What every number on the metrics page means

Before you start

Run a backtest first — the metrics fill in only after a strategy has been simulated. Open your strategy and select the analysis view; the figures sit in a grouped table under the headings Performance, Drawdown, Volatility and risk, Monthly performance, and Averages. Every value is stored internally as a fraction (for example 0.153) and formatted for display as a percentage ("15.3%"), while ratio rows such as Sharpe and Return-to-drawdown ratio are shown as plain numbers.

What do the Performance rows show?

The Performance group reports how much the strategy made and how fast.

• Total return (%) is the whole-period return of the strategy over the backtest — the total gain or loss from the first simulated day to the last. See total return.
• Years is the number of calendar years between the first and last simulated date, carried to decimal months so partial years count.
• CAGR is the compound (geometric) annual growth rate: (1 + total return) ^ (1 / years) − 1. It is the row shown when the Reinvest profits toggle is on. See CAGR.
• AAGR is the average (arithmetic) annual growth rate: total return ÷ years. CAGR and AAGR share one table slot — AAGR appears instead of CAGR when Reinvest profits is off. See AAGR.

What do the Drawdown rows show?

The Drawdown group measures how far the strategy fell and how long it took to come back.

• Max drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough decline of the capital curve over the period. See drawdown.
• Return-to-drawdown ratio is the period return divided by the size of the max drawdown (return ÷ |max drawdown|). It is a plain, public ratio — the same figure the heatmap labels NP/DD. See return-to-drawdown ratio.
• Longest DD (months) is the longest stretch, in months, the strategy stayed below a prior peak. See longest drawdown.
• Longest recovery (months) is the longest time, in months, it took to climb back to a prior peak after the trough. See longest recovery.

What do the Volatility and risk rows show?

The Volatility and risk group describes how bumpy the ride was and how the return compares to a risk-free baseline.

• Volatility is the annualized standard deviation of returns, using the standard 252-trading-day convention (the daily figure is scaled by √252). The group heading and the KPI strip call this same quantity Volatility. See volatility.
• Risk-free rate is a short-term reference interest rate drawn from real market data, matched to the period of your backtest; where that data is missing, a fallback assumption is used. The row shows the period average. See risk-free rate.
• Sharpe is the Sharpe ratio: (annualized return − risk-free rate) ÷ annualized volatility. The annualized-return term is CAGR when Reinvest profits is on and AAGR when it is off. Other views label the same figure Sharpe ratio. See Sharpe ratio.

What do the Monthly performance rows show?

The Monthly performance group summarises the strategy month by month.

• Positive months (%) is the share of months in the period that ended with a positive return. See positive months.
• Best month and Worst month are the highest and lowest single-month returns over the period. See best month and worst month.

What do the Averages rows show?

The Averages group reports simple averages of the return series. Monthly average is the plain average of the monthly return series, and Yearly average is the plain average of the annual return series. See monthly and yearly average.

How are these numbers annualized?

Every annualized figure on this page shares one basis: Fincanva scales volatility with the √252 trading-day convention and measures years as geometric calendar years carried to decimal months. Values are stored as fractions and formatted for display, and the risk-free baseline is a real, period-matched market series rather than a fixed value — except where market data is missing, in which case a fallback assumption is used.

Metrics shown in other views

Some figures live on other analysis surfaces rather than the main metrics table. The Per-component metrics table adds a Sortino ratio, tracking error, and information ratio for each part of a strategy. The start-date sensitivity view reports average pain. Two textbook risk measures are worth knowing even though the metrics page does not display them today: beta, which appears in the Beta Neutral allocation method rather than as a metric, and alpha. The Fincanva score summarises overall quality — see What the Fincanva score is and how to read it.

These figures describe what a strategy would have done on historical data, not what it will do. Fincanva provides no financial advice — see Is this financial advice?.