MT5 equity curve: build one from your trade history

Turn your closed trades into a running-total curve in a spreadsheet, and learn what the shape does and does not tell you.

An equity curve is a line that shows how your account value changes from trade to trade. It is the quickest way to see whether your results are smooth, jumpy, rising or slipping. MetaTrader 5 does not hand you one for your live account history on a plate, but you can build a useful one from your closed trades in a few steps. This page shows how, and what such a curve can and cannot tell you.

Balance curve and equity curve are different things

Balance changes only when a trade closes, or when money is deposited or withdrawn. Equity is balance plus the floating profit or loss of open positions, so it moves with every price tick. The page on balance versus equity explains the difference. A curve built from closed trades is a balance curve, even though traders often call it an equity curve. It ignores what open positions were doing in between, so a trade that was deep underwater before it closed at a small profit looks harmless on this curve. Keep that in mind when you read it.

Building the curve from your history

Open the History tab of the Terminal window, choose the deals view and set the period to all history.
Export the list to a spreadsheet using the report option, or use the steps on how to export MT5 trade history.
Remove or separate the balance rows that are deposits and withdrawals, because they are not trades. See balance rows in history.
Sort by close time, then for each trade compute net result as profit plus commission plus swap.
Add a running total: each row's cumulative value is the previous cumulative value plus that trade's net result.
Chart the cumulative column against the trade number or the date.

Two choices matter. Using the trade number on the horizontal axis shows the sequence of results regardless of how long each took. Using the date shows how active you were. Both are valid; start with trade number and add the date view later. Remember that the history times are on the broker's server clock, as the page MT5 server time describes.

What to look at on the curve

Shape	A cautious reading
Steady upward slope	Results were consistent in this sample. The sample may still be short.
Long flat stretch	Many small trades cancelled out, or you traded little. Check the count in that period.
Sharp drop followed by recovery	A large loss or a run of losses. Look at lot size and notes for those trades.
Staircase of small gains and one big drop	Wins are small and losses are large. Compare average win and average loss.
Straight line with a sudden cliff	Check for a single oversized position, and for a stop that was removed.

A curve is a description, not a verdict. A strategy can have an attractive curve over twenty trades and a different one over two hundred. The page how to track drawdown in MT5 shows how to measure the depth of the dips you can see here.

A worked example (hypothetical)

Take eight closed trades with net results of +40, -25, +30, -25, -25, +60, -10 and +35 dollars. The running total is 40, 15, 45, 20, -5, 55, 45 and 80. The curve dips below its start after the fifth trade, which is a drawdown of $50 from the earlier peak of 45 down to -5, then climbs to a new high of 55 on the sixth trade and ends at 80. The profit factor is 165 divided by 85, about 1.94, but with only eight trades that figure is fragile. The point of the example is the method: the cumulative column tells a story that a list of eight numbers does not.

Where a journal helps

Building the curve by hand works, but it needs repeating every time you want an update. AI Trading Journal reads your closed MetaTrader 5 positions and keeps them in a journal file on your PC. Its Progress page shows a growth curve and a months table, with a monthly profit target and loss limit stored in the journal, and the dashboard can switch between daily, weekly, monthly and all-time views. The Export Report to Excel feature includes charts and live formulas if you want to build your own views. The curve is based on closed positions, so it does not include the floating profit or loss of open trades, which the app does not record. It also does not adjust for deposits and withdrawals on its own, so read it with that in mind.

To go deeper after the curve, the trading performance analysis page covers what else to measure.

Limits

A curve of closed trades hides the floating profit and loss of positions while they were open.
Deposits and withdrawals must be removed or tracked separately or they distort the line.
Small samples produce curves that look meaningful and are not.
A smooth past curve does not predict future results, and nothing here is trading advice.

Frequently asked questions

How do I see an equity curve in MT5?

Export your deal history, compute a running total of net result for each closed trade and chart it. This produces a balance curve based on closed trades.

Is a balance curve the same as an equity curve?

No. Equity includes floating profit and loss of open positions, which a closed-trade curve does not show.

Should I include deposits?

No. Remove deposits and withdrawals or the curve will jump for reasons that are not trading results.

What is a good equity curve?

There is no universal answer. Look for consistency, the depth of dips and whether the sample is large enough to trust.

Does the journal app draw a growth curve?

Yes. The Progress page shows a growth curve and a months table based on your closed positions.

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