---
title: "Reading the monthly returns heatmap"
description: "The monthly returns heatmap shows each month's return by year with Total, DD and NP/DD columns; this guide reads the grid and the costs/taxes/reinvest toggles."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap"
last_updated: "2026-08-02"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap.md"
---

# Reading the monthly returns heatmap

The monthly returns heatmap, titled **Monthly returns**, is a grid of your strategy's return for every month, with a row per year and three summary columns — **Total**, **DD**, and **NP/DD** — on the right. This guide reads the grid, the summary columns, and the toggles that decide what the numbers include.

↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Analysis, under Monthly Returns

## Before you start
Run a backtest first — the heatmap fills in only after a strategy has been simulated. Open your strategy, go to **Analysis**, and select **Monthly Returns**. Each cell is shaded to show stronger and weaker months at a glance, and the exact figure sits in the cell.

## How do you read the month grid?
Each row is a year (**Year**) and each cell is that year-and-month's return, so you can scan a single year across or one calendar month down the columns. Four KPIs summarise the whole period alongside the grid: **Avg month**, **Best month**, **Worst month**, and **Positive months**.

## What do the Total, DD, and NP/DD columns mean?
Three columns on the right summarise each year.

- **Total** is the total return for the year.
- **DD** is that year's maximum [drawdown](/docs/analysis/max-drawdown).
- **NP/DD** is net profit divided by maximum drawdown. It is a plain, public ratio, the same figure the metrics table calls the return-to-drawdown ratio. See [return-to-drawdown ratio](/docs/analysis/return-to-drawdown-ratio).

## How do the Costs, Taxes, and Reinvest toggles change the numbers?
Three toggles under **Simulation assumptions** — **Costs & interests**, **Taxes**, and **Reinvest profits** — decide what the figures include. By default **Costs & interests** is off, **Taxes** is off, and **Reinvest profits** is on. Turning one on or off switches the whole page to a version the engine pre-computed when the backtest ran; the page reads the matching set of results rather than recalculating on the spot, so the change is immediate. The current-state view of live holdings ignores these toggles — it always shows reinvested figures with costs and taxes off.

## What you should see
A grid of monthly returns laid out by year, shaded from weaker to stronger months, with a **Total**, **DD**, and **NP/DD** summary beside each year's row and the four period KPIs — **Avg month**, **Best month**, **Worst month**, and **Positive months** — nearby. Flipping a toggle re-labels the same grid with the pre-computed set it selects.

## Common problems
### The heatmap is empty or shows no months
The grid needs a completed backtest with monthly results. Run the strategy first; a strategy that has never been simulated has no monthly series to plot.

*These figures describe what a strategy would have done on historical data, not what it will do. Fincanva provides no financial advice — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice).*