What is a good win rate for trading?
A good trading win rate depends on the average win/loss ratio. With even 1:1 risk/reward, a win rate above 55% is solid. With 1:2 risk/reward, a 35-40% win rate is profitable. Most successful retail strategies fall in the 45-60% win rate range with positive expectancy.
More detail
Win rate alone is meaningless without expected value math: EV = (win_rate × avg_win) − (loss_rate × avg_loss).
Strategies advertising 80%+ win rates are usually cherry-picked, overfit to historical data, or use very small profit targets relative to losses.
Trend-following strategies often have 35-45% win rates with positive expectancy; mean-reversion strategies often have 60-70% win rates.