MT5 credit and bonus in your account history

Understand what a credit row is, how it changes equity and margin level and how to keep it out of your trading statistics.

Some brokers add a credit or a bonus to a MetaTrader 5 account. It shows up in the account history as a row that is not a trade, and it can change the balance and equity figures in ways that make your own performance numbers look better or worse than they were. If you journal your trades, you need to know how to recognise these rows, keep them out of your trade statistics and understand what they do to margin. This page covers the rows, the arithmetic and a safe routine for reviewing an account that carries a credit.

What a credit or bonus row is

In the platform, money movements that are not trades are recorded as deals of a special type. A deposit or withdrawal is a balance operation. A credit is a separate operation type: it adds an amount to the account’s credit field, which is shown beside the balance, and it is normally not withdrawable. Brokers use it for promotions, loyalty bonuses and similar offers, and each offer has its own terms, such as a volume you must trade or a time after which the credit is removed. The terms are the broker’s, so read them on the broker’s own site and in your agreement before relying on any assumption.

The general idea of non-trade rows is covered on non-trade rows in history and balance and deposit rows. A credit row follows the same pattern: it has a time, an amount and a comment, but no symbol, no volume and no price.

How credit affects the account numbers

Figure	Effect of a credit	Why it matters for review
Balance	Usually unchanged by the credit itself	Your deposit-based return is not inflated by it
Credit	Increases by the credited amount	Shown separately; removed when the broker takes it back
Equity	Balance plus credit plus floating profit	Equity can look larger than your own money
Free margin	Rises, because equity rises	You can open positions your own money would not support
Margin level	Equity divided by used margin	A credit can hide how stretched the account really is

Because equity includes the credit, a percentage drawdown computed on equity can look smaller than the same loss measured against only your own deposit. If your review measures risk as a share of the account, decide which base you use and keep it the same across weeks. The page on balance versus equity explains the two figures, and margin level shows how the ratio is built.

Keeping bonus rows out of trade statistics

Filter the history to trades only before computing win rate, profit factor or expectancy; non-trade rows have no result of their own and must not count as winners or losers.
Note the date and amount of every credit or credit removal in your journal, so you can explain jumps in equity later.
If the broker removes the credit at a stop out or after a promotion period, the removal appears as a negative credit row; do not read it as a trading loss.
Work out your risk per trade from your own deposit, not from equity that includes the credit.

A worked example (hypothetical)

A trader deposits 500.00 and receives a promotional credit of 100.00. The balance reads 500.00, the credit reads 100.00 and the equity reads 600.00. The trader then loses 220.00 on a series of trades. The balance falls to 280.00 and the equity to 380.00. Measured against equity, the loss is about 37 percent of 600.00; measured against the trader’s own 500.00 deposit, it is 44 percent. If the broker later removes the 100.00 credit, equity drops to 280.00. None of the figures is a prediction and none involves a real broker; they only show why the base of a percentage matters.

Questions to ask your broker

Because the rules belong to the broker, a short list of questions saves surprises later. Ask whether the credit can be withdrawn, and if so under what conditions. Ask whether profit made with the credit is treated differently from profit made with your own deposit, and whether there is a trading volume that must be reached before the credit is released. Ask what happens to the credit at a stop out, when the account is closed or after a set time. Ask how the credit is shown in the statement, so you can recognise the row when it appears. Keep the written answers with your journal records, since promotions change and the terms in force on the day you accepted the credit are the ones that matter.

It also helps to compare the account with and without the credit in a simple table of your own: starting deposit, credit, closing balance and closing equity. If the account would have been closed by a stop out without the credit, that is worth knowing, because it shows how much of the trading result depended on money that was not yours. This is a review habit, not a judgement about whether credits are good or bad.

Recording an account with a credit

AI Trading Journal, a Windows app for MetaTrader 5 only, keeps one entry per closed position on your own PC. Balance and credit operations are not trades, so they do not become journal entries or count in the win rate. The app does not track credit or bonus conditions for you. If a credit affects how you read an account, write a short note in the journal, for example in a monthly review entry, and keep the broker’s terms with your records. See trading statistics from MT5 history for which figures to rely on.

Limits and cautions

Terms for credits and bonuses are set by each broker and can change; always check the broker’s own pages.
Do not treat a credit as profit or as your own capital.
Nothing here is financial advice, and the example numbers are invented.

Frequently asked questions

What is a credit in MT5?

It is an amount added by the broker that sits beside the balance, usually not withdrawable and subject to the broker’s terms.

Does a credit change my balance?

Usually not; it is shown in a separate field, but it raises equity and free margin.

Does a credit row count as a trade?

No. It has no symbol, volume or price, so it must be excluded from trade statistics.

Why did my equity drop when the credit was removed?

Equity includes credit, so removing it lowers equity even though no trade was closed.

Does the journal app record credit rows?

No. It keeps closed trades only; add a note if a credit matters for your review.

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