Frequently Asked Questions

Process

Procedures

Software

Software

  1. What do the ‘Active’ check boxes do?
    1. In the quadrant tables, this allows you to choose what gets displayed. For example, in the Sector quadrant, you can choose to hide some sectors to reduce the clutter if you won’t use them.
      1. If the given Sector has a target or an Actual %, it will not allow you to hide it.
    2. In the quadrants themselves, the check box filters what you see to either include or exclude those elements not marked active.
  2. What does the ‘Adjust’ button do?
    1. When entering Target % data, you do not need to be concerned if your total exceeds 100%. Once satisfied with your relative target numbers, the adjust button will perform an allocation that retains the relative percentages while ending up with a total of 100%.
    2. If a given element is marked as ‘Locked’, that target percentage will not be changed. This allows you to force some elements to a fixed percentage while letting the rest float.
  3. How is the percent of portfolio calculated?
    1. Using our proprietary [Risk Adjusted Portfolio Technology Optimized Ranking©™®] algorithms, the value of a given position is recalculated to include adjustments for risk.
    2. These risk-adjusted positions are then summed to give the total risk adjusted value of the portfolio.
    3. Each risk adjusted position value is then divided by the total risk adjusted portfolio value to get a percent of risk adjusted portfolio number.
    4. In this way, we level the field between bonds, cash, stocks, options, etc.
  4. How is my broker transaction data downloaded?
    1. The data format is the same industry standard format (Open Financial Exchange, OFX) as Quicken and Money. There are two ways to get that data into TurboTrader©™®: Many brokers allow direct connect to their OFX server for read-only access to your data; and, nearly all brokers have a way to download an OFX file.
    2. TurboTrader©™® can accommodate either of these approaches. Direct connect is convenient in that you can schedule a download and update of your system data overnight and be ready to roll first thing in the morning.
  5. How is ‘gain’ calculated?
    1. We start with the total portfolio value at the beginning of the period, any of week, month, quarter or year.
    2. Any deposits in the period are subtracted from the starting total.
    3. Any withdrawals in the period are added into the starting total.
    4. We then look at the total portfolio value at the end of the period as though all positions had been closed on that day.
    5. This gives an accurate snapshot at the end data moment in time. You will hear many of the charlatans on the web talk about 'at risk profit' or 'net profit' or some other esoteric calculation aimed at making their numbers look good. The only measure is whether you have more or less value in your account at the end of the period. That number, divided by the total portfolio value, is a legitimate calculation of gain. That is what we measure.
  6. How is ‘win rate’ calculated?
    1. Winning trades as a percentage of all trades Number of wins / total trades7.
  7. How is ‘risk reward (R-Multiple)’ calculated?
    1. Giving a measure of how big winners are relative to losers (Cost + Profit) / Cost
  8. What is ‘Expectancy’?
    1. Expected profit or loss on each trade (%wins * avg. win size) - (%losses * avg. loss size)
  9. How is ‘maximum draw down’ calculated?
    1. (Highest value In period – Subsequent low point) / (Highest value In period)
  10. How is ‘profitability’ calculated?
    1. (Profit + Starting Capital) / (Starting Capital)
  11. What is ‘benchmarking’?
    1. Comparing profitability to some index profitability Comparing the individual's trade profitability against the rest of the clients (or client groups)
  12. What is the ‘Initial Risk Reward Ratio (RRR)’?
    1. Potential Reward / Potential Risk at trade initiation
  13. What is ‘churn rate’?
    1. A measure of trade timing; how long between in and out.