MT5 screenshot: how to capture a trade for your journal

Save the chart as a picture, capture the History tab with a Windows shortcut, and keep the images where you can find them.

A trade you cannot picture is a trade you will misremember. A screenshot of the chart at the moment you decided to act, and another after the position closed, are the cheapest memory aids a trader has. This page shows how to take a clean screenshot in MetaTrader 5, how to capture the numbers in the Terminal window, what to put in the image, and how to store them so you can find them in a month.

Two kinds of screenshot a journal needs

The first is a chart image: price, your levels, the entry and exit markers and the reasoning you can see on the chart. The second is a numbers image: the Trade tab for an open position or the History tab for closed trades. They serve different reviews. The chart shows what you saw when you decided. The numbers show what the broker recorded. Keeping both for the trades that matter, such as your biggest win, your biggest loss and the trades where you broke your rules, is enough. Capturing every trade is rarely necessary and soon becomes a chore you stop doing.

Save the chart as a picture in MetaTrader 5

Right-click an empty area of the chart and choose Save As Picture. The same command is available from the File menu on many builds. The dialog lets you save the whole platform window, the active chart at its current size, or the chart at a size you type in pixels. There is also a check box to post the image online to the MQL5 charts service. Leave it unchecked if you want the file to stay on your own PC, because ticking it uploads the image and gives you a link. Choose a folder you will remember and save. Menu wording can differ slightly between builds, so check your own terminal.

Before saving, make the chart readable. Zoom to show the context, not just the last few candles. Draw the entry, stop and target lines, and turn on the display of trade levels so the position markers appear. The page on trade history on chart shows how closed deals can be drawn on the chart after the fact, which helps when you did not take a picture at the time.

Capture the numbers with a Windows screenshot

For the Terminal window there is no dedicated image export, so use Windows. Press the Windows key, Shift and S together, drag a rectangle around the Trade or History tab and the image goes to the clipboard, ready to paste into a note or save. The Print Screen key and the Snipping Tool do the same. Crop to the rows you need. If the History tab is blank, the period setting is the usual cause, which the page on trade history not showing explains.

What to put in the screenshot

Moment	What the image should show	Question it answers later
Before entry	Chart with the setup, planned entry, stop and target	Was the plan clear before I clicked?
After entry	Trade tab row with size and stop and target	Did I place the stop I intended?
After exit	Chart with entry and exit markers	Did I exit by plan or by feeling?
End of day	History tab for the day	Does my record match what I remember?

One image per moment is enough. If the setup needs a longer explanation, write two lines of notes and put the reason in words next to the image rather than crowding the picture with text.

Naming and filing so you can find them

A folder full of files named after the date and time is hard to search. Use a name that carries meaning: the date, the symbol, buy or sell, and whether it is before or after, for example 2026-10-20 XAUUSD buy before. Keep one folder per month. Better still, attach the image to the trade entry in a journal so the picture and the numbers live together. The page about trade screenshots in a trading journal goes deeper on what to capture and how many are worth keeping.

A worked routine (hypothetical)

A trader takes three gold trades in a session. Before each entry they save the chart as a picture, about five seconds. After closing, they save a second picture with the markers. At the end of the session they take one Windows screenshot of the History tab. That is seven images in about two minutes. At the weekend they open the biggest loss of the week and compare the before picture with the after picture and the notes written at the time. The review takes three minutes and answers a question no spreadsheet can: did the trade look the way I said it did?

Screenshots are memory aids, not proof

A picture can be cropped, drawn on or taken at a convenient moment, and tools exist that fake platform screenshots. Treat your own images as a record for your own learning, honestly captured, and do not treat anyone else's screenshot as proof of a result. If you ever need to show a record to a third party, the broker's statement and the account history are the authoritative sources. Faking screenshots is deceptive and this page does not help with it.

Where AI Trading Journal fits

AI Trading Journal reads each closed position from your MetaTrader 5 history and keeps one entry per position in a file on your PC. In the Journal page you can attach screenshots to an entry, add the setup, emotion, plan followed, rating, tags and notes, and search and filter later. It does not capture charts automatically, so you take the picture yourself in MetaTrader 5 and attach it. Notion is an optional extra copy if you connect it, never required. The notes and screenshots page shows how this looks in the app.

Limits

Save As Picture captures the chart, not the Terminal tabs, so numbers need a separate Windows screenshot.
Images made before you take a trade are only useful if you also write the plan in words.
Screenshots take storage space. Keep the ones that teach you something and delete the rest.
Menu names may differ between MetaTrader 5 builds and brokers.

Frequently asked questions

How do I take a screenshot in MT5?

Right-click the chart and choose Save As Picture, or use the File menu on many builds. Choose the active chart or a custom size and save to a folder.

Does Save As Picture upload my chart?

Only if you tick the option to post it online to the MQL5 charts service. Leave it unchecked to keep the file on your PC.

How do I capture the History tab?

Use a Windows screenshot such as Windows key plus Shift plus S and crop to the rows you need.

How many screenshots should I keep?

Enough to review your best, worst and rule-breaking trades. Capturing everything is usually unsustainable.

Does the journal app take screenshots automatically?

No. You attach screenshots to an entry yourself.

Related guides

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