Amateur traders check P&L. Professionals compute performance. The two are not remotely the same.
The Minimum Professional Report
- Return: gross, net of costs, per period
- Return per trade in R multiples
- Win rate, average winner, average loser, all in R
- Max drawdown and time-to-recovery
- Sharpe or Sortino ratio
- Plan adherence percentage
- Deviation events — every rule violation logged with cause
Why Return Alone Is Meaningless
20% return with 5% drawdown is exceptional. 20% return with 40% drawdown is a lottery ticket. Same return, entirely different quality. Always report risk-adjusted.
Rolling Windows
Compute metrics on rolling 30, 90, and 180-trade windows to see how performance evolves. A recent Sharpe drop is far more informative than a lifetime average that hides it.
Measure performance across return, risk, drawdown, and process adherence. Reporting the full picture is what allows the next improvement to be data-driven.
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