Monday, October 22, 2007

Performance Metrics: Digging Deeper than P/L

We've developed a variety of complex measures that we've incorporated into TraderDNA. Similarly to your trading software capturing and keeping track of your P/L while you trade, our technology is able to capture data elements with which we use to calculate complex measures that help to paint the entire picture of how you or your system traded. These measures can be grouped into 8 categories which encompass the areas that we believe have the greatest, most direct, and most profound bearing on an outright trader's P/L.


Drift

Drift metrics are useful in determining how much risk a trader takes in open positions, and conversely how much profit potential the trader sees in open positions. If a trader relies upon the level of a his P&L alone as an indication of how well he or she is doing, he misses a vital statistic that indicates how many negative or positive ticks his open positions experience before they are closed. An example will clarify the uses of drift metrics.

If a trader takes a long position at 100 and then allows the position to lose several ticks to 95 before closing it out for a small profit at 102, in P&L terms the trader has performed averagely well. However, the negative 5 ticks that the trader allowed the position to drift is reflected in the Negative Drift value.

On the positive side, if a trader takes a long position at 100 and the market trades up to 108 and then soon after the trader covers his position at 105, the entire profit of 8 ticks that was available is expressed in Positive Drift.

Negative Drift: Amount of risk taken in open positions
Positive Drift: Amount of profit (either realized or unrealized) available in open positions.
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Lost Opportunity

The Lost Opportunity measure is useful in determining how much profit was left on the table. Lost Opportunity Drift is calculated by taking the difference in the Positive Drift of a position and the realized P/L, or where the position was covered.

As an example, a trader takes long position at 100 and the market trades up to 108. Soon after the trader closes the position for a profit at 105. The Lost Opportunity value is 3 ticks (108-105).

Lost Opportunity Drift: Amount of unrealized profit that was lost in a position.
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Shape of Trade

The Shape of Trade is a very powerful visual representation of 7 primitive measurements, namely:

Average Negative Drift
Average Positive Drift
Average Lost Opportunity
Average P/L
Average Time to Negative Drift
Average Time to Positive Drift
Average Time in Trade
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Consecutive Winners, Losers, Scratches

Being able to determine when winning and losing streaks occur, the size of the streaks and under which circumstances they occur is of significant value.

Consecutive Winners: The number of consecutive, or back-to-back winning trades.
Consecutive Losers: The number of consecutive, or back-to-back losing trades.
Consecutive Scratches: The number of consecutive, or back-to-back scratched trades.
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Stacking

Stacking refers to a measurement that determines how well a trader recognizes a potentially good trade, having placed an order in the marketplace and supported his decision by increasing leverage and exposure by adding additional orders in the same format.

Conversely, negatively stacking measures if, when, and to what extent the trader is leveraging his losses and adding to a losing position.

Negative StackUp: The number of instances in which the trader added to a losing position.
Positive StackUp: The number of instances in which the trader added to a winning position.

Negative StackUp Quantity: The number of contracts the trader added to losing positions.
Positive StackUp Quantity: The number of contracts the trader added to winning positions.
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Time Measures and Intervals

We provide various time-related measures.

Time in Losers: Time interval taken to accept a loss.
Time in Winners: Time interval taken to take a profit.
Time in Scratches: Time interval taken to scratch a trade.
Time Since Last Trade: Time between closing a position and opening a new position.
Time Since Last Loss: Time between closing a losing trade and initiating a new position.
Time Since Last Win: Time between closing a winning trade and initiating a new position.
Time Since Last Scratch: Time between closing scratched trade and initiating a new position.
Time to Positive Drift: Time taken to reach the best possible profit point in the trade.
Time to Negative Drift: Time taken to reach the maximum point of risk in the trade, or the worst possible loss amount in the trade.
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Quantity

Quantity reflects either the number of trades, the number of round turns, or the number of contracts traded, depending on which measure is desired. Additionally, quantity values can be isolated by winning trades, losing trades, and scratched trades.

Quantity: Number of trades (defined by round turns)
Win Quantity: Number of winning trades
Loss Quantity: Number of losing trades
Scratch Quantity: Number of scratched trades

Quantity (contracts): Number of contracts traded
Win Quantity (contracts): Number of winning contracts
Loss Quantity (contracts): Number of losing contracts
Scratch Quantity (contracts): Number of scratched contracts
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Profit/Loss

TraderDNA provides the flexibility to look at an overall P/L metric, as well as more specific P/L metrics. The ability to split P/L earned/lost by losing and winning trades is an important function in examining the size of winning and losing trades, side-by-side.

P/L: Amount of profit or loss
Win P/L: Amount of profit in winning trades
Loss P/L: Amount of loss in losing trades
P/L Per Contract: Amount of profit or loss, per contract traded



© Copyright 2007 David Adler
All rights reserved

All analysis generated with the TraderDNA Analyzer.

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