How to read TradingView Strategy Tester results
Read TradingView Strategy Tester results in this order: the number of trades, the commission and slippage settings, the maximum drawdown, then profit factor and average trade. Net profit comes last, because it is the easiest number to flatter. Then export the List of trades and check results by session, the Monte Carlo drawdown range and out-of-sample performance.
Arnau Lavernia · Founder of Elave · Last updated:
What does each number in the Strategy Tester mean?
The Strategy Tester runs a Pine Script strategy over the chart's history and reports what the rules would have done. Every figure is in-sample: it describes the data the rules were built on. The table lists the main figures and the one check that keeps each honest.
| Figure | What it measures | Check before trusting it |
|---|---|---|
| Total closed trades | How many trades the test produced | Under 100, every ratio below has a wide error band |
| Commission paid | Costs the test charged | Zero means the properties have no costs set |
| Max drawdown | Deepest fall from an equity peak | Compare with your account's loss limit, not with net profit |
| Profit factor | Gross profit divided by gross loss | Read it after costs; very high values on few trades suggest a leak |
| Percent profitable | Share of trades that made money | Meaningless without the average win and average loss |
| Avg trade | Net profit per trade | Must survive an extra tick or two of slippage |
| Sharpe and Sortino ratio | Return per unit of volatility (Sortino: downside only) | In-sample, and not adjusted for how many versions you tried |
| Net profit | The final result | Read last: it is the easiest number to flatter |
In what order should I read the report?
- Open the strategy's properties first. Check the initial capital, the order size, the commission and the slippage. A test with no costs overstates every figure below it.
- Count the closed trades. Under 100, treat every ratio as an early signal; comparing sessions or setups needs several hundred.
- Read the maximum drawdown against your account's loss limit. A strategy that earns well but draws down more than your prop firm allows is unusable at that size.
- Read profit factor and average trade together. The average trade must stay positive after a realistic extra cost per trade.
- Read percent profitable only next to the ratio of average win to average loss. Alone, it says nothing about whether the strategy makes money.
- Read the Sharpe and Sortino ratios last, as in-sample figures that ignore how many versions you tried.
- Export the List of trades and look at what the summary hides: results by hour, weekday and month, long versus short, and the range of drawdowns a reshuffle of trade order produces.
- Re-run the frozen rules on a date range you did not tune on. That out-of-sample result matters more than any figure above.
How do I calculate expectancy from the report?
Expectancy is the average result per trade: percent profitable times the average win, minus percent losing times the average loss. Example: 45% profitable, an average win of 300 and an average loss of 200 give 0.45 × 300 − 0.55 × 200 = 135 − 110 = 25 per trade.
Then subtract a realistic extra cost. If one more tick of slippage per trade costs 20, the example's edge shrinks to 5 per trade, which a small change in fills can erase. An expectancy that only survives perfect fills is not an edge.
Which settings make Strategy Tester results unrealistic?
- No commission or slippage in the properties. Every trade then looks cheaper than it can be.
- Fills inside a bar. On historical bars the tester knows only the open, high, low and close, so it has to assume the path in between; a stop and a target hit in the same bar may be resolved in your favour.
- Repainting or look-ahead. A script that uses data not yet available at the time, for example a higher-timeframe value before its bar has closed, trades on information it could not have had.
- Compounding position size. Sizing as a percentage of equity can make the late part of a long test dominate the totals.
- Too little history. A few months of one market regime says little about the next one.
How do I export the List of trades?
- Run the strategy and open the Strategy Report under the chart.
- Switch to the List of trades tab.
- Click Download. TradingView exports each tab separately as a CSV, so this file holds the trades only.
- Write down the chart's time zone, because entry and exit times are recorded in it.
What can't the Strategy Tester tell me?
- How many versions you tried before this one. The more you tried, the more of the result is selection luck; the deflated Sharpe ratio corrects for that.
- How you will execute live: hesitation, skipped trades and moved stops don't exist in a tester.
- Whether the next market regime looks like the last one.
Can Elave read my Strategy Tester export?
Yes. Elave's free backtesting tool imports the List of trades CSV and adds what the summary leaves out: results by hour, weekday and month, a seeded Monte Carlo, a deflated Sharpe ratio that counts each version you save, a sample-size meter with no grade under 300 trades, and an in-sample versus out-of-sample split. It is a report on tests you ran in TradingView, not a bar-replay simulator, and it needs a signed-in account with no card.
FAQ
What is a good profit factor in a TradingView backtest?
There is no universal threshold. Above 1.0 after realistic costs means the rules made money in-sample; how much above matters less than the sample behind it. A profit factor above 3 on fewer than 200 trades is more often a leak, such as look-ahead or missing costs, than an edge.
Is TradingView's Strategy Tester accurate?
It is as accurate as its settings and its script. Add realistic commission and slippage, avoid scripts that repaint or look ahead, remember that fills inside a bar are assumed, and test enough history. Even then the results are in-sample, so check them on a date range you did not tune on.
How many trades should a TradingView backtest have?
At least 100 closed trades for a first verdict, and several hundred before you compare sessions or setups. With 30 trades, a 50% hit rate could really be anywhere from about 32% to 68%. Elave's report gives no letter grade below 300 trades for that reason.
Why is my Sharpe ratio so high in TradingView?
Usually because of the test, not the strategy: no costs, intrabar fill assumptions, repainting, a short calm period, or the best of many versions you tried. Elave's report treats an annualised Sharpe above 3 as a red flag, so look for a leak before you trust one.
Does percent profitable matter in a backtest?
Only next to the size of wins and losses. A strategy that is 30% profitable can make money if winners are three times the losers, and one that is 70% profitable can lose if a few large losses erase many small wins. Expectancy after costs combines both into the number that matters.
Can I export Strategy Tester results to Excel?
Yes. In the Strategy Report, each tab has its own Download, and the file is a CSV that Excel, Google Sheets or Elave can open. Export the List of trades tab for trade-by-trade analysis; the performance summary export holds only the totals, not the individual trades.
Keep going
Sources
- TradingView — How to export strategy data · checked 2 Nov 2026
- TradingView — Pine Script strategies · checked 1 Nov 2026
- TradingView — Pine Script: repainting · checked 1 Nov 2026
- Bailey & López de Prado (2014), The Deflated Sharpe Ratio, Journal of Portfolio Management · checked 2 Nov 2026
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About Elave
Elave (elavefx.com) is a free trading platform for retail and prop-firm traders: an auto-synced trading journal, Guardian rule checks on MetaTrader 5, an AI Coach that reads your own trades, a report for TradingView Strategy Tester backtests, a Telegram trading desk and application-only coaching (Elave Bootcamp). The platform is free with no subscription and no card; Elave is funded by partner-broker (introducing-broker) relationships.
Educational content, not investment advice. Elave makes no performance, win-rate, pass-rate or income claims. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss.