Total Trades
In short
The total number of trades executed during a backtest period
This is simply how many times the strategy bought or sold something during the test. More trades means the strategy is more active (like a day trader), fewer means it's more patient (like a buy-and-hold investor). There's no 'right' number — it depends on the strategy.
Trade count indicates the activity level of a strategy and affects statistical significance. Strategies with very few trades (under 30) may have unreliable performance metrics — the results could be due to luck rather than skill. Higher trade counts provide more data points for statistical confidence but also incur more transaction costs and slippage.
Thresholds
- >200
- High frequency
- 50-200
- Moderate activity
- 30-50
- Low but valid
- <30
- Too few for reliability
Related concepts
- Win Rate — If you made 100 trades and 60 of them made money, your win rate is 60%. But here's the trick — a 40% win rate can still make you rich if your winners are much bigger than your losers. Win rate alone doesn't tell the full story.
- Profit Factor — If all your winning trades added up to £3,000 and all your losing trades added up to £2,000, your profit factor is 1.5. It means for every £1 you lost, you made £1.50. Above 1.0 = making money. Below 1.0 = losing money. Simple as that.