Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE)
The furthest a trade moves against you before it either recovers and wins or hits the stop-loss.
Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE), developed by John Sweeney, measures the maximum intra-trade drawdown for each trade. Plotting MAE across all trades reveals how far winners typically move against you before they recover — crucial for optimal stop placement.
If 90% of your winning trades have MAE less than 1.5R, a stop at 1.5× your initial risk would not have cut winners short. If losing trades consistently have larger MAE than winners, stops are well-placed. MAE is one of the most actionable metrics from a trade journal.