MT5 history rows that are not trades: charge, correction, dividend and more
A guide to the balance-type rows in the MetaTrader 5 history, what they mean and how to keep them out of your trade statistics.
Most of the History tab is made of trades, but not every row is one. Besides buy and sell deals, a MetaTrader 5 account can show rows for deposits and withdrawals, credit, bonus, charges, corrections, interest, dividends, taxes and several kinds of commission. If you export the history into a spreadsheet or feed it to a statistics tool without sorting those rows out, they can inflate your trade count, bend your win rate or add profit that no trade produced. Our page on balance and deposit rows covers the most common case. This page goes through the wider family of non-trade rows, what each one means, how to recognise them and how to keep them out of your trading statistics.
Why the history contains more than trades
MT5 records every operation that changes your balance as a deal. A buy or a sell is one type of deal. The platform’s programming documentation lists further deal types, and brokers use them for different purposes. Which of these you will see depends on the broker, the account type and the instruments traded. A plain forex account may show only trades and balance rows. An account with index CFDs, share CFDs or a bonus programme can show many more. The names below follow the MQL5 documentation, while the wording shown in your terminal can differ.
| Row type | What it usually represents | Is it a trade? |
|---|---|---|
| Balance | Deposit, withdrawal or manual balance operation | No |
| Credit | Credit granted by the broker, not withdrawable cash | No |
| Bonus | Bonus granted under a broker programme | No |
| Charge | A fee debited from the account | No |
| Correction | A manual adjustment made by the broker | No |
| Commission rows | Daily, monthly or per-agent commission charged apart from the trade | No |
| Interest | Interest credited or debited on the account | No |
| Dividend | Dividend adjustment on a share or index CFD position | No, but related to a position |
| Tax | Tax withheld or charged on a dividend or similar | No, but related to a position |
| Buy and sell | Opening and closing deals of positions | Yes |
| Canceled buy or sell | A deal that was canceled by the broker | Special case |
How to recognise them
In the History tab, switch the view to Deals. Trade deals show a symbol, a type of buy or sell, a volume and a price. Non-trade rows usually have an empty symbol or a symbol but no volume, and the Type column shows words such as balance, credit, charge, correction or bonus. The comment column often explains the reason in the broker’s own words. Sort by type or filter for blank symbols to see them all at once. If you still cannot find a row, the guide to opening trade history shows how to switch between positions, orders and deals.
Dividends and tax rows on CFDs
If you hold a share or index CFD across an ex-dividend date, a broker may credit or debit a dividend adjustment so that the position behaves like the underlying. Some brokers add a separate tax row for it. These rows are tied to a position but they are not a new trade. A trader who counts them as winning or losing trades will see odd statistics: a loss-making position appears to have an extra winning trade. The better approach is to treat the dividend as part of the position’s cost or income and keep it outside the trade count. The details of how your broker books them are on its own pages; read those, and do not assume.
Corrections and charges
A correction is an adjustment the broker posts to fix something, such as a price error or a wrongly applied fee. A charge is a fee. Both change your balance and neither is a trade. The comment normally says why. Keep a note of any correction that affects a trade you are reviewing, because it changes the actual result and may be worth quoting if you contact support. If you track costs, the trading costs page and the trading cost calculator show how commission, swap and spread fit together.
Commission rows that are not attached to a trade
Some brokers charge commission per trade; the amount then sits in the Commission column of each deal. Others book a daily or monthly commission as its own row. Those are not trades either. When you review a month, compare the sum of the per-trade columns with the change in balance. The gap is usually made of non-trade rows such as these. Our page on MT5 commission explains the common models.
How to keep them out of your statistics
- Filter by type first. Before calculating anything from an export, keep only buy and sell deals, or work from the positions view.
- Count positions, not deals. A position has an opening and a closing deal and sometimes several closing deals. See deal, order and position IDs.
- Check the totals. Net profit from trades plus non-trade rows should equal the change in balance over the period.
- Keep a note per period. A short line such as “dividend adjustment on index CFD” saves you from searching later.
A worked example (hypothetical)
A month shows 40 buy and sell deals that form 20 closed positions, one deposit of 500, one correction of minus 3.50 and a dividend adjustment of plus 6.20 on an index position. A quick count of rows gives 43 “events”. A trader who divides winning rows by all rows gets a win rate that is wrong. A trader who counts 20 positions and treats the other three rows as non-trade items gets the correct trade count and can explain the balance change: trade results plus 500 plus the two small adjustments minus withdrawals.
Where a journal fits
AI Trading Journal builds one entry per closed position and combines profit, commission and swap into that entry’s result, so a deposit is not turned into a trade. Partial closes are merged and the entry is dated by the last exit on the broker’s clock. How a particular broker-specific row is booked depends on the broker, so compare your journal totals with your balance change if you use dividend-paying CFDs or a bonus scheme. The app is read-only, Windows-only and for MetaTrader 5, and the journal stays in a file on your PC.
Limits of this page
- Available row types and their wording depend on the broker, account type and terminal build.
- The example numbers are hypothetical.
- Tax and dividend treatment is the broker’s and your jurisdiction’s business; this page gives no tax or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
Are dividend rows in MT5 trades?
What is a correction row?
How do I tell a deposit from a trade?
Do non-trade rows affect my win rate?
Does the app count deposits as trades?
Related guides
- A local trading journal for MT5
- P&L calendar for MT5
- Trade notes, ratings and screenshots
- Trading progress and goals
- Back up your journal and move it to a new PC
- An offline trading journal for Windows
- How to set monthly trading goals
- Import your whole MT5 history
- How to tag trades
- Trade screenshots for your journal
- All trading journal comparisons
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