How to read a strategy's daily P&L ledger

Every strategy on Strategy Greeks has a public daily profit and loss (P&L) ledger: one number for each trading day, published after market close, including the days that end in a loss. This article explains what those numbers mean, how cumulative P&L and drawdown are calculated, and why a subscriber's own results can be different from the published figures.

What a daily P&L figure is

Each figure in the ledger is Tradetron's official mark-to-market P&L for that strategy on that day, for a 1x deployment.

• Mark-to-market means open positions are valued at the day's closing prices, even if they have not been closed yet. A positional strategy that holds options overnight shows the change in their value, not only the trades that were completed.
• 1x deployment is the base size of a strategy on Tradetron. Each strategy page shows the capital set aside for one 1x deployment. A subscriber running the strategy at 2x would see roughly twice the profit or loss, and needs roughly twice the capital.
• A blank day means the strategy did not trade that day. It is recorded as zero.

Figures are shown in Indian rupees and rounded to whole rupees on the site. The downloadable CSV on each strategy page keeps the exact values.

Cumulative P&L

Cumulative P&L is the running total of every daily figure since the strategy went live. It is drawn as the upper line in each strategy's chart. If a strategy made ₹1,000 on its first day, lost ₹400 on the second and made ₹200 on the third, its cumulative P&L after three days is ₹800.

Cumulative P&L divided by the capital for 1x gives the return on capital shown on the site. It is a simple ratio of the running total to the capital per 1x; it is not annualised and it says nothing about future results.

Drawdown

A drawdown is how far cumulative P&L has fallen from its highest point so far. The site starts counting from zero, so drawdown is always zero or negative:

• If cumulative P&L reaches a new high, drawdown is zero.
• If cumulative P&L then falls from ₹1,000 to ₹700, drawdown is −₹300.
• Current drawdown is the drawdown on the latest day.
• Maximum drawdown is the deepest drawdown ever recorded.

Drawdown matters because it shows the size of the losing stretches a subscriber would have had to sit through. The lower chart on each strategy page plots drawdown over time.

Monthly returns

The monthly table on each strategy page adds up the daily P&L for each calendar month and divides it by the capital for 1x. The first month is marked partial, because the strategy usually went live part-way through it.

For the portfolio view, each month's figure is divided by the capital of the strategies that were actually live during that month, so a month in which only one strategy traded shows that strategy's result rather than being diluted by capital that was not yet in use.

Why individual results can differ

The ledger shows one standard version of each strategy. A subscriber's own account can show different numbers for several ordinary reasons:

• Execution and slippage. Orders fill at slightly different prices in different accounts, especially in fast markets and on expiry days.
• Brokerage, taxes and charges. These depend on the broker and plan, and reduce net results.
• Multiplier. Running a strategy at 2x or 3x scales both gains and losses.
• Start date. A subscriber who joins in the middle of a drawdown, or just after a new high, experiences a different path from the full ledger.
• Interruptions. Missed sessions, broker connectivity problems, margin shortfalls or pausing a strategy all change results.

This is why every figure on the site is described as an indication of how the strategy itself has behaved, not as what any particular account earned.

Reading the ledger well

A few habits help when looking at any strategy's record:

• Look at the losing days and drawdowns, not only the totals. They show what holding the strategy has actually felt like.
• Compare intraday and positional strategies separately; they carry different overnight risk.
• Check expiry days, which often produce the largest single-day moves. Our article on how weekly expiry works for NIFTY and SENSEX options explains why.
• Use the day selector on the overview page to see what every strategy did on a particular date.
• Remember that past results do not indicate future results.

To see these figures in practice, open any strategy from the overview page. For the terms used to describe options positions, see what the option Greeks mean for a hedged weekly options position.