R-Multiple
Profit or loss relative to initial trade risk.
3–6 MONTH VALIDATION WINDOW
Test first. Tweak second. Sell later.
The current goal is to build enough evidence to know which rules help, which rules hurt and what level of risk is actually tolerable before Tradinator is treated like a finished commercial product.
WHAT WE MEASURE
Results without context are noise.
The Live Lab is built around normalized performance and decision quality so account size or execution environment does not become the story.
Drawdown
Peak-to-trough damage and recovery time.
Expectancy
Win rate combined with average win and loss size.
Time to Target
How long growth takes at each risk profile.
Streaks
Consecutive wins and losses that test survivability.
Rejected Setups
Whether filters prevented damage or blocked opportunity.
Session Quality
Performance by hour, session and day of week.
Version Delta
What changed after each strategy or risk-rule revision.
THE $1,000 LAB
Same trades. Different risk. Different consequences.
Safety, Balanced and Growth profiles receive the same strategy result so we can see what leverage does to doubling speed, drawdown and failure risk.
Preserve first
Lower risk per trade to establish a survivable baseline.
Default candidate
Moderate risk intended to balance growth against drawdown.
Stress test
Higher risk exposes whether faster growth is worth the additional volatility and failure rate.
Forward testing
Let the engine run without cherry-picking. Record WAITs and rejected entries as carefully as winners.
Historical replay
Re-run past market conditions against newer rules to see whether an improvement generalizes or simply fits recent trades.
One-variable changes
Whenever practical, alter one threshold or management rule at a time so the reason for a performance change stays identifiable.
Graduation gates
Automation and capital exposure should increase only after defined evidence gates are met - not because a short winning streak feels convincing.
The Live Lab is the scoreboard, not the sales pitch.
For now it exists primarily so we can see whether Tradinator is getting better.