Executions and FIFO pairing
Tradestacker calculates your P&L for you. The secret is executions and FIFO pairing — once you understand these two ideas, your numbers will always make sense.
What's an execution?
An execution is a single fill — one buy or one sell at one price. Every trade is built from one or more executions:
- A simple trade has two executions: one to open (entry) and one to close (exit).
- A scaled trade has more: every partial entry and partial exit is its own execution.
When you add a trade manually, each row in the executions table is one execution. When you import a CSV, each fill in the file becomes an execution.
How FIFO pairing works
FIFO stands for first in, first out. When you have buys and sells of the same symbol, Tradestacker matches your earliest open against your earliest close to figure out which entry is being closed by which exit. That pairing is what produces your realized P&L.
Example:
- Buy 2 contracts at 100 (first in)
- Buy 2 contracts at 102
- Sell 2 contracts at 105 (first out — pairs with the buy at 100)
- Sell 2 contracts at 106 (pairs with the buy at 102)
FIFO closes the 100 lot first, then the 102 lot, and adds up the result.
💡 Tip: You never type the P&L by hand for manually entered trades — get the executions right and Tradestacker does the rest.
Scaling in and out
Because pairing is FIFO, scaling works naturally:
- Scaling in — add an execution for each entry fill. Your average entry is the size-weighted average of those fills.
- Scaling out — add an execution for each exit fill. Each exit is paired against your open positions in FIFO order, so partial closes are handled correctly.
The live stats preview shows your blended Avg Entry → Exit so you can see the averages at a glance.
Futures contract multipliers (point value)
For futures, price moves are multiplied by the contract's point value (also called the multiplier). One point on the contract isn't one dollar — it depends on the instrument.
Tradestacker applies the right multiplier based on the symbol so your futures P&L comes out in dollars, not points. If a symbol's point value looks off, you can check or override it in symbol settings.
⚠️ Note: If your futures P&L looks too small or too large by a fixed factor, the point value for that symbol is probably wrong. See Symbol settings.