Trading Journal for MT4 and MT5: Importing Your History
Short answer: save your account history from MetaTrader as a report (MT4: Save as Detailed Report; MT5: Report → HTML) and import that file into your journal. In Parallax, Data → Import trades… reads both. Your S / L and T / P become each trade’s stop and target, and R multiples work for forex and CFDs too.
Step by step: MT4
- Open the Terminal (Ctrl+T) and click the Account History tab.
- Right-click the list and choose the dates, for example All History.
- Right-click again and choose Save as Detailed Report. MT4 saves a web page (.htm).
- In Parallax, click Data → Import trades… and pick that file.
Step by step: MT5
- Open the Toolbox (Ctrl+T) and click the History tab.
- Right-click the list and choose the dates you want.
- Right-click again and choose Report → HTML.
- In Parallax, click Data → Import trades… and pick that file.
What comes across
| MT4 statement | MT5 report | |
|---|---|---|
| Closed trades with times, prices and lots | Yes | Yes |
| Commission, taxes and swap | Yes (swap in the P&L) | Yes (swap in the P&L) |
| S / L and T / P as stop and target | Yes | Yes |
| Demo account marked as sim | Mark it yourself | Yes, from the report |
| MAE and MFE | Not in the report | Not in the report |
Several tickets, one trade. If you split an entry into two tickets (say one with a take profit and one without), tickets on the same symbol and side that were open together become one trade with two exits. A buy and a sell open at the same time on a hedging account stay separate trades.
Balance rows and cancelled orders (deposits, dividends, pending orders that never filled) are left out.
R multiples for forex and CFDs
For futures, a point is worth a fixed amount. For forex and CFDs it depends on the symbol and your broker. Parallax works out each symbol’s value per point from your report’s own profits (on a US dollar account, EURUSD comes out at $100,000 per lot for a move of 1.0, which is $10 per pip), so the risk to your stop and your R are in dollars. More in What Is an R Multiple?
One thing to know: MetaTrader saves the S / L a trade closed with. If you moved your stop, the journal sees where it ended. A stop moved to break-even or beyond isn’t taken as the stop; you can type the original one into the trade.
Prop firm and challenge accounts
Challenge and funded accounts on MT4 and MT5 can be tracked against their own limits (drawdown, daily loss limit, profit target) in Parallax’s prop firm accounts. On MT4, mark challenge accounts as sim if you want them apart from real ones. More in Prop Firm Trading Journal.
Account currency
Amounts come in as the report shows them. For an account in a currency other than US dollars, the journal says so when you import.
What Parallax does with your trades
Your MetaTrader trades get the full journal: a dashboard you arrange, a calendar, Insights that compare symbols, sessions and setups, a simulator and reports. Everything stays on your PC.
Parallax runs on Windows and costs $16 a month or $149 a year, with a 7-day free trial. See the journal or pricing.
MetaTrader, MT4 and MT5 are trademarks of their owner. Parallax isn’t affiliated with it. Menu names are from MetaTrader 4 and 5.