---
title: "Read a strategy's trade history"
description: "Use the Trade History tab to see what a backtest traded: one row per symbol, then each position, then each trade, with gross, costs and net at every level."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/read-a-strategy-s-trade-history"
last_updated: "2026-10-07"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/read-a-strategy-s-trade-history.md"
---

# Read a strategy's trade history

The **Trade History** tab lists everything a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [backtest](/glossary/backtest) traded — each [symbol](/glossary/instrument), then each position in it, then each trade — with **Gross**, **Costs** and **Net** at every level.

## Steps

1. **Open Trade History.** Open the strategy, choose **Analysis**, then the **Trade History** tab — the row of tabs shows it as **Trades**. The strategy needs a completed backtest, and the tab depends on your plan; a tab outside it carries the plan's bars and [opens to say what it shows](/docs/analysis/find-your-way-around-a-strategy-s-analysis-tabs#what-does-a-tab-outside-my-plan-show).

   Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-and-plan/what-each-plan-includes).
2. **Read the four figures across the top.** **Symbols traded**, **Profitable symbols**, **Best symbol** and **Trading costs** sum up the whole run.
3. **Read By symbol.** One row for every instrument the backtest ever held, with its **Gross**, **Costs**, **Net**, **Dividends** and **Total P&L** over the whole run. **Gross** is before costs, **Net** after, and **Costs** the difference, shown as a positive amount ([gross vs net](/glossary/gross-vs-net)). Type a ticker or name in **Search symbols…** to find one; select a column heading to rank by it. More rows load as you scroll.
4. **Open a symbol.** Select its row: **Positions**, with a count, lists every position taken in it, each with its **Start**, **End**, **Side** and **Max contracts** and the same money columns.
5. **Open a position.** Select it: **Executions** lists every fill, and **Dividends & splits** the events recorded while it was held.

**Done.** You read the same trades at three scales — a symbol's whole life, one position, one fill — and every level adds up the same way.

## What does each column mean, and in which currency?

The profit-and-loss columns — **Gross**, **Costs**, **Net**, **Dividends** and **Total P&L** — are in the currency the analysis is shown in at every level, so rows compare directly: your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency) on a strategy you own, US dollars on a Public strategy, which is shown with default settings. Prices are not converted: a trade's **Actual execution price**, and the value and price of a dividend or split, are in the instrument's own currency. Each column is explained on the page that owns it:

- the **By symbol** table and the four figures above it — [positions summary table](/glossary/positions-summary-table);
- the positions and trades inside a symbol — [positions detail drill-down](/glossary/positions-detail-drill-down);
- the last column, a symbol's whole result with dividends — [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l);
- why a closing trade happened, in its **Reason** column — [exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason);
- a position still open at the end of the run — [realized vs open P&L](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l).

## Why do the figures look wrong?

### Net is the same as Gross on every row

The backtest charged no trading costs, which is the default: **Costs & interests** is off whenever the tab opens, so every Costs cell is zero and the page says "These figures are gross of trading costs and taxes.", because **Taxes** is off by default too. Switch it on in **Simulation assumptions** to see costs deducted ([the costs switch](/glossary/costs-toggle)).

### Gross minus Costs is one unit away from Net

Each cell is rounded on its own, so the three can differ by one in the last digit. Nothing is missing; see [gross vs net](/glossary/gross-vs-net#how-do-you-read-the-sign-of-the-costs-column).

### The table lists a company that no longer trades

By design: a delisted, acquired or taken-private company keeps the history it had, and a backtest can hold it for the period it traded — dropping it would leave only the survivors. See [delisted](/glossary/delisted) and [what the data coverage figures count](/docs/data-and-methodology#which-instruments-do-the-coverage-figures-count).

### The table reads "No symbols in this backtest."

The run opened no positions. Inside a symbol or a position the same case reads "No positions for this symbol.", "No trades." or "No dividends or splits."

### Rows stop loading with "Couldn't load results."

The next page of rows could not be fetched. Reload the tab to try again.

Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)