Guide 6.4
Intermediate, 7 min read. Checked with Scalpel 1.12.8 on .
In short
Pick Analytics in the header's VIEW picker to review every closed trade in the current mode. Overview shows net P&L, win rate, expectancy in R, profit factor, total R and max drawdown over an equity curve and an R distribution; Trades lists every trade; Breakdowns splits results by symbol and by New York hour; Goals grades you against fixed targets. SIM and LIVE each keep their own journal, all net of fees.
A trading journal answers the questions your memory gets wrong: do you make money at 07:00 or only after the open, on $2 stocks or $8 ones, and are your losers really 1R? Scalpel keeps the journal for you. Every trade it closes, by a key, a stop, a take-profit or a flatten, is written to the current mode's journal with its entry, exit, size, fees and R.
Before you start
Click VIEW in the header 1 and choose Analytics. The desks give way to the dashboard; switch back with Trade. Your positions and stops keep running while you look.
The bar at the top says ANALYTICS, then the mode in a badge (SIM in blue, LIVE in orange), the four tabs, and the number of trades on the right. Analytics always reads the current MODE's journal: to see your LIVE trades, switch MODE to LIVE. With no trades yet in that mode it says so.
The six large boxes are the headline numbers. Below them, the EQUITY CURVE and the R DISTRIBUTION.
Open Breakdowns and look for the symbol or the hour where the money goes. See the sections below.
Open Goals to see where you stand against the four targets and which grade that earns.
| Box | What it is | In the example |
|---|---|---|
| NET P&L | Every closed trade's realized P&L added up, after fees | +$252.13 |
| WIN RATE | Winners as a share of winners plus losers. Trades that closed at exactly $0 are left out | 55% |
| EXPECTANCY | The average R per trade: what one more trade is worth, in units of risk | +0.3R |
| PROFIT FACTOR | Dollars won divided by dollars lost. Above 1 makes money; Inf means no losers yet | 1.57 |
| TOTAL R | Every trade's R added up | +5.1R |
| MAX DRAWDOWN | The biggest fall of your running P&L from a high to a later low, in dollars | -$105.14 |
The equity curve is your running net P&L, one step per trade (not per day). It is green when you are ahead overall and red when you are behind, with a faint line at zero. The red strip under it is the drawdown: how far below your best point you were after each trade. Long red stretches are losing streaks.
The R distribution counts your trades in seven buckets: <-2R, -2..-1, -1..0, 0..1, 1..2, 2..3 and 3R+. Red bars are losers, green bars winners. A healthy scalper's losers sit almost all in -1..0: stops honoured. Bars in -2..-1 or <-2R are trades where the stop was moved, ignored or gapped.
Under the charts are three rows of smaller boxes.
| Stat | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SHARPE | Average R divided by how much your R varies, per trade. Higher is steadier. Not annualised |
| SQN | Sharpe times the square root of the number of trades. Green above 1.6 |
| SORTINO | Like Sharpe, but only losing trades count as variation |
| KELLY | The share of capital the Kelly formula would stake given your win rate and payoff. A curiosity, not a sizing rule |
| RECOVERY | Net P&L divided by max drawdown: how many times over you have earned back your worst dip |
| EXPECTANCY $ | Net P&L per trade in dollars |
| AVG WIN, AVG LOSS | The average winner and loser in dollars |
| PAYOFF | Average win divided by average loss. 1.28 means winners are 1.28 times the size of losers |
| LARGEST WIN, LARGEST LOSS | The single best and worst trade |
| COMMISSIONS | Total fees paid (guide 6.3) |
| TRADES, WINS, LOSSES | The counts |
| WIN STREAK, LOSS STREAK | The longest run of each. A $0 trade does not break a streak |
| TRADING DAYS | New York dates with at least one closed trade |
Trades lists the journal, newest first. Type in Filter symbol... to show one ticker, and use All, Wins and Losses to filter by outcome. Click any column heading to sort by it; click again to reverse. The footer adds up the rows you are looking at, so filtering to Losses shows exactly what your losers cost.
Two columns read differently from what you might expect: BALANCE is your running total of net P&L at that trade, not your account balance, and TIME is the close time in New York time, the same clock as the header and the orders panel. Sorting by TIME puts the trades in the order they closed.
| Goal | Target |
|---|---|
| ACCURACY (your win rate) | 75% |
| PAYOFF (WIN/LOSS) | 2.0 |
| PROFIT FACTOR | 2.0 |
| EXPECTANCY | Positive R |
The TRADER GRADE comes from accuracy and payoff together:
| Grade | Accuracy | Payoff |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | 70% or more | 1.0 or more |
| Advanced | 60% or more | 1.5 or more |
| Beginner | 50% or more | 1.0 or more |
| Novice | Anything else |
The targets are deliberately hard. A grade on 20 trades says little; on 200 it starts to mean something.