How to show your MT5 trade history on the chart

A table shows what happened. The chart shows where. How to draw past trades on a MetaTrader 5 chart and how to review them properly.

Why look at your trades on the chart

A list of trades tells you what happened. A chart shows you where. Seeing your entries and exits drawn on the price action answers questions a table cannot: did you buy near the top of the move, did you exit into support, did three losing trades all enter the same candle? MetaTrader 5 can draw your past trades on a chart, but the option is not obvious, and different builds name it differently.

Three ways to see past trades on a chart

Method	How	Good for
Built-in: add deals from the History tab	Open the Toolbox (Ctrl+T), go to the History tab, then right-click a deal or a symbol and look for a command such as Show on Charts, or Add [symbol] Deals / Add All Deals	Quick review of one symbol or the whole account, without code
Show trade levels for open positions	Chart properties (F8), Common tab, and the option for showing trade levels	Seeing the entry, stop and target of trades that are still open
Third-party indicator or script	Install from the MQL5 Market or Code Base, review it, attach to a chart	Connecting lines between entry and exit, filters by date, custom colours

MetaQuotes added the built-in way in a terminal update (build 1525), described in the terminal release notes as a way of placing the deals of a position or a symbol on the chart. The wording of the menu entries has changed between builds, and brokers distribute slightly different terminals, so look for the command by right-clicking in the History tab rather than expecting an exact path. If you cannot find it, update the terminal first.

Step by step

Open the History tab in the Toolbox and set the period you want with the right-click menu. Trades outside the period are not listed. If the list looks short, read why MT5 trade history is not showing.
Switch to the Positions or Deals view. The Positions view is easier for review because each trade is one line, while the Deals view lists the opening and closing separately. See the History tab explained.
Right-click the position, the deal or the symbol and look for the command that places trades on the chart. Choose the one for that symbol if you only want it on one chart.
Open or switch to a chart of that symbol. The entries and exits are drawn as arrows, and in many builds they are joined by a line from entry to exit. Zoom out to the date you need.
Change the timeframe to match how you traded. A trade that looks like a clean reversal on H4 may look chaotic on M1.
To clear the clutter later, use the chart’s object list (Ctrl+B) to delete the drawn items, or close the chart without a template.

What to look for when you review

Reviewing on a chart is about patterns across trades, not single results. Pick twenty trades and ask the same questions each time, and write down the answers.

Entry location. Did you enter after a long candle, into a level or at the start of a move? A cluster of entries after large candles often points to chasing.
Exit location. Are your exits near the end of the move, or do you leave early and watch the price run? Cutting winners short shows up very clearly on a chart. See cutting winners early.
Stop placement. Was the stop beyond a logical level or at an arbitrary distance?
Time of day. Do the losers sit at the same hour? Remember that chart times are broker server time. See MT5 server time.
Sequence. Are the losing trades in a row, and did the size or the spacing change after the first loss?

A worked review (hypothetical)

A trader reviews twenty gold trades from the last month on the M15 chart. Fourteen entries were drawn within two candles of a news spike. Nine of those fourteen closed at a loss, and the average loss on them was larger than on the other six. The other six trades, which were taken on pullbacks away from the news, closed three wins and three losses. The sample is tiny and the numbers are invented, but the pattern is exactly the kind a chart review reveals and a profit table hides: the trouble is not the instrument, it is entering right after the spike. The trader writes one rule: no entry within thirty minutes of a scheduled release, and tags those trades for the next month’s review.

Keeping the evidence

The arrows in MetaTrader disappear when you clear the chart, and they depend on the history period being loaded. If a review matters, save a screenshot of the chart with the trade on it. The trade screenshots guide shows how to attach a picture to a journal entry. AI Trading Journal reads closed trades from your MetaTrader 5 history and lets you attach screenshots and notes to each entry on the Journal page; it does not capture charts for you, so the screenshot is a step you take yourself. Keep the file next to the written reason for the trade and the emotion you felt, and the review a month later is far more honest. The notes and screenshots guide has a layout for that.

When the chart review is not enough

A chart tells you where you traded but not how large, how often or at what cost. For those you still need the numbers: the net result per trade, the totals by symbol and by hour and the drawdown. A chart review and a statistics review answer different questions, and the useful routine is to do the statistics first to find the group of trades worth looking at, then open only those on the chart. The MT5 report analyzer guide covers the statistics side.

Honest limits

The exact menu names for placing deals on the chart differ between builds and brokers, and I could not give a single path that fits every terminal. Right-click in the History tab and look, and update your terminal if the command is missing.
Chart history is limited to the bars your terminal has loaded. Very old trades on small timeframes may not draw correctly.
A chart review is subjective. It is a way to form questions, not to prove an edge.
This page is about using a platform and is not trading or financial advice.

Frequently asked questions

How do I show my past trades on an MT5 chart?

Open the History tab in the Toolbox (Ctrl+T), right-click a deal, position or symbol and look for the command that places trades on the chart, for example Show on Charts or Add [symbol] Deals. The wording depends on your terminal build.

Why are my trades not drawn on the chart?

The history period in the Toolbox may not cover the dates, the command may have been applied to a different symbol, or your terminal may be an older build without the option. Update the terminal and check the period.

Can I show entry and exit as a line?

In many builds the entry and exit are joined by a line. If yours does not, a free or paid indicator from the MQL5 Market can draw it. Review any code before attaching it.

Does AI Trading Journal draw trades on the chart?

No. It reads closed trades from your MT5 history and lets you attach screenshots you take yourself to each journal entry.

How do I remove the drawn trades?

Open the chart’s object list with Ctrl+B and delete the arrows and lines, or close the chart.

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