Am I getting better at trading? 7 stats that show real progress

How to know if you're improving at trading when your P&L won't say: 7 stats to compare, fair stretches, how much data you need, and a then-vs-now example.

2026-10-31

You've been at this for months, maybe years. Some weeks feel sharper, then a bad day wipes out a good week and you're back to wondering if any of it is working. Your account balance can't tell you, because it mixes skill, luck, size and fees into one number.

Here's how to know if you're improving at trading: compare a handful of skill stats (average loss, revenge trades, profit factor, win rate, how long your accounts last, pass rate and firm fees per month) across two equal stretches of time, and only trust a comparison with enough trades behind it. If most of them moved the right way, you're getting better, even if the money hasn't caught up yet.

Why your P&L alone is a bad scorecard

Net P&L is the result you care about, but it's a noisy judge of skill, especially over a few months. A few reasons it misleads:

• One day can dominate it. A single big win or a single blow-up can decide a whole month.
• Size changes everything. Trading 3 contracts instead of 1 triples your swings without changing your skill.
• Prop results are simulated. Evaluation and most funded P&L isn't money you keep, so it can look great while you're still paying fees.
• Costs sit outside it. Your trading can improve while resets and new evaluations keep your real money red.
• The market changes. A quiet month and a wild month aren't the same test.

That's why you want measures of how you trade, not just what you made. They move earlier, and they're more in your control.

Skill usually shows up in your stats months before it shows up in your bank account.

The 7 stats that show real progress

None of these is perfect on its own. Together they give an honest picture.

1. Average loss. The most underrated sign of progress. When your average losing trade gets smaller, you're cutting losers sooner, sizing better and moving your stop less. It's also the stat most directly under your control. A sample trader in our demo went from −$182 to −$126 per losing trade.

2. Revenge trades per week. Trades taken right after a loss, usually bigger and faster than your plan allows. They're often the costliest habit in a journal, and fewer of them is progress you can measure. Our sample trader went from 10.8 a week to 1.6. If this one's high for you, start with how to stop revenge trading.

3. Profit factor. Gross profit divided by gross loss. Under 1.0 you're losing money on your trades; above 1.0 you're making it. It moves slowly, which makes it a good trend measure. The sample trader went from 0.46 to 1.37.

4. Win rate. Useful, but only next to average win and average loss. A higher win rate with tiny winners can be worse than a lower one with big winners. For what counts as reasonable, see what's a good win rate and profit factor. The sample trader went from 28% to 52%.

5. How long a blown account lasted. For prop traders, this one is gold. Accounts that last longer mean you're respecting the drawdown more and taking fewer rule-breaking days. The sample trader's first accounts lasted about 5 days; the latest ones about 20.

6. Evaluation pass rate. Passed evaluations divided by evaluations that finished (passed or failed). Leave out the ones still running, or the rate looks better than it is. The sample trader passed 5 of the 29 evaluations that finished, 17% over the whole career. What matters is whether your recent rate beats your early one.

7. Firm fees per month. Not a trading stat, but a behavior stat. If you're paying less per month for evaluations and resets while trading the same amount, you're blowing fewer accounts and buying fewer emotional resets. That's progress, and it's money. Compare months with a similar number of trading days, or the number just follows how much you traded.

A bonus measure: the share of trading days you journaled. It's not skill by itself, but traders who review their days tend to see the other numbers sooner. The sample trader went from 0% to 87%.

Compare equal stretches, not random weeks

The fairest test is two stretches of the same length: your first 3 months against your last 3, or this year against last year. Equal lengths keep the comparison honest, because a longer stretch naturally has more trades, more bad days and more fees.

Week-over-week checks are great for catching problems early, and we cover them in Am I improving as a trader? week over week. But for the big question, longer stretches win. One week is mostly noise; three months starts to be signal. For how to choose stretches well (and avoid overlapping ones), read then vs now: comparing your first months with today.

How much data is enough?

A win rate from 8 trades is a coin flip with a story attached. Before you believe a comparison, set a minimum:

• Trading stats (win rate, profit factor, average win and loss): at least 20 trades in each stretch.
• Account stats (pass rate, days an account lasted, accounts blown): at least 3 accounts in each stretch.
• Below that: write 'not enough yet' and wait. It isn't a failure, it's honesty.

20 trades is a floor, not proof. The more trades behind a number, the more you can trust it, so give extra weight to measures where both stretches are well above the minimum.

Three traps that fake progress (or hide it)

Even with the right stats and enough trades, a few things can fool you. Check for these before you trust the verdict.

• You changed size or instrument. If you moved from NQ to MES, your average loss will shrink even if your decisions didn't improve at all. Compare dollar stats only on the same instrument and size, or switch to stats that don't depend on size, like win rate, profit factor and revenge trades.
• You only count the good accounts. It's tempting to measure the funded account that's working and forget the four evaluations that blew last month. Pass rate and days an account lasted only mean something if every account is in.
• You stopped logging the bad days. If your journal goes quiet after a red day, your stats get better without you getting better. This is one reason days journaled is worth tracking next to everything else.

There's also a trap in the other direction. When you start journaling properly, your numbers can look worse for a while, simply because you're finally recording the trades you used to forget. That's not a decline. It's the first honest baseline you've had, and every comparison after it will be more useful.

A fair comparison uses the same instruments, every account and every trading day, or it isn't measuring you.

A worked example: then vs now

Here's the sample trader from our demo, first 3 months against last 3 months:

Across all the measures with enough data, this trader was better on 8 of 12. Not all of them, and that's normal. Real progress is uneven: you fix one thing and another gets a little worse for a while.

Now the part most people miss. The same trader's money tells a very different story: −$10,184 all together over 28 months, counting firm fees, courses, platforms and personal trading. Yet over the last 12 months they're +$28, and over the last 3 months +$1,026. Their first payout came in month 25.

If they'd judged progress only by the lifetime total, they'd have concluded nothing was working. The skill stats showed the change long before the money did.

Look at the direction of your skill stats first, then your recent money, and only then your lifetime total.

How Am I getting better? does this for you

In Market Matrix, My Trading Journey has a part called Am I getting better? It measures skill, not money, so simulated prop results count here, clearly labeled as skill.

• Then vs now: pick any two stretches (first or last month, 3, 6 or 12 months, or a year) and see 14 measures side by side, each marked Better, Worse or Same, or 'Not enough yet' under 20 trades or 3 accounts.
• Trends by month, quarter or year for 10 measures, so you see direction, not just two points.
• How long your prop accounts last: every account's days in one chart, colored by outcome, with your first against your latest average.
• Lessons from blown accounts: why each one ended, next to the lesson you wrote.

A switch lets you look at prop firms, personal accounts or both together.

See if you're getting better →

How to check yours by hand this weekend

• Pick two equal stretches, like your first 3 months and your last 3.
• Count trades in each. If either has fewer than 20, use longer stretches.
• Calculate the 7 stats for both. A spreadsheet export of your trades is enough.
• Mark each one Better, Worse or Same. Call it Same if the change is tiny.
• Count the Betters. Most of them better means real progress, whatever your balance says.

What if you're not getting better?

That's useful too. Pick the single measure that got worse or stayed worst, and turn it into one rule you can check every day. If revenge trades are high, a hard stop after two losses. If average loss is growing, a fixed stop and smaller size (the position size calculator helps).

Then measure again in a few weeks. The goal isn't to fix everything; it's to see one line move because you moved it. Next in this series: how long it takes to become a profitable trader, and how to measure your own timeline.

Start your free journal →

This article is for education only and isn't financial advice. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss.