Trade Holding Time Analyzer
Measure how long you stay in your winners and in your losers, from your own history.
Analyze My Holding TimesHow long you stay in a trade is one of the least examined parts of your behavior. You decide it constantly, trade by trade, but you rarely see it in aggregate. This analyzer shows it: the typical time in your winning trades and in your losing ones, side by side.
The gap between the two is informative. Holding losers much longer than winners is the signature of the disposition effect, where the wish to avoid realizing a loss keeps you in a trade past the point your plan would have exited. The opposite, holding winners much longer, can mean you let profits run, which may or may not be what you intend.
It uses the median, the middle value, not the average, so one trade left open for weeks does not distort the picture. It needs both an open and a close time for each trade, and it reports a finding only when the gap is large and the sample on each side is big enough.
If you want to understand the habit before you measure it, read why traders cut winners early and hold losers, which explains where it comes from and what it costs.
Drop your trade history CSV here
Closed positions or P&L history from your exchange. Up to 5 MB.
Your file is read in memory and is never saved — only the result of the analysis is kept (7 days, or until you delete it if you save it to your account). Don't include passwords or API keys. See the Privacy Policy.
Example — not your data
Example result
Median time in winning trades
24 winners
42 min
Median time in losing trades
28 losers
2 h 35 min
Ratio
Losers are held 3.7 times longer
3.7×
Illustrative numbers for a made-up account, shown so you know what a result looks like. They are not your data and not a benchmark.
What you get
Median holding time by outcome
How long you typically stay in a winning trade and in a losing trade, with the number of trades behind each.
The ratio between them
How many times longer the typical loser is held than the typical winner.
A finding only when it is clear
Reported when losers are held at least 1.5 times longer and there are at least 8 trades on each side.
Everything else
The full report adds your median holding time overall, your results by time of day and weekday, and the rest of the trading performance analyzer numbers.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal holding time?
There is none. It depends on your strategy: a scalper holds for minutes and a swing trader for days. What matters is whether the time you hold winners and losers differs in a way your plan did not intend.
Does a long holding time on losers mean I ignore my stops?
Not necessarily, but it is a prompt to check. A long hold can reflect a plan that allows it. If your plan says to exit sooner, the gap shows the distance between the plan and what happened.
What if my trades have no open time?
Holding time can't be calculated without it. The analyzer then skips this comparison and reports the rest of your numbers.
Which file should I upload?
A CSV where each row is one finished trade with its result: your exchange's closed positions or profit-and-loss history. It needs a close time and a result, or entry price, exit price, quantity and side. A list of individual order fills is not enough, because fills cannot be paired into trades without guessing.
Is my trade history stored?
The file is read in memory and is not saved. Only the result of the analysis is kept: for 7 days if you do not sign in, or until you delete it if you save it to your account. The analyzer never asks for exchange passwords or API keys.
Keep going
Trading problems
Why Do I Cut Winners Early and Hold Losers?
Trading problems
Why Are My Losses Bigger Than My Wins?
Analyzers
Trading Performance Analyzer
Analyzers
Revenge Trading Analyzer
Trading problems
Am I Better at Long or Short Trades?
Research
How Many Trades Do You Need to Evaluate a Strategy?
Learn
Why You Hold Losers and Sell Winners: Loss Aversion in Trading
Learn
If-Then Rules: Turn Trading Insight into Discipline
Holdy Lab content is educational and is not financial advice. Results describe the data you provide; they do not predict future results.