Account history becomes valuable when it reconstructs decisions rather than merely listing profit and loss. Order, deal, and position records describe different stages of execution. Confusing them can hide partial fills, multiple entries, or the actual cost of maintaining exposure.
Within mt5, a careful review uses identifiers, timestamps, prices, volume, and fees together. Five fields help connect what the strategy requested with what the account ultimately received.
Order Records Preserve the Instruction
An order shows the requested action, type, volume, prices, and status. It may be filled, cancelled, rejected, or partially completed. Reviewing only positions can omit unsuccessful instructions that reveal execution or platform problems.
Repeated cancellations around one session may deserve attention even when no loss appears.
Deal Records Show Actual Transactions
Deals represent completed executions. One order can create several deals at different prices if liquidity is fragmented. Commission may also be attached at the deal level, so aggregation is necessary to calculate the real average price.
The final position line alone can conceal that sequence.
Position Identifiers Connect the Lifecycle
Position IDs help group entries, partial exits, and reversals. In netting accounts, several orders may modify one position; in hedging accounts, separate tickets may coexist. The identifier prevents unrelated trades in the same symbol from being combined incorrectly.
A review should follow the lifecycle intended by the account mode.
Reason Codes Distinguish Manual and Automated Actions
Suppose a stop closes a currency position shortly after an EA modifies it. History shows the closing deal as stop-generated, while the modification came from the automated program. Without both records, the result might be blamed on manual interference.
The platform’s reason and magic-number fields help establish which process initiated each action. They are especially useful when several systems share one account.
Fees Complete the Net Result
Commission, swap, and other charges should be separated from price profit. A strategy can appear directionally effective while losing after repeated transaction costs. Exported history allows results to be grouped by symbol, setup, or holding period.
Comments and magic numbers should follow a consistent naming scheme before multiple systems are deployed. Free-text labels can be truncated or altered by the server, so they should supplement rather than replace stable identifiers. Keep a separate mapping of strategy version to code, symbols, and active dates. When a system is retired, its historical trades remain interpretable without relying on memory or the current chart template.
Deposits, withdrawals, balance corrections, and credits should be separated from trading performance. An equity curve that includes fresh funding can appear to recover even when the strategy remains in drawdown. Build returns from trade results and account flows as distinct series. The separation also makes it easier to reconcile the platform history with bank records and tax documentation.
Save the export in a nonproprietary format and keep an unchanged original. A separate working copy can then be tagged or analyzed without compromising the source record or obscuring later reconciliation with monthly statements and tax documents.
After each mt5 review period, export orders, deals, and positions with their identifiers and reason codes. Reconcile total commission and swap with the account statement, then investigate any transaction that cannot be linked to a written rule or named system.
