Win rate is the share of trades in a sample that close in profit. It is the most frequently quoted statistic in trading and one of the least informative in isolation, because it can be inflated at will by taking profits early and allowing losses to run — the pattern that produces a smooth equity curve until a single trade erases a month.
A win rate is only meaningful next to the payoff ratio and the sample size. At a thirty percent hit rate a system needs better than roughly 2.33 to 1 average win to loss to break even before costs, while at sixty-five percent it needs only about 0.54 to 1. Gold win rates should also be segmented by session and setup, because blended figures conceal the cohorts that require attention.