479,480,481,494],"table",{},[482,483,484],"thead",{},[485,486,487,491],"tr",{},[488,489,490],"th",{},"Profit factor",[488,492,493],{},"Reading",[495,496,497,506,514,522,530,538],"tbody",{},[485,498,499,503],{},[500,501,502],"td",{},"Below 1.00",[500,504,505],{},"Loses money — structurally, not marginally",[485,507,508,511],{},[500,509,510],{},"1.00 – 1.10",[500,512,513],{},"Inside the noise. One bad week erases it",[485,515,516,519],{},[500,517,518],{},"1.10 – 1.30",[500,520,521],{},"Thin but real edge, if the sample is large",[485,523,524,527],{},[500,525,526],{},"1.30 – 2.00",[500,528,529],{},"A working strategy",[485,531,532,535],{},[500,533,534],{},"2.00 – 3.00",[500,536,537],{},"Strong. Check trade count and cost accounting",[485,539,540,543],{},[500,541,542],{},"Above 3.00",[500,544,545],{},"Rare on long histories: usually a short sample, a few outsized winners, or open losers not yet realised",[14,547,56],{"id":55},[10,549,550],{},"Profit factor is the cleanest single answer to \"does this system make money\", and it is much harder to dress up than a win rate, because every loss enters the denominator at full size.",[10,552,553,554,558],{},"It is not, however, a risk measure. Profit factor knows nothing about sequence: an account that made its money in one month and bled for eleven shows the same value as one that ground upward every week. Read it next to ",[64,555,557],{"href":556},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-maximum-drawdown","maximum drawdown",", or you are measuring the destination without the trip.",[10,560,561,562,566],{},"The same caution applies to a profit factor quoted from a ",[64,563,565],{"href":564},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtest",": optimisers maximise exactly this ratio, so a high backtested value often measures the fitting process rather than the strategy.",[14,568,95],{"id":94},[10,570,571,572,575,576,582],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. Across the published accounts that have trading history (August 2026), the ",[39,573,574],{},"median profit factor is 1.28"," and the ",[39,577,578,581],{},[64,579,580],{"href":307},"median win rate"," is 68.8%",". Both are calculated after costs here: swap and commission are folded into each trade before it is classed as a winner or a loser, so 1.28 is net, not gross.",[10,584,585],{},[586,587],"img",{"alt":588,"src":589},"Medians across public ShowMyTrades accounts: a 68.8% win rate beside a 1.28 profit factor","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fwin-rate-vs-payoff.svg",[10,591,592],{},[140,593,594],{},"Two medians from the same set: the win rate looks strong, the edge behind it is thin.",[10,596,597,598,601],{},"That pairing is the point. Nearly seven trades in ten close green on the median account, and the whole edge still amounts to $1.28 earned for every $1.00 lost. Take an account sitting on both medians and invert the formula: its average winner is worth roughly ",[39,599,600],{},"0.58×"," its average loser. Winning often and earning well are separate achievements, and the first is far easier to manufacture — hold losers, cut winners, and the win rate climbs while the profit factor falls.",[10,603,604,605,608,609,611],{},"The median Sharpe ratio on the same set is ",[39,606,607],{},"0.05",", and the median account has ",[39,610,105],{},". At that sample size a profit factor above 3.00 is not evidence of a superior system; it is evidence that the sample is too small to have met its worst trade yet.",[14,613,132],{"id":131},[10,615,616,358,619,621,622,183,625,183,628,183,631,183,634,124,637,640],{},[39,617,618],{},"Profit Factor",[39,620,146],{}," module on every published account page, alongside the numbers that explain it: ",[39,623,624],{},"Win Rate",[39,626,627],{},"Avg. Win",[39,629,630],{},"Avg. Loss",[39,632,633],{},"Expectancy",[39,635,636],{},"Total Trades",[39,638,639],{},"Sharpe Ratio",". The six together say what the single ratio cannot.",[10,642,643,644,647,648,124,650,653,654,124,656,658,659,665],{},"Two product details matter. First, the costs already inside the ratio are itemised separately: the trades table carries ",[39,645,646],{},"Profit (Gross)"," with ",[39,649,77],{},[39,651,652],{},"Commission"," as their own columns, and Advanced Statistics totals ",[39,655,367],{},[39,657,370],{},", so you can see how much the net figure absorbed. Across published accounts those totals stand at $4,782,670 in commissions and $862,547 in swap. Second, ",[64,660,662],{"href":661},"\u002Fguides\u002Fcustom-analysis-and-filter-presets",[39,663,664],{},"Custom Analysis"," recomputes the whole statistics block on a filtered subset — by date range, symbol, magic number, direction or lot size — which is how you check whether a profit factor holds up outside its best quarter or without its best symbol.",[14,667,200],{"id":199},[202,669,670,679,689,695],{},[205,671,672,675,676,106],{},[39,673,674],{},"\"Profit factor above 1 means I am profitable.\""," Only if costs are inside the ratio. Where they are not, a high-frequency system at 1.05 gross can be flat or negative ",[64,677,678],{"href":66},"once commission and swap are applied",[205,680,681,684,685,688],{},[39,682,683],{},"\"A high profit factor means low risk.\""," It says nothing about drawdown, position size or sequence. A martingale ",[64,686,687],{"href":315},"position-sizing"," progression can post 4.00 right up to the day it does not.",[205,690,691,694],{},[39,692,693],{},"\"It is comparable across timeframes.\""," It is not annualised. A scalper's 1.20 over 20,000 trades and a swing trader's 1.20 over 60 are not the same statement.",[205,696,697,700],{},[39,698,699],{},"\"Open trades do not affect it.\""," They do, by absence. Floating losses left open are excluded from gross loss entirely, which inflates the ratio until the position is closed.",[10,702,703,704,106],{},"For which metrics to track over time and in what order, see ",[64,705,707],{"href":706},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftracking-trading-performance","the guide to tracking trading performance",{"title":31,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":709},[710,711,712,713,714],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":55,"depth":231,"text":56},{"id":94,"depth":231,"text":95},{"id":131,"depth":231,"text":132},{"id":199,"depth":231,"text":200},"Profit factor is gross profit divided by gross loss. Below 1.0 an account loses by construction. Here are the bands and the 1.28 median across thousands of accounts.",false,{},[719,720,439,721],"what-is-drawdown","what-is-maximum-drawdown","what-is-backtesting",{"title":449,"description":715},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","0loLRuqRU0mx9nEOfjdEFW6U1Fb_JAC1jN2JQSkIjuE",{"id":726,"title":727,"body":728,"category":238,"date":239,"description":938,"draft":241,"extension":242,"meta":939,"navigation":241,"path":940,"related":941,"seo":943,"stem":944,"term":633,"updated":239,"__hash__":945},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-expectancy.md","What Is Expectancy? Formula, Example, Real Data",{"type":7,"value":729,"toc":931},[730,733,735,741,748,751,757,760,762,768,776,783,785,799,818,833,835,847,878,895,897,926],[10,731,732],{},"Expectancy is the average result of a single trade, expressed in currency or in pips: what the account earns, on average, every time it opens a position. It is built from four numbers — win rate, average win, loss rate, average loss — and it answers \"does this system make money per trade\" in units you can multiply by a trade count. Positive expectancy repeated often enough is a business; negative expectancy is a countdown.",[14,734,17],{"id":16},[22,736,739],{"className":737,"code":738,"language":27},[25],"Expectancy = (Win Rate × Avg Win) − (Loss Rate × Avg Loss)\n\nLoss Rate = 1 − Win Rate\n",[29,740,738],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,742,743,744,747],{},"A system that wins 40% of the time, makes $300 on a winner and loses $100 on a loser: (0.40 × $300) − (0.60 × $100) = $120 − $60 = ",[39,745,746],{},"+$60 per trade",". Four hundred trades a year is $24,000 of expected result, before position size changes and before anything goes wrong.",[10,749,750],{},"The same formula written in R multiples, where R is one average loss, strips out the account currency and makes systems comparable:",[22,752,755],{"className":753,"code":754,"language":27},[25],"Expectancy (R) = (Win Rate × Payoff) − (1 − Win Rate)\n\nPayoff = Avg Win \u002F Avg Loss\n",[29,756,754],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,758,759],{},"Two things decide whether the output means anything. First, costs must already sit inside the inputs: spread, commission and swap come out of every trade, shrinking each winner and enlarging each loser. Second, the averages need enough trades that one outsized result cannot set them.",[14,761,56],{"id":55},[10,763,764,765,767],{},"Expectancy is the bridge between a statistic and a plan. ",[64,766,490],{"href":89}," tells you the ratio of money won to money lost; expectancy tells you what one more trade is worth, which is the number you multiply by frequency to get an expected month.",[10,769,770,771,775],{},"It also exposes the trade-off that a win rate hides. A win rate is only half of an edge — the other half is the ",[64,772,774],{"href":773},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-risk-reward-ratio","risk-reward ratio",", and expectancy is where the two meet. Move either one and the result moves; keep both and no amount of narrative changes it.",[10,777,778,779,782],{},"And it sets the cost floor. If a strategy expects +$8 a trade and the round-turn ",[64,780,781],{"href":71},"spread"," and commission cost $7, what is left is not a strategy.",[14,784,95],{"id":94},[10,786,787,788,791,792,795,796,106],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. Take the middle of the published accounts that have trading history (August 2026): a ",[39,789,790],{},"median win rate of 68.8%",", a ",[39,793,794],{},"median profit factor of 1.28"," and a ",[39,797,798],{},"median of 171 closed trades",[10,800,801,802,804,805,808,809,817],{},"Those numbers pin the expectancy of that middle account. Inverting the profit factor formula gives an average winner worth about ",[39,803,600],{}," its average loser, and the R form turns the rest into arithmetic: (0.688 × 0.58) − 0.312 = ",[39,806,807],{},"+0.087R",". Nine hundredths of one average losing trade, per trade taken. Over 171 trades the entire record adds up to roughly fifteen average losses' worth of profit — which is why the ",[39,810,811,812,816],{},"median ",[64,813,815],{"href":814},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-time-weighted-return","time-weighted return"," is only +3.2%"," despite nearly seven trades in ten closing green.",[10,819,820,821,124,823,113,825,828,829,832],{},"Costs are not a rounding error at that thickness. Published accounts have paid ",[39,822,339],{},[39,824,112],{},[39,826,827],{},"86.3%"," of the accounts that carry swap at all pay net negative swap. At a ",[39,830,831],{},"median trade length of 2.4 hours",", an edge of 0.087R survives only if the cost of a round turn stays small against the average loss.",[14,834,132],{"id":131},[10,836,837,839,840,842,843,846],{},[39,838,633],{}," is a row in the ",[39,841,146],{}," module on every published account page, inside the ",[140,844,845],{},"Performance Metrics"," group. It prints both units on one line — pips first, then account currency — because a pip figure travels between symbols and a currency figure travels between position sizes, and neither alone is complete.",[10,848,849,850,852,853,183,855,183,857,124,859,861,862,866,867,124,869,871,872,183,874,124,876,106],{},"Its four inputs are in the ",[140,851,142],{}," group of the same module: ",[39,854,624],{},[39,856,627],{},[39,858,630],{},[39,860,636],{},", next to ",[39,863,864],{},[64,865,137],{"href":244},", which says whether a thin per-trade edge is being earned in hours or in weeks. The costs already deducted appear as ",[39,868,367],{},[39,870,370],{},", with the per-trade detail in the trades table under ",[39,873,646],{},[39,875,77],{},[39,877,652],{},[10,879,880,881,885,886,183,889,124,892,894],{},"To test whether an expectancy is one edge or an average of several, the ",[39,882,883],{},[64,884,664],{"href":661}," slideover recomputes the whole block on a filtered subset — by symbol, magic number, direction, date range, weekday or hour — and Advanced Statistics adds ",[140,887,888],{},"Weekday",[140,890,891],{},"Hourly",[140,893,153],{}," views that split the same result without any filtering.",[14,896,200],{"id":199},[202,898,899,908,914,920],{},[205,900,901,904,905,907],{},[39,902,903],{},"\"Positive expectancy means I will make money.\""," It means the average trade is profitable. Size the positions wrong and a positive-expectancy system still ends at zero: survival is a ",[64,906,316],{"href":315}," question, not an expectancy one.",[205,909,910,913],{},[39,911,912],{},"\"Expectancy is just my average trade.\""," Only if the average is taken net. Computed on gross profit it ignores commission and swap, which is exactly where thin edges disappear.",[205,915,916,919],{},[39,917,918],{},"\"A high win rate implies positive expectancy.\""," It implies nothing on its own. At a 0.58 payoff, a 60% win rate is a losing system.",[205,921,922,925],{},[39,923,924],{},"\"The number is stable.\""," On a few hundred trades it is not. One outsized winner can lift a whole record's expectancy, and removing it is a fair test.",[10,927,928,929,106],{},"For the metrics worth tracking over time and the order to read them in, see ",[64,930,707],{"href":706},{"title":31,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":932},[933,934,935,936,937],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":55,"depth":231,"text":56},{"id":94,"depth":231,"text":95},{"id":131,"depth":231,"text":132},{"id":199,"depth":231,"text":200},"Expectancy is the average profit or loss of one trade: (win rate × avg win) − (loss rate × avg loss). The formula, a worked example, and public accounts.",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-expectancy",[247,942,439,719],"what-is-risk-reward-ratio",{"title":727,"description":938},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-expectancy","U6yMG7Etb-uidsGFxazRu_6VJh-bM41wGZNqkAU1r7Q",{"id":947,"title":948,"body":949,"category":1162,"date":239,"description":1163,"draft":241,"extension":242,"meta":1164,"navigation":241,"path":1165,"related":1166,"seo":1171,"stem":1172,"term":1173,"updated":239,"__hash__":1174},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping.md","What Is Terminal Ping? Latency to Your Trade Server",{"type":7,"value":950,"toc":1155},[951,957,959,962,968,971,974,1008,1011,1013,1016,1019,1022,1024,1036,1047,1056,1058,1090,1103,1116,1118,1143],[10,952,953,954,106],{},"Terminal ping is the round-trip time between a MetaTrader terminal and the broker's trade server: how long a packet takes to travel out and come back, measured in milliseconds. It is a property of the network path, not of the strategy running on top of it: the dead time inside which a requested price is only a hope. MetaTrader reports it in microseconds; ShowMyTrades converts and displays it as milliseconds to one decimal, so 12,245 µs reads ",[39,955,956],{},"12.2 ms",[14,958,17],{"id":16},[10,960,961],{},"The terminal records the last known round trip to the trade server. Everything an order does is layered on top of it.",[22,963,966],{"className":964,"code":965,"language":27},[25],"Ping (ms) = last measured round trip terminal ↔ trade server\n\nOrder latency ≈ ping\u002F2   (request travelling out)\n              + broker matching and validation\n              + ping\u002F2   (confirmation travelling back)\n",[29,967,965],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,969,970],{},"Only the middle term belongs to the broker. The first and third are geography and routing, which is why the same broker gives a 3 ms reading to a terminal in the same data centre and 280 ms to a home connection across the world.",[10,972,973],{},"Useful bands:",[202,975,976,987,993],{},[205,977,978,981,982,986],{},[39,979,980],{},"Under 50 ms"," — excellent, which is the word the tile's own tooltip uses. Typical of a ",[64,983,985],{"href":984},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","VPS"," near the broker's data centre.",[205,988,989,992],{},[39,990,991],{},"50 to 150 ms"," — ordinary for a home or office connection to a regional server.",[205,994,995,998,999,1003,1004,106],{},[39,996,997],{},"Above 200 ms"," — the tooltip's warning threshold: measurably slower ",[64,1000,1002],{"href":1001},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution","order execution"," and wider realised ",[64,1005,1007],{"href":1006},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","slippage",[10,1009,1010],{},"One distinction decides how much any of this matters. Stop loss and take profit orders live on the trade server, not in the terminal, so they trigger however bad the connection is. Ping delays only what the terminal initiates: entries, manual closes, modifications, and any trailing logic implemented inside an Expert Advisor rather than as a server-side order.",[14,1012,56],{"id":55},[10,1014,1015],{},"Latency converts directly into cost on market execution, because the fill happens at whatever price exists when the request arrives, not the one that was on screen when it left. A 200 ms round trip is a fifth of a second in which the market is free to move, and it moves furthest precisely when orders matter most.",[10,1017,1018],{},"Whether that fifth of a second is expensive depends entirely on the target. A position held for hours, aiming at a fifty-pip move, absorbs it without noticing. A system targeting three to five pips can lose a meaningful share of its edge in the same interval, on every trade. Backtests are silent on this: they fill at the requested price, instantly, always.",[10,1020,1021],{},"Ping is the first thing to check before blaming a broker. Poor fills with a 300 ms reading is a network problem wearing a broker's name.",[14,1023,95],{"id":94},[10,1025,1026,1027,1030,1031,1035],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. A terminal reading only exists where there is a terminal, and the overwhelming majority of the ",[39,1028,1029],{},"10,000+ connected accounts"," run ",[64,1032,1034],{"href":1033},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-metatrader","MetaTrader",". cTrader and TradeLocker accounts connect through broker APIs with no local terminal, so they have no ping to report.",[10,1037,1038,1039,124,1041,1043,1044,1046],{},"Sensitivity across that population is high. The ",[39,1040,123],{},[39,1042,127],{},", so almost every order is machine-sent, travelling the round trip without a human pausing to check the price. Those accounts reach ",[39,1045,333],{},", so there is no single latency environment here.",[10,1048,386,1049,1055],{},[39,1050,1051,1054],{},[64,1052,1053],{"href":244},"median trade length"," is 2.4 hours",", which puts the median account outside the range where milliseconds decide anything. The tail that trades in seconds is where this number earns its place on the page.",[14,1057,132],{"id":131},[10,1059,1060,1063,1064,1067,1068,1071,1072,1074,1075,183,1078,183,1081,183,1084,124,1087,106],{},[39,1061,1062],{},"Ping"," is the first of six tiles in the ",[39,1065,1066],{},"Terminal"," panel, on the owner's own dashboard page for the account. The header reads ",[39,1069,1070],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5, where the terminal also reports the charts it has open, and plain ",[39,1073,1066],{}," on MT4, whose Expert Advisor does not collect that list. The other tiles are ",[39,1076,1077],{},"Retransmission",[39,1079,1080],{},"Terminal build",[39,1082,1083],{},"Memory",[39,1085,1086],{},"Auto trading",[39,1088,1089],{},"DLL imports",[10,1091,1092,1093,183,1096,193,1099,1102],{},"Beside the header sits a status badge — ",[140,1094,1095],{},"Connected",[140,1097,1098],{},"No trade server",[140,1100,1101],{},"Offline"," — and the age of the reading. Freshness overrules the flag: after 11 minutes without an update the account is shown as offline, whatever the terminal last said.",[10,1104,1105,1106,1110,1111,1115],{},"Two limits matter. The panel is owner-only, served by an endpoint that refuses anyone else's account, so terminal readings — including the names of ",[64,1107,1109],{"href":1108},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-expert-advisor","Expert Advisors"," on open charts — never appear on public pages or ",[64,1112,1114],{"href":1113},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-widgets-and-embeds","in widgets",". And it exists only for MetaTrader: cTrader and TradeLocker accounts have no terminal, and the panel does not render at all until one has reported.",[14,1117,200],{"id":199},[202,1119,1120,1126,1137],{},[205,1121,1122,1125],{},[39,1123,1124],{},"\"Low ping means a good broker.\""," It measures the path, not the counterparty. A 2 ms reading to a server with poor fills is a fast route to a bad price.",[205,1127,1128,1131,1132,1136],{},[39,1129,1130],{},"\"One reading is the truth.\""," It is the last value at the last sync. Stability matters more than the number, which is what ",[64,1133,1135],{"href":1134},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission","retransmission"," adds.",[205,1138,1139,1142],{},[39,1140,1141],{},"\"A VPS fixes execution.\""," It fixes the network path. Matching speed, price feed and spread policy stay exactly where they were.",[10,1144,1145,1146,1150,1151,106],{},"The same round trip described from the network's side, rather than from this tile, is ",[64,1147,1149],{"href":1148},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency","server latency",". For a method that separates latency from cost when the same strategy runs at two brokers, see ",[64,1152,1154],{"href":1153},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","same strategy, different brokers",{"title":31,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":1156},[1157,1158,1159,1160,1161],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":55,"depth":231,"text":56},{"id":94,"depth":231,"text":95},{"id":131,"depth":231,"text":132},{"id":199,"depth":231,"text":200},"Platforms","Terminal ping is the round trip between a MetaTrader terminal and the broker's trade server. What good and bad look like in ms, and how it becomes slippage.",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping",[1167,1168,1169,1170],"what-is-packet-retransmission","what-is-slippage","what-is-a-vps","what-is-order-execution",{"title":948,"description":1163},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Terminal Ping","bgiP3vxFYvRY7BpOYCK3dm8FftKf9R2Oxi2BN1clobU",1787415686900]