# Tracking Open Positions in Real Time

> The Open Positions tab in Trader Journal shows your live MT4/MT5 positions. Here is what it displays and how to use it.

**Tags:** open-positions, live-trading, real-time, trader-journal
**URL:** https://traderjournal.app/app-guide/tracking-open-positions-real-time

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# Tracking Open Positions in Real Time

The Open Positions tab in Trader Journal shows your currently open trades as synced from your MT4 or MT5 terminal. This lets you monitor active positions from your phone without needing the MetaTrader app open.

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## What the Tab Shows

Each open position card displays:

- **Symbol** - the instrument
- **Side** - BUY or SELL, color-coded green or red
- **Volume** - lot size
- **Open Price** - the price at which you entered
- **Open Time** - when the trade was opened
- **Stop Loss** - your current stop level (if set)
- **Take Profit** - your current target level (if set)
- **Floating P&L** - your unrealized profit or loss at the last sync

The floating P&L is color-coded green when the position is in profit and red when it is losing.

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## Sync Frequency

The open positions list syncs every 30 seconds via the EA, same as the closed trade sync. The floating P&L is a snapshot from the time of the last push, not a live streaming number.

For a live streaming price feed, you would need to use the MetaTrader app directly. The Trader Journal open positions tab is useful for a quick check - "what do I have open and approximately how is it doing" - not for millisecond-level monitoring.

Pull down to refresh the list manually if you want the most current snapshot.

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## The Chart Button

Each position card has a Chart button. Tapping it opens a TradingView Lightweight Charts view inside the app, showing the instrument's price history.

The chart displays three price lines:

- **Blue** - your entry price
- **Red dashed** - your stop loss level
- **Green dashed** - your take profit level

You can switch between resolutions: 5-minute, 15-minute, 1-hour, 4-hour, and 1-day. This gives you a quick visual context for where price is relative to your levels without leaving the journal app.

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## Using Open Positions for Risk Monitoring

The open positions tab is useful as a risk dashboard. If you have multiple positions open simultaneously, you can see:

- Total exposure across instruments
- How many trades are currently in profit vs loss
- Whether any positions are approaching their stop loss

This is not a replacement for proper position monitoring in your trading terminal, but it gives you a useful overview from the journal interface.

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## When the EA Is Offline

If your MetaTrader terminal is closed, the open positions tab shows the last known state - whatever was synced before the terminal shut down. A timestamp on the tab shows when the last sync occurred, so you can tell whether the data is current.

When you reopen your terminal and the EA starts running again, the positions list updates on the next sync cycle.