Per-Trade Pips% Axis (basis points)
The Pips% axis expresses each trade as its price move in basis points: (close/open − 1) × 10000. It is size-agnostic and cross-symbol comparable, so it isolates the quality of entries and exits independent of how much was risked.
- Computed from
- Data series
- Scope
- Single report
- Range
- Any real number
- Direction
- Context-dependent
Per-trade metrics (Win Rate, Profit Factor, Expectancy, MAE/MFE…) each summarize your individual trades, and a single trade's result can be expressed on four different axes — four units for the same outcome. Picking the axis changes what units the number is in — and sometimes the formula. This page covers the Pips% axis and how it relates to the other three.
The Pips% axis
pips_pct = (close_price / open_price − 1) × 10000
- close_price
- the trade's exit price
- open_price
- the trade's entry price
- 10000
- the multiplier that turns the price fraction into basis points (1 bp = 0.01%)
Pips% is the "skill" axis: it answers "how good were the entry and exit" with position size and account size completely removed. Two traders with identical Pips% had identically good trades — if their P&L differs, that difference is purely sizing. Use it to judge the strategy, not the bankroll. The basis-point framing is what makes it cross-symbol: EURUSD and XAUUSD both read in bp, so a portfolio's trades can be pooled and compared on one honest scale.
The four axes side by side
axis measures applies to ──────── ──────────────────────── ────────────── Return % trade vs account balance any selection P&L $ trade in account currency any selection Pips% price move in bp any (cross-sym) Pips price move in symbol pts single symbol
- Return (%) — size-normalized; a trade's result relative to the balance it risked.
- P&L ($) — the literal money the trade made or lost; reflects position size and account growth.
- Pips% (basis points) —
(close/open − 1) × 10000; the price move itself, comparable across symbols, independent of how much was risked. - Pips (symbol points) — the move in instrument-specific points; only meaningful when a single symbol is selected, since pips aren't comparable across instruments.
Axis vs equity basis — don't conflate them
New here? You can skip this — it's a disambiguation for users coming from the equity charts. A common confusion: "Return" and "P&L" appear in both the equity world and the trade world. They are different dimensions:
| Equity basis | Trade axis | |
|---|---|---|
| Chooses | which cumulative curve | which unit per trade |
| Members | Return, TWR, P&L | Return, P&L, Pips%, Pips |
| TWR? | yes | no |
| Pips? | no | yes |
So "Return" on a Sharpe (equity) is the money-weighted curve; Pips% on an Expectancy (trade) is a single trade's price move in basis points. Same word-family, different machinery.