Introduction to the cTrader Analyze Feature
With the Beta release of cTrader version 3.0 on the 22nd of May 2018, cTrader now features a new section in the platform called cTrader Analyze. The feature is designed to show the trading performance of the account you are using. The section provides very detailed trading statistics with useful charts and graphs to help break down a variety of different metrics. The cTrader Analyze feature is very useful for any trader interested in breaking down their past performance.
cTrader Analyze: Summary
The Analyze application begins with the summary section. This is a table that shows a basic overview of your trading account. This section really is a simple summary which complements the Equity Chart on the right. The details highlighted here include your account profitability details such as Net Profit, Profit Factor, Max Balance Drawdown and Equity. Other details shown here are your starting balance, current balance and total deposits and withdrawals. As you can see from the diagram there are info icons which when you hover over trigger a tooltip that explains the statistic.
cTrader Analyze: Equity Chart
The Equity Chart is a graph that plots two lines, a Balance line and an Equity line. A new point on the graph is plotted with each closing deal. The closure of a position is what causes profits and losses to be realized and your balance to be changed. Hence why this event is what causes a new point to be plotted on the chart. At the same time, your Equity is calculated.
What is an Equity Chart
In Forex trading Equity is your unrealized profits and losses from open positions. If you don’t have any open positions, then your Equity is the same as your Balance. This chart is useful because it shows a more accurate picture of the growth or decline in the value of an account. For example, in the below image, you can see the balance increasing, which would look like a profitable trading strategy. But actually, there are lots of losing positions which just haven’t been closed yet. This is why the Equity line is for far from the Balance line. Right at the end of the chart, you can see where the two lines abruptly meet. This is because all of those losing positions were closed. Those losses cause the balance to fall and when there are no unrealized losses the two lines meet. In the end, this strategy only made a profit of ~$2,500 even though the balance of the strategy grew by over $30,000.
cTrader Analyze: Performance
The performance section goes into more depth than the Equity Chart which looks at the overall performance of the strategy. The performance section breaks profitability down trade by trade. On the left of this section, there is a table showing you the total number of trades you have made, how many were winning and losing and of them, how many were long and short. This section also calculates your total traded volume and average deal size.
On the right of the performance stats table, there is the performance chart. This is a simple bar chart showing the number of winning trades (in green) and the number of losing trades (in orange) month by month. There a few options to switch the year or switch to a daily view.
cTrader Analyze: Volume
The Volume section of the cTrader Analyze application can be very interesting. Over the chosen time period, you are able to view a breakdown of the different symbols that you have been trading within your strategy. The table shows each symbol you have traded along with the volume you have traded, the average deal size. Also shown are the profitability statistics of the specific trading pairs. The pie chart shows what percentage these symbols make up of your entire trading strategy. By clicking the top of the column you can sort the column into ascending or descending order.
cTrader Analyze: Profitability
Similar to the above volume section, the profitability table shows symbol by symbol the profitability statistics. This helps you to review and discover which symbols are performing well in your strategy and which are not, so you can either eliminate or modify the approach of your strategy.
cTrader Analyze: Trades +Symbols
At the very bottom of the cTrader Analyze application is two final tables. One showing a summary of all of the trades and one showing a summary of all of the symbols traded. While some of this information overlaps between the sections, each section is useful nonetheless and is shown in slightly different contexts even if each piece of information isn’t unique. These two sections seem to serve as a final summary of everything above.
The cTrader Analyze selection is great for both manual traders and automated trading strategy developers to look into the performance on their live and demo accounts. Even if not everything here is useful to you, there certainly will be something that you will find interesting in this section.
