How to log a trade result (and read your account history)

After a trade closes, the honest record is the number, not your memory of how it went. Logging results consistently lets you see your real win rate, your average win versus average loss, and whether you are actually improving — none of which you can judge by feel.

MetaTrader already stores every closed trade; your job is to pull the details out reliably and put them somewhere you will actually review.

Step 1: Open the Terminal (Ctrl+T) and click the "History" tab (on MT5, the "History" section of the Toolbox). This lists your closed trades.

Step 2: Right-click and set the period (for example "Last month" or a custom range) so you see the trades you want.

Step 3: For each closed trade, note the instrument, direction, open and close price, size, and the profit or loss in money. The tab shows all of it.

Step 4: To keep a copy, right-click and choose "Report" (or "Save as Report" / an HTML or Excel export). This gives you a file with every trade and summary statistics like total profit, number of trades, and largest loss.

Step 5: Transfer the key figures into your own journal or spreadsheet, alongside the plan and notes you recorded when you took the trade.

Beyond individual results, watch a few running numbers: your win rate, the average size of your wins compared with your losses, your biggest single loss, and whether you followed your plan. A high win rate with huge losses is a warning; a modest win rate with small losses can be perfectly healthy.

Reviewing these regularly turns a pile of trades into feedback. Without the log, every month feels like starting over; with it, the trend of your own progress becomes clear.

Log the losing trades as faithfully as the winners — a record that quietly omits the bad days is worse than useless, because it flatters you into repeating mistakes. Logging results costs nothing and risks nothing, but it is only useful if it is complete and honest. The numbers are there to teach you, not to reassure you.