Profit Factor by Month vs by Trade in 9 EA Backtests: Monthly Was 1.26x to 4.56x Higher; GOLD TRIPWIRE 12.41 vs 2.72

Profit factor is gross profit divided by gross loss, counted trade by trade. The same division can be done on months instead: add up the months that closed positive, divide by the months that closed negative. We did both on the published MT5 backtests of 9 of our EAs to see how far the monthly version moves away from the one in the report. This article uses backtests only. It contains no forward-account figures. Figures are as of 2026-11-05.

- In all 8 tests where both can be computed, the monthly profit factor is higher than the trade profit factor, by 1.26 to 4.56 times.

- The widest gap is GOLD TRIPWIRE: 2.72 by trade, 12.41 by month. Its winning months add up to +8,270.11 and its 14 losing months to −666.47.

- The narrowest gap is ETHEREUM TREND: 2.83 by trade, 3.57 by month. It has a median of 2 trades a month, so most months are close to single trades.

- GOLD KING has no losing month in 89 months, so its monthly profit factor cannot be computed. Its maximum relative equity drawdown in the same test is 91.3%.

- The total profit is the same either way. The monthly figure is higher because losing trades are netted against winning trades in the same month before anything is counted as a loss.

- Each closed trade is assigned to the calendar month in which it closed. Commission and swap are included. Open positions are not valued. Only months with at least one trade are counted.

- Monthly profit factor = sum of the months with a positive result ÷ sum of the months with a negative result (as a positive number). Both sums are from the closed-trade breakdown of the same report, and winning months minus losing months equals the report's net profit for every EA in the table.

- Trade profit factor is the figure printed in the same MT5 report.

- The drawdown column is the maximum relative equity drawdown of the whole test (site settings): the largest fall as a percent of the equity peak. It is not a monthly figure and is shown for scale.

- TRINITY and AIFW are not in this article: the original report files behind their published backtests are not in our breakdown, so we could not split them by month.

EA | Test period and data | Trade PF | Monthly PF | Monthly ÷ trade | Losing months | Median trades per month | Max relative equity DD (whole test)

GOLD TRIPWIRE | M15, 2020.01.01-2026.10.14, 11% real ticks | 2.72 | 12.41 | 4.56x | 14/82 | 7 | 12.7%

ATLAS PORTFOLIO | H4, 2019.01.01-2026.06.28, 100% | 1.48 | 4.21 | 2.85x | 36/90 | 13 | 26.3%

GOLD VIPER | M30, 2019.01.01-2026.09.01, 8% real ticks | 1.64 | 4.06 | 2.47x | 24/92 | 111.5 | 30.3%

BITCOIN COMET | H4, 2018.01.01-2025.12.31, 98% | 1.72 | 3.78 | 2.20x | 41/94 | 8 | 31.2%

GOLD NEURON | M30, 2004.01.01-2026.09.01, 100% real ticks | 1.35 | 2.35 | 1.74x | 124/270 | 10 | 55.5%

MEGAMAX DONCHIAN (USDJPY) | H1, 2017.01.01-2026.06.01, 100% | 1.55 | 2.56 | 1.65x | 51/113 | 6 | 58.6%

DONCHIAN ENGINE (free) | H1, 2017.01.01-2026.06.01, 100% real ticks | 1.50 | 2.40 | 1.60x | 52/113 | 6 | 10.8%

ETHEREUM TREND | H4, 2019.01.01-2026.06.28, 100% real ticks | 2.83 | 3.57 | 1.26x | 38/78 | 2 | 17.1%

GOLD KING | M1, 2019.01.01-2026.06.01, 5% real ticks | 4.66 | no losing month | – | 0/89 | 27 | 91.3%

Sorted by the monthly ÷ trade ratio, largest first. The tests cover different periods, symbols and data quality, so read each row on its own and do not rank the EAs against each other.

GOLD TRIPWIRE: 68 of its 82 months closed positive, and the 14 losing months were small against them. A trade profit factor of 2.72 becomes 12.41 once the losing trades are absorbed by winning trades in the same month. The test uses 11% real ticks.

ATLAS PORTFOLIO: the lowest trade profit factor in the table, 1.48, becomes the second-highest monthly one, 4.21. Its winning months add up to +647,808.72 and its losing months to −153,706.78, with 36 losing months out of 90.

ETHEREUM TREND: with a median of 2 trades a month there is little to net inside a month, and the two figures stay close: 2.83 and 3.57. Its winning months add up to +44,970.30 and its losing months to −12,591.95.

The number of trades is not the whole story. GOLD VIPER has by far the most trades per month (median 111.5) and is third by the ratio, behind GOLD TRIPWIRE (7) and ATLAS PORTFOLIO (13).

GOLD KING: every month closed positive, so there is no denominator. A clean monthly record sits next to a 91.3% maximum relative equity drawdown in the same test: a month can close green while the open positions in it are deep in loss.

- When a page shows monthly results, a high ratio of green to red months says less than it seems. Ask for the profit factor by trade and the maximum relative drawdown of the same test.

- Compare profit factors only when they are counted the same way. A monthly figure next to another EA's trade figure is not a comparison.

- Closed months do not value open positions. For grid or averaging systems, read the equity drawdown, not the monthly record.

- This article is about past tests. It does not promise any future result.

- All forward accounts we publish are demo accounts, and none is used in this article.

The two EAs discussed most in this article: ATLAS PORTFOLIO https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/182751 · ETHEREUM TREND https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/182358