Per-Trade Return Axis (%)
The Return axis expresses each trade's result as a percentage of account balance at the time of the trade (net_pnl / running balance). It normalizes for position size and account growth. Note: a cumulative figure on this axis compounds, it is not a simple sum.
- 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 measured in four different units — we call them axes. Picking the axis changes what units the number is in — and sometimes the formula. This page covers the Return axis and how it relates to the other three.
The Return axis
r = net_pnl / running_balance_before_trade (as a percentage: × 100)
- net_pnl
- the trade's profit after commission and swap
- running_balance_before_trade
- account balance at the moment the trade opened
∏(1 + r) − 1 — and you get back the equity Total Return: the Return axis is the per-trade view of the same compounding the Return curve shows. (That's why cumulative totals here compound rather than sum.)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; "Return" on an Expectancy (trade) is a single trade's percentage. Same word, different machinery.