Win rate vs profit factor: which matters?
Win rate is the percentage of trades that make money. Profit factor is gross profits divided by gross losses — above 1.0 means the strategy makes money overall. A strategy can have a high win rate and still lose if its rare losses outweigh its many small wins.
The two metrics describe opposite strategy personalities. Mean-reversion and range strategies win often but small — high win rate, modest profit factor. Breakout strategies win rarely but big — a 40% win rate with 3R winners is comfortably profitable. Judging either type by the other's metric is how beginners pick exactly the wrong strategy.
The honest evaluation uses both, plus max drawdown (the worst peak-to-valley losing stretch). Poshkan's backtests report all three for every deterministic scanner, over the same rules the live scanner runs — so the numbers you judge are the numbers you'd get.
See it in a real strategy
Learn it by doing — on virtual money
Poshkan is a free paper-trading simulator for stocks, crypto, and forex. Every trade, every stop-loss, every pip is 100% virtual — so mistakes cost nothing while the lessons stick.
Create a free accountEducational content, not financial advice. Poshkan is a paper-trading simulator — all money, trades, and returns are 100% virtual.