Profit factor
Gross profit divided by the absolute value of gross loss, using realized results.
Above 1 means winning trades outweigh losing trades in this sample. It does not establish a durable edge. A zero-loss sample has no finite denominator.
TradingView report guide
TradingView Strategy Tester Explained
The Strategy Tester reports simulated trades from a Pine Script strategy. Read Metrics for the overall result, then Trades to inspect the fills behind it. Profitability depends on the selected data, costs, and execution settings.
Documentation checked October 16, 2026. Current report names: Metrics and Trades.
Find the right report section
Add a strategy through Indicators or Pine Editor, then open its report beneath the chart. Set the test period and inspect the strategy settings before comparing results. Older tutorials describe Overview, Performance Summary, List of Trades, and Properties as four tabs. The current Pine documentation instead describes Metrics and Trades; published script reports also have Properties.
| Metrics section | What to inspect |
|---|---|
| Key stats | Start with P&L, drawdown, profitable trades, and profit factor. |
| Return details | Compare returns, costs, the buy-and-hold benchmark, and risk ratios. |
| Trades analysis | Inspect the distribution of outcomes and trade-level statistics. |
| Equity run-ups and drawdowns | Inspect the size and duration of equity changes. |
| Capital efficiency | Review capital usage, margin usage, and margin calls. |
TradingView's Help Center still contains some earlier labels. If the wording differs in your interface, use the metric description rather than relying on an old screenshot. Settings/Properties edits the test; Properties in a published report describes the saved setup of the author.
Read returns and risk together
The cumulative P&L curve tracks closed-trade results. Use buy-and-hold as a reference for the same period, then check trade excursions to see movement that a closed-trade curve can hide. A better return with more exposure or leverage is not a like-for-like risk comparison. TradingView's chart guideexplains the displayed layers.
Official calculation
Profitable trades
Winning closed trades divided by all closed trades, multiplied by 100. Breakeven trades remain in the denominator.
Compare win rate with average win and average loss. Frequent small wins can coexist with an overall loss.
Max drawdown (intrabar)
Includes adverse price movement while positions are open. It can exceed the drawdown reconstructed only from closed-trade P&L.
Compare like-for-like drawdown definitions. A closed-trade CSV alone cannot reproduce every intrabar equity observation.
Sharpe ratio
TradingView documents monthly returns, return variability, and a default annual risk-free rate of 2%, configurable through risk_free_rate.
Match return frequency and the risk-free rate before comparing with another tool. Do not assume the displayed value is an annualized Sharpe ratio.
Sortino ratio
Uses monthly returns and downside deviation, with the same configurable annual risk-free-rate default.
It answers a different risk question from Sharpe. Few downside observations can make the result unstable; a large ratio is not a deployment rule.
Use Trades to explain the headline numbers
Inspect the entry and exit timestamps, prices, direction, size, and signal IDs. Match several trades to the chart, including the largest winner and loser. Averages alone cannot tell you whether the strategy traded the conditions you intended.
Favorable excursion (MFE)
The trade's greatest unrealized profit. Compare it with the final result to examine how much of the favorable move the exit retained.
Adverse excursion (MAE)
The trade's greatest unrealized loss. A winning trade can still have substantial adverse excursion before it closes.
Excursions describe individual trades; they are not the same as portfolio drawdown. See the official excursion definitions. Changing a stop to fit past MAE values requires a fresh test on data excluded from that decision.
Export with enough context to reproduce the result
Download the trade list as CSV, or choose Download data as XLSX in the report menu. The CSV includes all available trade columns even if some are hidden. Save the symbol, timeframe, dates, script version, inputs, sizing, currency, and costs alongside the file. Under the default testing range, individual records can be limited to the latest 9,000 trades even though Metrics covers the broader result. Export and trade-limit documentation.
Audit the assumptions before judging the report
- Costs: inspect commission type and value, plus slippage in ticks. Defaults can come from the script and can be changed in settings. A configured fee is already part of the result; do not subtract it twice.
- Sizing and margin: record initial capital, currency, order size, pyramiding, and margin. Changing these can change which trades can be opened as well as their returns.
- Execution: review bar detail and script execution settings. Higher detail refines historical fills with lower-timeframe data; it remains a simulation. Recalculation choices can change historical and realtime behavior.
- Sample: separate the period used to choose parameters from the period used to evaluate them. Check whether a few trades dominate returns and whether the result survives plausible cost changes.
See TradingView's strategy properties and current report settings guide. For chart-price assumptions and repainting, use our backtest accuracy guide.
Continue with the exported trade sample
Pineify Backtest Deep Report accepts TradingView trade CSVs for return distributions, MFE/MAE analysis, and Monte Carlo analysis. These calculations help examine the exported sample. They cannot repair incorrect fills, recover missing trades, or prove future profitability.
Explore Backtest Deep ReportEducational information, not investment advice. Simulated historical results do not guarantee future returns.
Strategy Tester questions
What is the Strategy Tester in TradingView?
It is the report for simulated trades from a Pine Script strategy. Current documentation calls it the Strategy report. Add a strategy to a chart to see historical results; an indicator alone does not produce a strategy report.
Where are Overview and Performance Summary?
Older guides use these labels. Current Pine documentation describes two main report tabs: Metrics and Trades. Metrics groups the summary charts and statistics. The Properties tab in a published strategy report records the settings used by the author; editable strategy properties are in the script settings.
What is a good profit factor or win rate?
There is no universal cutoff that proves a strategy is ready to trade. Profit factor above 1 describes a profitable realized sample, while win rate says how often trades won. Check payoff size, cost assumptions, concentration in a few winners, and performance on data not used to select the rules.
Can I export the Strategy Tester report?
Yes. The Trades view has a download control for a CSV of its available trade data. The report menu also offers Download data as XLSX for the report. Save the test settings with the export so that later comparisons use the same symbol, timeframe, dates, and costs.
Does Bar Magnifier make fills match live trading?
No. Higher historical bar detail uses lower-timeframe OHLC data to refine simulated fills. It still depends on available data and an execution model. It cannot establish the order-book liquidity or fill price your broker would have delivered.
Why can an exported analysis disagree with TradingView?
Check the included trades, open positions, fees, sizing, currency, return frequency, and drawdown definition. A calculation from closed trades can differ from an equity calculation that includes intrabar movement. Different results do not by themselves show that either tool has a bug.
Official references
Checked October 16, 2026. TradingView's documentation uses both current report names and some earlier terminology.