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TradingView strategy report explained

Last reviewed: 15 September 2026·Tradelyze

A TradingView strategy report is the Strategy Tester's summary of the simulated trades your Pine Script strategy took on the chart's history. Read the trade count first, then Net PnL, max drawdown, Percent profitable (TradingView's name for win rate) and profit factor. Every figure assumes TradingView's simulated fills and only the costs you set.

In plain English

The report adds up trades that a simulator took on past prices. Check how many trades there were before looking at how much they made. The simulator chose the fill prices and charged only the costs you told it to, so the report describes the past under those settings. It is not a forecast.

New to this? Start with how to backtest a strategy on TradingView.

Metric names on this page follow the Strategy report metrics folder of TradingView's Help Center. Labels can change when TradingView updates its report. If a label on your screen differs, match the figure by its definition rather than its name.

What does TradingView's strategy report show, and what does it assume?

TradingView's strategy report is the summary the Strategy Tester builds from the trades your Pine Script strategy took on the chart's history. The Strategy Tester is the TradingView panel that runs a strategy over past bars. Pine Script is the programming language TradingView strategies are written in. TradingView's Pine Script documentation on strategies describes a Metrics tab with five sections. They are Key stats, Return details, Trades analysis, Equity run-ups and drawdowns, and Capital efficiency. A Trades tab lists each simulated trade. Key stats shows total profit or loss, maximum drawdown, profitable trades against all closed trades, and profit factor. Every figure in the report is a simulation, because no order ever reached a market. The report is only as realistic as the assumptions in the table below, which TradingView applies unless you change them.

Four default assumptions behind every figure in a TradingView strategy report
AssumptionWhat TradingView saysWhy it matters for your moneySource
When orders fillBy default, a strategy recalculates only after a bar closes. On historical bars, the earliest an order can fill is the open of the following bar.A signal on a strong close is filled at the next open, at whatever price that turns out to be.TradingView Pine Script documentation, Strategies
How price moved inside a barThe broker emulator, the part of the Strategy Tester that plays your broker, does not see the path inside a bar. When a bar opens nearer its high, it assumes open → high → low → close. When a bar opens nearer its low, it assumes open → low → high → close.A bar that touches both a stop and a target is scored by assumption, so tight stops and targets give the least certain results.TradingView Pine Script documentation, Strategies
CostsGross profit and Gross loss include commission only if a commission value is set in the strategy settings.A strategy with no commission set reports every figure before commission.TradingView Help Center, Gross profit and Gross loss
Account sizeInitial capital is 1,000,000 in the chart's currency when neither the settings nor the code set a value.Figures shown as a percentage of initial capital look tiny against 1,000,000.TradingView Help Center, Initial capital

Slippage, the gap between the price a backtest assumes and the price you would really get, is also a setting rather than a measurement. Where commission, slippage, order size and initial capital live in a script is covered in TradingView strategy properties. The fill rules can turn a win into a loss, as explained in how the Strategy Tester decides when orders fill.

What do Net PnL, Gross profit and Gross loss mean?

Net PnL is the total profit or loss of all closed trades, after any commission you set; PnL stands for profit and loss. TradingView's Help Center article on Net PnL defines it as the sum of the Net PnL column in the List of Trades tab. Only trades that were fully closed count. Gross profit is the sum of the winning trades only, and Gross loss is the sum of the losing trades only. Neither offsets the other, and neither includes a position that is still open. TradingView reports open positions separately, as Open PnL. The Help Center's Gross profit and Gross loss articles add how commission is handled. When a commission is set, it is taken off each winning trade and added to the size of each losing trade.

Gross profit = sum of the winning trades
Gross loss = sum of the losing trades
Net PnL = sum of every closed trade = Gross profit − size of Gross loss
One report of 40 closed trades, worked through. Constructed illustration, not measured data.
Report figureValueHow it is worked out
Total trades40Every closed trade
Total winners18Trades that closed in profit
Total losers22Trades that closed at a loss
Gross profit$9,000The 18 winners added together
Gross loss$6,600The 22 losers added together, shown here as a positive size
Net PnL$2,400$9,000 − $6,600
Percent profitable45.0%18 ÷ 40
Profit factor1.36$9,000 ÷ $6,600
Average PnL$60$2,400 ÷ 40
Average profit$500$9,000 ÷ 18
Average loss$300$6,600 ÷ 22

For your money, Net PnL is only as honest as the costs behind it. In the constructed 40-trade report, costs of $20 a trade take $800 off, so Net PnL falls from $2,400 to $1,600. That assumes no trade flips from a win to a loss. A strategy whose Net PnL disappears once realistic costs are set had no tradable edge to begin with.

What is Percent profitable, and why is it not enough?

Percent profitable is the share of closed trades that made money: the number of winning trades divided by the total number of closed trades. It is TradingView's name for what other tools call win rate. TradingView's Help Center article on Percent profitable adds two details. Open positions are left out. Even trades, those closed at exactly zero, stay in the total but never count as winners. Percent profitable says nothing about how big the wins and losses were. TradingView's own article makes the same warning: a high win rate does not guarantee a profitable strategy. To judge Percent profitable, compare it with the breakeven win rate, the win rate at which average wins and average losses exactly cancel out.

breakeven win rate = average loss ÷ (average profit + average loss)

A constructed example, not measured data: a report of 40 trades has 18 winners averaging $500 and 22 losers averaging $300. The breakeven win rate is $300 ÷ $800 = 37.5%. Percent profitable is 45.0%, so the strategy clears breakeven by 7.5 percentage points. The same 45.0% with losers averaging $700 would lose money, because breakeven would then be $700 ÷ $1,200 = 58.3%.

TradingView's report lists the pieces you need as Average profit, Average loss, and Average profit / average loss. Why win rate misleads on its own, and what expectancy adds, is explained in why win rate is useless on its own.

What do Max drawdown and Max run-up measure?

Max drawdown is the largest fall in a strategy's equity from a high point, and Max run-up is the largest rise from a low point. Equity means the account value, including the open profit or loss of any trade in progress. TradingView's Help Center lists each figure two ways. The intrabar version checks every bar a position was open and uses the bar's worst price. That is the low for a long trade and the high for a short trade. It therefore catches dips inside a bar. The close-to-close version measures equity only at bar closes, so a dip that recovered before the close does not count. The intrabar figures are also shown as a percentage of initial capital. For risk, the intrabar Max drawdown is the figure to read first.

drawdown on a bar, long trade = (highest equity before the trade − equity at entry) + contracts × (entry price − bar low)
drawdown on a bar, short trade = (highest equity before the trade − equity at entry) + contracts × (bar high − entry price)
Max drawdown (intrabar) = the largest of those values across every bar of every trade
Close-to-close versus intrabar max drawdown on one long trade Constructed illustration, not measured data. A chart of account equity during one long trade on a $50,000 account, across five bars: the entry bar, bars 1 to 3, and the exit bar. Equity at the bar closes is $50,000 at entry, then $49,400, $49,100 and $49,700, and $50,600 at the exit. Inside the bars, equity at each bar's low falls to $49,200 on bar 1, $48,500 on bar 2, $49,000 on bar 3 and $49,600 on the exit bar. The peak before the trade is $50,000. A blue bracket marks the close-to-close max drawdown, from $50,000 to the lowest close of $49,100: $900, or 1.8% of $50,000. A red bracket marks the intrabar max drawdown, from $50,000 to the lowest equity inside a bar of $48,500: $1,500, or 3.0% of $50,000. Equity during one long trade on a $50,000 account Constructed illustration, not measured data. $51,000 $50,000 $49,000 $48,000 Peak before the trade: $50,000 $900 $1,500 Entry Bar 1 Bar 2 Bar 3 Exit Equity at each bar close Equity at the bar's worst price (the low, for a long trade) Close-to-close max drawdown: $50,000 to $49,100 = $900 (1.8% of $50,000) Intrabar max drawdown: $50,000 to $48,500 = $1,500 (3.0% of $50,000)
Constructed illustration, not measured data. During one long trade on a $50,000 account, equity at the bar closes never falls below $49,100, so close-to-close max drawdown is $900, or 1.8%. The low of bar 2 briefly takes equity to $48,500, so intrabar max drawdown, the version that looks inside each bar, is $1,500, or 3.0%.

A constructed example, not measured data: a $50,000 account is at its peak of $50,000 when a long trade opens. Over the next four bars the closing equity is $49,400, $49,100, $49,700 and $50,600, but the low of bar 2 briefly drags equity to $48,500. Close-to-close max drawdown is $50,000 − $49,100 = $900, or 1.8% of $50,000. Intrabar max drawdown is $50,000 − $48,500 = $1,500, or 3.0%. A prop firm, a company that gives traders a funded account after they pass a paid evaluation, may apply its drawdown limit to intraday equity. That limit would be measured against the $1,500, not the $900.

Read the dollar figure before the percentage. TradingView's Help Center article on Initial capital says a strategy starts with 1,000,000 when neither its settings nor its code set a value. With a fixed order size, the same $1,500 drawdown is 0.15% of 1,000,000 but 3.0% of a $50,000 account. A tiny percentage can simply mean initial capital was never changed, so set it to the account you would really trade.

Max run-up is the mirror image of Max drawdown, measured the same two ways. Run-up describes how good the best stretch was, so Max run-up is not a risk figure. How to judge a drawdown, and why close-to-close figures under-report risk, is covered in maximum drawdown and why close-to-close drawdown is not enough.

What do Profit factor and Average PnL mean?

Profit factor is Gross profit divided by the size of Gross loss: how many dollars a strategy made for each dollar it lost. TradingView's Help Center article on Profit factor says a value above 1.0 means the strategy made money and a value below 1.0 means it lost. It counts closed trades only. Average PnL is Net PnL divided by the number of closed trades: what an average trade made or lost. The two figures answer different questions. Profit factor says whether the wins outweighed the losses. Average PnL says whether each trade earned enough to pay for costs the backtest may have left out. Read both, because a strategy can have a comfortable profit factor and still earn too little per trade to survive commission and slippage.

Profit factor = Gross profit ÷ size of Gross loss
Average PnL = Net PnL ÷ number of closed trades

A constructed example, not measured data: a report of 40 closed trades has Gross profit of $9,000 and Gross loss of $6,600. Profit factor is $9,000 ÷ $6,600 = 1.36, and Average PnL is $2,400 ÷ 40 = $60. Now add costs of $20 a trade that the backtest left out, with no trade changing from a win to a loss. The 18 winners give up $360 and the 22 losers grow by $440. Profit factor falls to $8,640 ÷ $7,040 = 1.23, and Average PnL falls to $40.

TradingView's Help Center article on Average PnL makes the same point. For a strategy to hold up in live markets, the average result needs to stay well above commission and estimated slippage. No threshold for a good profit factor has a primary source, and a profit factor built on a handful of trades means little. Both points are covered in what counts as a good profit factor.

Why can TradingView's Sharpe ratio differ from other tools?

TradingView's Sharpe ratio can differ from other tools because TradingView uses monthly returns and subtracts a risk-free rate. Other tools, Tradelyze included, may do neither. The risk-free rate is the return you could earn without taking trading risk. The Sharpe ratio is the average return above that rate, divided by the standard deviation of returns, which measures how much returns swing. A higher Sharpe ratio means steadier returns for the profit made. TradingView's Help Center article on the Sharpe Ratio gives the formula below, with a default risk-free rate of 2% a year. Changing the return period, the risk-free rate or the conversion to a yearly figure changes the Sharpe ratio for exactly the same trades.

Sharpe Ratio = (average monthly return − risk-free rate) ÷ standard deviation of returns
risk-free rate = 2% a year by default

Monthly returns also make the figure thin on short tests. A constructed six-month backtest gives TradingView only six monthly returns, however many trades it took. One unusual month then moves the ratio a lot. No primary source sets a minimum number of months for a trustworthy Sharpe ratio. The Sharpe ratio page explains how annualizing changes the number and what counts as a good Sharpe ratio.

Which report numbers matter for a prop firm challenge?

For a prop firm challenge, four report numbers matter most: Max drawdown (intrabar) in dollars, Largest loss, Total trades and Net PnL after realistic costs. Largest loss is the single worst closed trade. Read all four at the account size you will trade. A prop firm challenge is a paid evaluation in which you trade under a firm's loss limits until you reach its profit target. Breaching a loss limit usually ends the challenge, so the drawdown figures come first. No metric article in the Strategy report metrics folder of TradingView's Help Center measures the worst single trading day. A daily loss limit therefore has to be checked by adding up each day's trades in the trade list. The table below maps common rules to the closest figure in the report.

Common prop firm rules and the closest TradingView report figure. Rules vary by firm, so check each firm's current terms.
Firm ruleClosest report figureWhat the report does not show
Maximum or trailing drawdownMax drawdown (intrabar), in dollarsWhether the firm's floor trails your peak equity, and whether it is checked intraday or at the end of the day
Daily loss limitNone; add up each day's trades in the trade listThe worst day, and how far equity dipped inside that day
Consistency rule on the best dayLargest profit as % of gross profit, which counts single tradesWhole days, since several trades can fall on one day
Minimum trading daysTotal tradesHow many separate days those trades fell on
Profit targetNet PnL after realistic costs, at your real account sizeHow long the strategy took to reach the target

Tradelyze checks these rules for each firm you select. Every firm gets a Qualifies or Not Feasible badge. Its Rule Results table sets the Actual value your backtest reached beside the Limit. Tradelyze fills the gaps TradingView's report leaves by grouping your trades by the day each one closed. That gives the worst day, the best day's share of total profit and the number of days traded. Those figures are built from closed trades, so a dip inside a trade that was still open is not counted. Read TradingView's intrabar drawdown as well. For what each statistic predicts, see which backtest statistic predicts which prop rule. The rule mechanics are in daily loss limits and trailing drawdown. Trade size is covered in position sizing for prop firm challenges.

Why can Tradelyze's numbers differ for the same trades?

Tradelyze's numbers can differ from a TradingView report on the same strategy for three reasons. First, Tradelyze re-runs your script on its own Pine Script backtester. Second, it calculates some figures its own way. Third, most of its headline figures describe optimized settings rather than yours. The like-for-like comparison is the Backtest Metrics on the Conversion Result card: Final Value, PnL %, Win Rate, Max Drawdown, Sharpe Ratio and Profit Factor. Tradelyze takes those from a re-run of your script with its default input values. The Best Metrics card, with tiles such as Profit, Sharpe (Bar) and Sharpe (Daily), shows results for the settings the optimizer picked. The optimizer is the Tradelyze stage that tries many input settings, and it picks and scores them on the same price history. Best Metrics should therefore not match your TradingView report, and a gap there is expected rather than an error.

Where each TradingView report figure appears in a Tradelyze report, and why the two can differ
TradingView reportTradelyze reportWhy the two can differ
Total tradesTV Trades and BT Trades on the Conversion Result card; Trade Count in Best MetricsTV Trades counts your TradingView export and BT Trades counts Tradelyze's re-run. A gap means the re-run did not take the same trades.
Net PnLPnL % in Backtest Metrics; Profit in Best MetricsProfit in Best Metrics comes from optimized settings, so only the Backtest Metrics figure describes your default settings.
Percent profitableWin RateThe same idea. The figures differ when the two backtests took different trades.
Profit factorProfit FactorThe same ratio. With no losing trades it cannot be calculated, and the Best Metrics tile shows -- instead of a number.
Max drawdown (intrabar) and Max drawdown (close-to-close)Max DrawdownTradelyze shows the drawdown its backtest engine reports. When the engine reports no usable figure, Tradelyze rebuilds the figure from closed-trade results, which can miss a dip inside an open trade. Compare the tile with both TradingView figures.
Sharpe RatioSharpe Ratio in Backtest Metrics; Sharpe (Bar) and Sharpe (Daily) in Best MetricsTradingView uses monthly returns and a 2% risk-free rate. Sharpe (Bar) is measured bar by bar and scaled down on backtests shorter than a year; Sharpe (Daily) uses daily session returns. Neither subtracts a risk-free rate.

If the Backtest Metrics are far from your TradingView report, check trade matching first. A low Match Rate means the two backtests traded differently. No metric comparison means anything until they agree. The usual causes are covered in why trades do not match TradingView. Each Sharpe tile is explained in which Sharpe ratio Tradelyze shows.

What should you check after reading the report?

After reading a TradingView strategy report, check whether its numbers deserve your trust before sizing a real account or paying a challenge fee. A good report is a reason to test further, not a reason to trade. Work through these checks in order:

  1. Enough trades. Read Total trades before any other figure, because a result built on a few dozen trades can be luck. See how many trades a backtest needs.
  2. Realistic costs and size. Set commission, slippage, order size and initial capital in the script to match your broker and account, then read the report again. See TradingView strategy properties.
  3. Fill assumptions. Check how many results depend on a stop and a target inside a single bar. See TradingView backtest accuracy.
  4. Tuned or untuned. If you changed inputs until the report looked good, the report is in-sample: fitted to the same data it is shown on. See in-sample vs out-of-sample.
  5. An independent check. Export the trade list and price data so a second backtest can reproduce the trades. See exporting TradingView trades and price data.

The full sequence, from reproducing a backtest to forward testing it, is in how to validate a trading strategy. Common questions about Tradelyze itself are answered in the Learn FAQ.

Check it on your own strategy

In a Tradelyze report, the figures that line up with your TradingView report are the Backtest Metrics on the Conversion Result card. Tradelyze re-runs your Pine Script strategy on the price data you upload and checks it against your exported trade list. It then runs parameter optimization, walk-forward analysis, a five-check robustness score and prop firm rule checks. To judge the whole report, not one tile, use the pre-trade checklist. Tradelyze does not place trades, give financial advice or guarantee a challenge pass, and it is in beta.

Create an account. Already a user? Open your strategies.

Frequently asked questions about the TradingView strategy report

How do I read TradingView backtest results?

Start with Total trades, because every other figure means little on a small sample. Then read Net PnL after realistic costs, Max drawdown (intrabar) in dollars at your real account size, Percent profitable next to Average profit and Average loss, and Profit factor. TradingView's report is a simulation: fills follow the broker emulator's rules, and commission counts only if you set it.

Is Net PnL the same as net profit?

Yes. Net PnL is the name TradingView's Help Center uses for a strategy's net profit or loss: the sum of every closed trade's result, after any commission set in the strategy. It excludes positions that are still open, which the report shows separately as open profit or loss. A negative Net PnL means the closed trades lost money overall, whatever Percent profitable says.

What does Percent profitable mean in TradingView?

Percent profitable is the percentage of closed trades that made money: the number of winning trades divided by the total number of closed trades. It is TradingView's name for win rate, and open positions are left out. A high Percent profitable can still lose money when losing trades are much larger than winning ones, so read it next to Average profit and Average loss.

Are break-even trades counted in Percent profitable?

Yes, in the total but not as winners. TradingView's Help Center says even trades, those closed at exactly zero, are left out of the count of winning trades but stay in the total number of closed trades. A strategy with many trades that exit at breakeven therefore shows a lower Percent profitable than its count of winners against losers would suggest.

What is max run-up in TradingView?

Max run-up is the largest rise in a strategy's equity from a low point during the backtest. TradingView reports it two ways: intrabar, using each bar's best price while a trade was open, and close-to-close, using bar closes only. The intrabar version is also shown as a percentage of initial capital. Max run-up describes the best stretch, so it says nothing about risk.

What is the difference between intrabar and close-to-close max drawdown?

Intrabar max drawdown looks at every bar a position was open and uses the bar's worst price, so it catches dips that recovered before the bar closed. Close-to-close max drawdown measures equity only at bar closes, so those dips never count. A prop firm drawdown limit that is applied to intraday equity behaves more like the intrabar figure.

Why is my TradingView max drawdown percentage so small?

Often because initial capital was never changed. TradingView's Help Center says a strategy starts with 1,000,000 in the chart's currency when neither its settings nor its code set a value. With a fixed order size, a $1,500 drawdown is only 0.15% of 1,000,000 but 3.0% of a $50,000 account. Set initial capital to your real account size, then read the percentage.

Does the TradingView strategy report include open trades?

Mostly not. TradingView's Help Center articles on Net PnL, Gross profit, Gross loss, Percent profitable, Profit factor and Average PnL all say they count closed trades only. A position still open at the end of the test is reported separately as Open PnL. Max drawdown (intrabar) is the exception, because it measures equity bar by bar while each trade is open.

Are commissions included in Gross profit and Gross loss?

Only if a commission is set. TradingView's Help Center says a commission value set in the strategy settings is taken off each winning trade before Gross profit is added up. The same commission is added to the size of each losing trade in Gross loss. With no commission set, Gross profit, Gross loss and Net PnL are all results before commission.

How does TradingView calculate the Sharpe ratio in the strategy report?

TradingView's Help Center gives the formula as average monthly return minus the risk-free rate, divided by the standard deviation of returns, with a default risk-free rate of 2% a year. Because it uses monthly returns, a short backtest supplies only a few data points, and the figure can differ sharply from a Sharpe ratio built on daily or per-bar returns.

What does Average PnL tell me?

Average PnL is Net PnL divided by the number of closed trades: what an average trade made or lost. It shows how much room each trade leaves for costs. TradingView's Help Center says it needs to stay well above commission and estimated slippage for a strategy to hold up in live markets. A small Average PnL can vanish once real costs are set.

Why does Tradelyze show different numbers from my TradingView report?

Tradelyze re-runs your script on its own Pine Script backtester and calculates some figures its own way. Its Sharpe (Bar) and Sharpe (Daily) subtract no risk-free rate, while TradingView uses monthly returns and a 2% rate. The Best Metrics card also shows results for optimized settings, not yours. Compare your report with the Backtest Metrics on the Conversion Result card, and check Match Rate first.

Which TradingView report numbers matter for a prop firm challenge?

Max drawdown (intrabar) in dollars, Largest loss, Total trades and Net PnL after realistic costs, all read at the account size you will trade. TradingView's report has no worst-single-day figure, so check a daily loss limit by adding up each day's trades in the trade list. Also confirm whether the firm's drawdown floor trails your peak equity.

Sources