Performance metrics - qualitative evaluation

[danielkrizian]

Sharpe
at least 36 months of data

Profit Factor
greater than 2
Examining the 2:1 profit/loss requirement, you get the sense that strategies that feature a mountain of small bites are much more succeptible to changes in the market.
For instance, if you have a strategy that states "90% of the time, with these conditions, it will reach 5 ticks before it reaches 25 ticks against."
In theory, with commission and burden, at a 5/25 (or 1/5 PL ratio), you'd need to win about 6/7 or 86% of the time.
When looking at this closer, if you've observed a 90% win rate and you're averaging a certain yield/time, it only takes a couple of losers in a row to REALLY kick you in the crotch. Essentially, you have to drop from 90% to 86% and now you're under water. Not only that, it only takes 2 or 3 consecutive losers to put you in the hospital.
Conversely, a strategy that features a 2:1 PL ratio, and has a 50% win rate, it takes several losers in a row to create a knockout punch, which usually gives the trader enough time to pause, adjust, etc.

RINA
"good" RINA index is one over 100 and an acceptible ratio is between 30-100 and anything less than 30 (even negative) is not so good.