Equity Curve

The equity curve plots account value bar by bar: starting capital plus cumulative realized PnL plus the current open PnL. Every summary statistic, from Sharpe to max drawdown to annual return, is a compression of this one series.

How to read one

The slope is the return, and steady beats steep-then-flat. The smoothness is the risk: ragged curves mean volatile returns and a lower Sharpe for the same endpoint. The stretches below the prior peak are the drawdowns, and they deserve attention for how long they last, not just how deep they go.

Shape over time matters too. A curve that made all its money in one two-week burst is a different (and more fragile) proposition than one that compounded through many regimes, even when the totals match.

The comparison that matters

Always plot the strategy's curve against simple buy-and-hold of the same asset. In a crypto bull market almost everything makes money. The question a backtest must answer is whether the strategy earned its complexity: better risk-adjusted return, shallower drawdowns, or gains in regimes where holding lost.

On AlphaProve

You do not have to wait for a run to finish to see this curve form. A backtest streams over SSE while it computes, ticking equity, cash, margin, and unrealized PnL as each bar is processed and pushing every signal, fill, and trade the moment it happens. The curve you watch build live is the same series the finished tearsheet freezes into its summary statistics.