# MT4 Trade History Explained - Reading Your Closed Trades

> The MT4 Account History tab shows more data than most traders realize. Here is how to read every field and what the numbers actually mean.

**Tags:** mt4, trade-history, closed-trades, understanding
**URL:** https://traderjournal.app/metatrader/mt4-trade-history-explained

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# MT4 Trade History Explained - Reading Your Closed Trades

MetaTrader 4's Account History tab is where your closed trades live. Most traders glance at the P&L column and not much else. The full history contains significantly more information that is worth understanding.

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## Accessing Account History

In MT4, click the Terminal tab at the bottom of the screen, then select Account History. By default it shows the last 3 months. Right-click for date range options.

Each row in the history represents either a trade (open + close pair) or a balance operation (deposit, withdrawal, credit).

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## Reading the Trade Columns

**Order (Ticket)**
The unique identifier for each trade. In MT4, the same ticket number is used from open to close. When you see the same ticket number twice (once for open, once for close), it means the trade was partially closed or modified - though in standard MT4 format, each complete round-trip is one row.

**Time**
The open time of the trade. The close time appears in a separate column.

**Type**
Buy or Sell. A "buy" type means you entered a long position. A "sell" type means you entered a short.

**Size (Volume)**
Lot size. 1.00 is a standard lot (100,000 units). 0.10 is a mini lot. 0.01 is a micro lot.

**Symbol**
The instrument traded.

**Price**
The entry price (open column) and exit price (close column).

**S/L and T/P**
Stop loss and take profit levels at the time of close. If you modified these during the trade, the history shows the final values, not the original ones.

**Profit**
This is gross profit only - the result of the price movement multiplied by lot size and pip value. It does not include commission or swap.

**Commission**
The fee charged by your broker for opening and closing the position. This varies by broker and instrument. It appears as a negative number.

**Swap**
The overnight financing cost or credit. If you held the position through midnight server time, swap was charged (or credited, for some pairs and directions). Appears as negative (cost) or positive (credit).

**Net Result**
The actual net P&L for the trade: Profit + Commission + Swap. This is the number that changed your account balance.

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## Common Misreading

Many traders look only at the Profit column and ignore commission and swap. On a scalping strategy where you are making 5-10 pips per trade, commission of 7 dollars per lot can represent 50-100% of your gross profit on small trades. A strategy that looks profitable on gross profit may be negative or barely breakeven after costs.

Always evaluate your actual trading performance on net P&L, not gross.

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## How This Maps to Your Journal

When Trader Journal's EA syncs your MT4 history, it captures all of these fields separately. You can see gross profit, commission, swap, and net P&L as distinct numbers on every trade detail page. This is one of the advantages of automatic sync over manual entry - manual entry tends to capture only the final net number, losing the breakdown.

The P&L breakdown section on each trade in the app shows exactly what MT4 shows: gross profit, commission (which for most MT4 brokers is zero for spread-based accounts - the cost is built into spread), swap, and net.

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