In short. A trade journal is a table where every trade has not only the platform numbers (entry, exit, volume, result) but also your decision: which setup you traded, how much you risked, whether you followed the plan and what mistake you made. Once a week you filter the journal by setup and mistake and look at five metrics: win rate, profit factor, expectancy, average R and maximum drawdown. In MetaTrader 5 you don't have to copy trades by hand — a monitoring Expert Advisor collects them, and you only fill in your own fields.
Why keep a journal if MT5 already has a history
The terminal history answers «how much did I make». A journal answers «why». The history has no entry reason, exit plan, risk in R or your execution score — and without them you can't tell a good setup that was unlucky from a bad one that got lucky. After a month of records you can see which setups make money, at which hours you lose it and what breaking your own rules costs.
What to record for every trade
| Field | Source | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Symbol, side, volume, entry and exit prices, SL/TP | platform | the basis of every calculation |
| Result, commission, swap, duration | platform | net result and trading style (scalp, intraday, swing) |
| Setup (strategy) and session | you | compare setups — the main question of a journal |
| Risk in % and in R, planned reward-to-risk | you | measure results in R rather than money |
| Entry and exit reason, lesson | you | understand the decision a month later, not just the outcome |
| On plan or not, execution score, mistake | you | calculate what rule violations cost |
| Emotions before and after, chart screenshot link | you | see how your state affects results |
Pick mistakes from a short list instead of free text: «early entry», «late entry», «entry without a stop», «moved the stop», «early exit», «held a loser», «risk exceeded», «off-plan», FOMO, «revenge trade». Only then can you add them up. A ready set of fields is in «Trading journal template: free Excel file and example».
Which metrics to watch
- Win rate — the share of winning trades. Meaningless on its own: 35% winners that make three times the losers is a good system.
- Profit factor = gross profit / gross loss (absolute). Above 1 the system makes money; robust values are usually 1.3–2.
- Expectancy = win rate × average win − (1 − win rate) × average loss. What one trade earns on average.
- Average R — the trade result divided by the risk you entered with. It compares trades of different size and shows whether you keep your planned reward-to-risk.
- Payoff — average win / average loss.
- Longest losing streak and maximum drawdown — how much pain the system takes. How to calculate drawdown properly — see «How to calculate account drawdown».
Example
20 trades, risk per trade $150 (1R). 9 winners averaging +$300, 11 losers averaging −$150.
- Win rate = 9 / 20 = 45%.
- Profit factor = (9 × 300) / (11 × 150) = 2,700 / 1,650 ≈ 1.64.
- Expectancy = 0.45 × 300 − 0.55 × 150 = $52.5 per trade, or 0.35R.
- Payoff = 300 / 150 = 2.
Fewer than half the trades win, yet the system makes money because the average win is twice the average loss. If the trader «rescued» losers and cut winners, payoff would drop to 1 — and the same entry accuracy would lose money.
How to review the journal weekly
- Filter trades by setup and compare expectancy in R — drop setups that lose.
- Filter «off-plan» trades and add them up — that is the cost of rule breaking.
- Check the breakdown by hour and weekday: often one session produces the whole loss. Session times in UTC are in «Forex trading sessions».
- Find the recurring mistake and write one rule for next week.
How to keep an MT5 journal automatically in Davinchu
In Davinchu the journal fills itself: the Davinchu Trade Monitor Expert Advisor in MetaTrader 5 sends closed trades, uploads the account history once connected and, after a break, the trades closed while it was not running. The steps:
- Download the EA in your dashboard and put it into the
MQL5/Expertsfolder. - Allow WebRequest for the dashboard address: «Tools» → «Options» → «Expert Advisors». The address is shown in the account connection window.
- Drag the EA onto any chart, paste the dashboard key into the «Ключ из кабинета Davinchu» input (InpDvKey) and check the status on the EA panel — «● КАБИНЕТ» means connected.
With the dashboard key the EA is read-only: the server sends it no trade commands. Then you add your own fields — setup, risk in %, a comment on the entry reason, «Followed the plan?», mistake — and the server calculates R from the stop loss. The journal shows win rate, profit factor, average R, payoff, expectancy, streaks, drawdown in money and in R, breakdowns by symbol, time, day, session and setup, and Monte Carlo on R. The «Review» tab shows how many trades are reviewed, the share of on-plan trades, execution, the cost of violations and recurring mistakes. More on the «Trading journal» page; installing the EA is covered in «How to install an EA in MT5 and allow WebRequest». The Free plan connects two accounts at no cost.
Common mistakes
- Logging only losing trades — setup statistics get distorted.
- Not recording risk: without it you can't measure results in R.
- Writing mistakes as free text — they can't be added up.
- Drawing conclusions from 10–15 trades: comparing setups needs at least 30–50 trades each.