BacktestFolio · Glossary

Sharpe

In plain language

Answers: 'For every unit of risk taken, how much extra performance did I earn compared with taking no risk?' Higher is better compensation for risk on the sample you measured; a fixed cutoff such as 'above 1' means little without asset-class and period context.

Technical definition

Ratio of the excess return over the risk-free rate to the total annualised volatility on the selected sample.