MFE and MAE: what your trades did before they closed
MFE (maximum favorable excursion) is the best open profit a trade reached. MAE (maximum adverse excursion) is the worst open loss. Together they show how a trade moved, not just where it ended.
Why they matter
If winners regularly reach far past where you exit, you are leaving money on the table. If winners rarely go deeper than a certain MAE before working, your stop may be tighter than it needs to be. Final P&L alone hides both.
Money left on the table
Alpha Journey shows the share of each winner's peak that you kept, and what holding losers cost you. It turns MFE and MAE into a number you can act on.
See it on the chart
Trade replay plots your entries and exits with MFE and MAE on the chart. You stop guessing what happened between open and close.
How to use MFE and MAE
- Compare exit price to MFE to spot early exits
- Compare stop distance to MAE of winners to size stops
- Check the share of peak you keep on winners
- Review the worst-MAE trades in replay