Profit factor calculator
Put in what your winners made and what your losers lost, or your averages, and see your profit factor and what it actually says about your trading.
Gross profit is every winning trade added up. Gross loss is every losing trade added up, as a positive number. Use numbers after commissions and fees.
- Gross profit
- $6,400.00
- Gross loss
- -$4,100.00
- Net result
- $2,300.00
A healthy number for most day traders, if it holds over a big sample.
Actal works out profit factor from your platform's export and splits it by setup, grade and mistake, so you see which trades carry you.
Journal for free →What profit factor is
or: (wins × average win) ÷ (losses × average loss)
It's how many dollars you make for every dollar you lose. Example: 22 winners averaging $290 make $6,380. 18 losers averaging $230 lose $4,140. $6,380 ÷ $4,140 is a profit factor of 1.54. You make about $1.54 for every dollar you lose, and $56 a trade on average.
Always use numbers after commissions and fees. On a futures account with a lot of small trades, fees alone can drag a 1.2 down to 1.0.
What is a good profit factor?
This is how I read it with students, over a sample of at least 50 to 100 trades.
| Profit factor | What it means |
|---|---|
| Below 1.0 | Losing money |
| 1.0 to 1.2 | About breakeven, fees can tip it over |
| 1.2 to 1.5 | Small edge |
| 1.5 to 2.0 | Healthy for most day traders |
| 2.0 to 3.0 | Very good, if the sample is big |
| Above 3.0 | Rare, check how many trades it's from |
A rule of thumb, not a law. A swing trader with few, large trades can run a different range than a scalper.
Your overall profit factor hides the real story
A profit factor of 1.1 looks like a strategy that barely works. Usually it isn't. When I split a student's trades by whether they followed their plan, the trades they were supposed to take often have a healthy profit factor on their own. The overall number is dragged down by the other ones: the revenge trade, the trade before the setup was there, the size-up after two losses.
So don't only work out one number. Work it out for your A setups, and again for the trades where you broke a rule. The gap between them is what your discipline is costing you, and it's often the difference between a 1.1 and a 1.6.
Profit factor goes together with your win rate and your reward to risk. Check them with the win rate calculator and the risk reward calculator, and if revenge trades are what's dragging you down, read how to stop revenge trading.
Questions people ask
Import your trades and Actal shows profit factor, win rate and expectancy per setup, per grade and per mistake. Free during beta, no card.
Made by Joakim Jusell, futures trader and coach at Jusell Trading Academy.