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Glossary / Performance metrics

MAE (Maximum Adverse Excursion)

Definition

How far a trade moved against you before it closed.

Why it matters

MAE across winning trades tells you the smallest stop you could use without cutting winners, which is the evidence-based way to tighten risk.

Example

A trade that finished +$300 but was down $480 at its worst had an MAE of $480 - a sign your stop was wider than it needed to be, or your entry was early.

How to track it in a journal

TradeStack calculates the core performance numbers — win rate, average win and loss, profit factor, expectancy, drawdown and consistency — automatically from imported trades, so mae (maximum adverse excursion) stops being something you estimate and becomes something you read.

Related terms

Expectancy
The average profit or loss you can expect from each trade over a large sample.
Profit factor
Gross profit divided by gross loss.
Win rate
The share of your trades that close in profit.
Average win
Total profit from winning trades divided by the number of winning trades.

Questions that use this term

Keep reading

Trading journal guides
Expectancy, profit factor, drawdown, backtesting and the PDT rule.
Free trading calculators
Position size, risk-reward, expectancy and options profit.
Expectancy calculator
Expected profit per trade from your own numbers.
Broker CSV export guides
Step-by-step exports for Tradovate, NinjaTrader, IBKR and more.
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