How to Import MT5 Trades

MetaTrader 5 is a more robust platform than MT4, and its export functionality is slightly more refined. If you’ve accumulated trades in MT5, importing them into a dedicated journal unlocks analysis that MT5 itself can’t provide.

This guide walks you through exporting MT5 trades and importing them into a trading journal where you can identify patterns, track session performance, and build trading discipline.

Why Import MT5 Trades?

MetaTrader 5 is excellent for execution but minimal for analysis. The built-in analytics show you basic P&L and trade count, but they don’t answer the questions that improve your trading:

• Which sessions are profitable for my strategy?
• Do I perform better on certain pairs?
• What’s my win rate on planned vs. impulsive trades?
• How does my emotional state before entry correlate with outcomes?

A dedicated trading journal answers all of these. Once you import your MT5 history, you have a complete record you can slice by session, pair, strategy, and emotional state.

Step 1: Open MT5 History and Load Your Trade Data

Open MetaTrader 5 and click on the History tab at the bottom of the terminal window.

If you see an empty History tab, your trades haven’t been loaded yet. Click on the History Center icon (looks like a calendar) or right-click in the History tab and select “History Center.”

A dialog will open asking you to select a date range. Choose:

• Start date: When you want to begin importing (e.g., 2025-01-01 for all 2025 trades)
• End date: Today’s date or whenever you stopped trading with MT5

Click “Download” to load the trade history. This may take 10-30 seconds depending on your internet speed and how many trades you have.

Once loaded, you’ll see your complete trade list with columns:

Column	Meaning
Time	Entry time
Symbol	Currency pair
Type	Buy or Sell
Size	Lot volume
Price	Entry price
S/L	Stop loss (if you set one)
T/P	Take profit (if you set one)
Close Time	Exit time
Close Price	Exit price
Profit	P&L in account currency

Step 2: Export MT5 Trades to CSV

Once your History tab is loaded with all your trades:

1. Select all trades — Click the first trade, then press Ctrl+A to select all
2. Right-click and select “Export” — This option appears in the context menu
3. Choose CSV format — Some MT5 versions offer CSV or Excel; select CSV
4. Save the file — Name it something clear like “MT5_2026_History.csv”

The export will save a file to your computer with all the selected trades in comma-separated format.

Alternative method (if Export isn’t visible):

Some brokers disable the Export option. If this happens:

1. Select all trades (Ctrl+A)
2. Copy them (Ctrl+C)
3. Open Excel or Google Sheets
4. Paste the data (Ctrl+V)
5. Save as CSV

It’s less elegant, but it works.

Step 3: Inspect Your MT5 Export File

Open the exported CSV in Excel or Google Sheets. You’ll see columns like:

• Symbol (EURUSD, GBPUSD, etc.)
• Type (Buy or Sell)
• Size (0.10, 0.50, 2.00 lots)
• Entry Price and Close Price
• Entry Time and Close Time
• Profit (in USD or your account currency)
• Sometimes: Swap, Commission, as separate columns

What to look for:

• Are all trades present? Count the rows and verify against MT5.
• Do entry and exit times make sense? Entry time should be before exit time.
• Are profit values in the right currency? (Usually USD or your account currency)
• Are there any blank cells or corrupted entries?

If you find data issues, go back to MT5, reload the History Center, and re-export.

Step 4: Map CSV Columns to Journal Fields

Before importing, understand how MT5’s columns map to your journal’s fields.

Standard MT5 columns to journal field mapping:

MT5 Column	Journal Field	Notes
Symbol	Pair	e.g., EURUSD → Pair: EUR/USD
Type	Direction	Buy → Long; Sell → Short
Price	Entry Price	The open price
Size	Position Size (Lots)	0.10, 0.50, 2.00, etc.
Entry Time	Entry Date/Time	Timestamp of entry
Close Price	Exit Price	The close price
Close Time	Exit Date/Time	Timestamp of exit
Profit	P&L	In account currency

Most journal apps with an import wizard will auto-detect these mappings. You just need to verify them.

Step 5: Upload to Your Trading Journal

Using a dedicated journal app (like PipJournal):

1. Go to Settings → Import (or similar)
2. Click “Import Trades”
3. Select your MT5 CSV file
4. The app will ask you to map columns (it usually guesses correctly)
5. Verify the mapping looks right, then click “Import”

The app will:

• Read each row (trade)
• Check for duplicates (if this is a re-import)
• Validate data (check that prices make sense, times are in order, etc.)
• Store all trades in the journal

Watch for import messages:

• Successful import: “200 trades imported, 0 duplicates skipped”
• Partial import: “198 trades imported, 2 duplicates skipped, 1 error”
• Duplicate detection: If you’re re-importing the same CSV, the app should skip duplicates automatically

If there are errors, the app usually tells you which trade(s) failed and why. Common reasons:

• Invalid date format — The app expected MM/DD/YYYY but got DD/MM/YYYY
• Missing price data — A trade has an entry price but no exit price
• Invalid pair name — The app doesn’t recognize “EURUSD” (try “EUR/USD”)

For spreadsheet-based tracking:

If you’re maintaining your own Excel journal:

1. Paste the MT5 CSV data into a new sheet
2. Rearrange columns to match your template
3. Calculate derived fields like Pips = (Close Price - Entry Price) × 10,000 for 4-decimal pairs
4. Calculate Risk % = (Profit / Account Size) × 100
5. Add manual fields: Session, Setup, Emotional State

Step 6: Spot-Check Your Import

After import completes, don’t trust it blindly. Verify accuracy with 10-15 trades.

Open your MT5 History tab and your journal side-by-side. Pick a few random trades and compare:

Trade #1:

• MT5: EUR/USD, Buy, Entry 1.0856, Exit 1.0891, Size 0.30, Profit $105
• Journal: EUR/USD, Long, Entry 1.0856, Exit 1.0891, Size 0.30, P&L $105 ✓

Trade #47:

• MT5: GBP/USD, Sell, Entry 1.2745, Exit 1.2718, Size 0.50, Profit $135
• Journal: GBP/USD, Short, Entry 1.2745, Exit 1.2718, Size 0.50, P&L $135 ✓

If you find discrepancies, identify the pattern:

• Off by a consistent number (e.g., all pips are 10x too high) — Column mapping error
• Random mismatches — Data corruption during export; re-export from MT5
• Missing trades — The export didn’t capture everything; reload the History Center and re-export

If the issues are minor (1-2 trades out of 200), you can probably leave them. If systematic, stop and fix the import process.

Step 7: Enrich Your Trades with Context

MT5 exports only execution data. Your journal is now just raw data. To make it valuable, add context that MT5 doesn’t capture.

For your biggest winners and losers, add:

• Session — Which market session? London open (03:00-12:00 EST), New York (08:00-17:00 EST), or Asian (19:00-03:00 EST)?
• Setup Name — What pattern did you trade? Breakout, support bounce, news trade, scalp?
• Emotional State — Before entry, were you calm, excited, frustrated, bored?
• Pre-trade Plan — Did you have a plan before entering, or was it reactive?
• Post-trade Notes — What did you learn? What would you do differently?

Example enhanced entry:

Pair: GBP/USD
Direction: Short
Entry: 1.2745 | Exit: 1.2718 | Pips: +27 | P&L: $135

Session: London
Setup: Retest of morning high rejection
Emotional State: Calm, patient
Pre-trade Plan: Yes
Notes: Entered short after GBP/USD rejected the London open high on the 15-min chart. Exited at next support level. Clean risk-reward 1:1.5.

You don’t need to do this for every trade. Adding notes to your top 20 winners and 20 losers is enough to reveal patterns.

MT5 Import Best Practices

1. Export monthly — Don’t wait 6 months to import. Export and import once per month so your journal stays current.
2. Use a consistent naming convention — “MT5_2026-01_history.csv”, “MT5_2026-02_history.csv”, etc.
3. Verify before importing — Always spot-check the export file in Excel before importing into your journal.
4. Keep raw CSV files — Store your export CSVs in a backup folder. If you ever need to re-import or verify, you have the original data.
5. Add session data — MT5 doesn’t export session info, but you can infer it from the timestamp. Add this during your first review pass.

The Bottom Line

Importing MT5 trades into a dedicated journal transforms execution history into a learning system. MT5 shows you what happened. A journal shows you why it happened and how to improve.

Once imported, your trades become searchable, analyzable, and actionable in ways MT5 never was designed to provide.

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PipJournal is the only trading journal built exclusively for forex traders, with automated MT5 import, session-based analytics, and an AI co-pilot that identifies patterns across your entire trading history.