Active investing is a negative sum game. Even if your broker is not directly charging you comms, they exist. So, the average trade is a loss. However, I don't

Active investing is a negative sum game. Even if your broker is not directly charging you comms, they exist. So, the average trade is a loss. However, I don't even think that is the main insight here. No single trade is really profitable. There is one conceptual entity, your portfolio. There is a benchmark (An index representing your investing universe). As a straw man: Making 20% on every trade when you always have half your portfolio in cash feels good but is not a useful perspective. Don't focus on the micro, analyse overall performance dispassionately vs an equivalent level of risk and discover whether you actually have an edge. Good luck!