MT5 demo vs live account: how to journal them separately

Same columns, very different meaning. How to keep the records apart and compare process instead of profit.

Almost every trader starts on a demo account, and many keep one running for testing new ideas long after they go live. The records from both look identical inside MetaTrader 5: the same columns, the same deal types, the same profit figures. That similarity is the trap. If demo and live trades end up in the same pile, your statistics describe a trader who does not exist. This page explains how to keep the two apart, what each one can and cannot tell you, and how to compare them honestly.

Why demo and live results are not the same thing

A demo account runs on the broker’s servers with virtual money. Orders usually fill as the platform shows them, there is no real fear of loss, and some demo environments are more generous with fills than live ones. A live account adds real execution: variable spread, slippage, requotes in some execution modes, and above all the emotional weight of money that is yours. None of this makes demo useless. It means the two records answer different questions.

Costs are covered in spread and slippage in the trade history, and how the fill rules differ is in execution modes and filling policies. Check your own broker for how its demo servers behave; they vary.

Keep the accounts separate from day one

In MetaTrader 5 each login is its own account with its own history. The simplest rule is also the strongest one: never mix the records. Your statistics, your equity curve and your drawdown figures should each belong to exactly one account. If you add demo trades to a live curve, the win rate and profit factor you read are blended numbers that no real account ever produced.

• Give every account a clear name in your own notes, such as live-main, live-prop and demo-test.
• Never copy demo trades into the live journal to “boost” a sample.
• Review each account on its own before you compare any of them.
• If a strategy only works on demo, record that fact; it is useful information, not a failure.

A journal that supports several accounts helps here. AI Trading Journal reads the closed positions of the MetaTrader 5 account you connect and keeps a separate journal per account, so a demo login does not have to share a file with a live one. The multi-account behaviour is described on the multi-account trading journal page. The app is read-only: it never places, modifies or closes a trade on either kind of account.

What to compare between the two

Once each account has a history of its own, you can compare them in a way that teaches something. Do not compare profit. Compare behaviour and process. Choose a few measures that do not depend on position size, and look at them side by side after the same number of trades.

• Plan followed: the share of trades you rated as following the plan, on each account.
• Average holding time: do you hold winners as long on live as on demo? The method is in MT5 trade holding time analysis.
• Stop handling: how often a stop was moved or removed, see stop loss and take profit changes in history.
• Trades per day, since many traders trade more or less once real money is involved.
• Emotion tags: a demo note that says calm next to a live note that says anxious is a real finding.

The transition from demo to live

Moving to live is the moment when records matter most, and also when they are easiest to neglect. Real money brings excitement and a rush to act. A short checklist helps: keep the first live month small in size, write a note after every trade, and review the journal weekly against the demo behaviour. The routine is described in the weekly trading review checklist.

It is also worth deciding in advance what would make you move back to demo. For example, a planned number of rule breaks in a week, or a daily loss limit that you set before you started. Writing the rule while calm is the point; the journal then shows whether you honoured it. This page does not suggest any particular size, rule or number, because those depend on your account and your own risk tolerance.

A worked example (hypothetical)

A trader runs the same breakout idea on a demo account for six weeks, then on a small live account for six weeks. Reading the journal side by side, the entry times and the setups match closely. The difference is in the notes: on live, the trader cut winners early in a good share of the trades and tagged them as fear. The demo record did not show that pattern at all. The trader keeps trading live, adds a rule about not touching a trade after entry except to move a stop to a planned level, and checks the tags each Friday. The invented numbers here only illustrate the method; they say nothing about expected results.

Limits of this page

• Demo behaviour differs between brokers and can change over time; check your own provider.
• The app reads closed positions of the connected account; it does not label an account as demo or live for you, so name your accounts yourself.
• This page covers record keeping only, not whether you should trade a given account.

Frequently asked questions

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• How to set monthly trading goals
• Import your whole MT5 history
• How to tag trades
• Trade screenshots for your journal
• All trading journal comparisons