Calculations Table Comparison
Backtest data in the Lendal Pro Trader is displayed in the Calculations Table. The Pro Tester includes additional elements in backtest calculations and will generate different results.
Last updated
Backtest data in the Lendal Pro Trader is displayed in the Calculations Table. The Pro Tester includes additional elements in backtest calculations and will generate different results.
Last updated
The Calculations Table displays backtest data from Pro Trader. Strategies can be optimized in the Pro Trader by adjusting settings until NET Gain is maximized and Drawdown minimized.
While the Calculations Table is great for optimizing algorithms to market conditions, the Pro Tester allows users to backtest more complete strategies that include Risk Management elements. The Pro Tester also offers other extended features such as Trade Account Emulation, Deep Backtesting, and detailed analysis in the Strategy Testing Panel.
Backtesting in the Pro Trader assumes all trends are traded end-to-end. In reality, traders generally implement risk management in their strategy to lock in profit on winning trends and minimize losses during drawdowns. In this way, strategies with low win rates or prone to large drawdowns can be traded profitably. Consequently, the profitability data displayed in the Calculations Table should be used as a relative measure of strategy optimization, not a realistic forecast of profit.
In comparison, the Pro Tester allows users to include risk management elements such as Scaled Exits, Take Profit, Stop Loss, and Trailing Stop Loss in backtests for more realistic profitability estimates. The inclusion of these elements also provides a better forecast of Strategy Risk Performance and facilitates responsible decision-making around the use of Leverage and Position Size.
Pro Tester results will differ from the data displayed in the Calculations Table if Risk Management elements are included in backtests.
The Pro Tester allows Trade Account Emulation within the Properties Settings. Users can specify Initial Capital (account size), Base Currency, Order Size and type, Pyramiding (consecutive trade) settings, Commission fees, and required Margin for Longs or Shorts to emulate their real trading accounts. These settings will be reflected in profitability data displayed in the Strategy Tester Panel.
Pro Tester results will differ from the data displayed in the Calculations Table unless Order Size and Initial Capital are configured to mirror Order Size and Type in the Pro Trader.
The Pro Trader calculates profitability based on an order size of one contract per trade (e.g. 1 BTC or 1 ETH per trade). Consequently, Profitability, Drawdown, and NET Gain percentages shown in the Calculations Table are relative to the price of one contract at the time of backtesting. For example, the NET Gain of $57,294.54 shown above was calculated when BTC price was $27,678.52. The percentage NET Gain is therefore 207.17% more than the price of 1 BTC contract. In contrast, the Pro Tester allows users to set Order Size as a percentage or fixed amount of contracts, base currency, or account equity. Initial Capital (account size), Pyramiding, Commission fees, and required Margin for Longs or Shorts can also be specified to emulate trade accounts for increased realism. To this end, the Pro Tester displays Net Profit and Gross Loss (account drawdown) as a percentage of Initial Capital.
To compare data in the Calculation Table with Pro Tester data, we must ensure they are backtesting the same time period. The Pro Tester backtests 20,000 candles by default. The date of the first backtested trade will change as the chart timeframe (candle resolution) is changed. To find the date of the first trade, open the List of Trades tab in the Strategy Tester Panel. Navigate to the 'Trades' heading and click it to reverse the order of backtested trades. You will find the 'Date/Time' that the first trade closed in the 4th column.
The Pro Trader can also backtest 20,000 candles. However, the Calculations Table will only display the number of trends specified by the Win Rate (Trends) setting in the Confirmation Control section. Win Rate (Trends) must be set to a high value (>2000) to ensure the 'Start of Test' date in the Calculations Table matches the date of the first trade in the Pro Tester List of Trades.
Another method to ensure the Calculations Table and Pro Tester are testing the same period is to use the Pro Tester's Deep Backtesting feature. The date range in the Deep Backtester can be changed until the date of the first trade in the Pro Tester List of Trades is the same as the 'Start of Test' date shown in the Calculations Table. However, trades don't always align perfectly due to how TradingView compresses the data. In this, make adjustments to the start date on the
Provided the Calculations Table and Pro Tester are backtesting the same time period and risk management settings are not influencing calculations in the Pro Tester, both should display the same profit/loss data. However, the data is labeled differently by each system:
NET Gain
Net Profit
Profitability
Gross Profit
Drawdown
Gross Loss
As mentioned above, while absolute profit and loss values shown in the Calculations Table and Pro Tester are the same, percentage values may differ depending on how Initial Capital, Order Size, and Commission are set in the Pro Tester Properties Settings.
