Many traders get fixated on a single indicator and miss the point. We're talking about the win rate — the percentage of successful trades out of the total number. It sounds simple, but it's not the main thing in trading.

The formula is straightforward: (profitable trades / all trades) × 100. Suppose you closed 50 positions in a month, with 30 in profit and 20 in loss. Win rate = 60%. It looks pretty good, but here’s the catch.

A high win rate of 70-90% often occurs when you take small target profits. It sounds nice until one big loss wipes out all your gains. On the other hand, a win rate of 30-50% can be very profitable if your wins are much larger than your losses.

That’s why you should look at the win rate together with the risk/reward ratio. It’s a real indicator of how much you earn per trade relative to what you lose. Example: a 50% win rate but a 1:2 risk/reward ratio — a profitable strategy. An 80% win rate but a 2:1 risk/reward ratio — you could end up in the red. Such is the paradox.

How to increase your win rate without fanaticism? First — analyze each trade, keep a mistake journal. Second — trade without emotions, strictly according to your plan. Third — only enter trades with clear signals, don’t guess. Fourth — refuse trades with poor risk/reward ratios, even if you really want to take them.

In practice, the win rate is just a tool for self-analysis. Stable income is not achieved by a high percentage of wins, but by proper capital management and discipline.

By the way, exchanges don’t display the win rate directly — it’s a calculated metric. If you want to compute it, download your order history from the trading journal, count the profitable trades, and apply the formula. Or use third-party analytical tools. BTC is currently trading around $80.48K, down 1.71% in 24 hours — a good moment to analyze your positions and review your strategy.