A trade log can tell you whether a position made money. It does not automatically tell you whether the execution process was repeatable. A useful review separates the outcome from the quality of the decision and the cost of getting in and out.
This checklist is designed for MT5 developers and traders who want a safer, read-only review workflow. It is not trading advice and it does not attempt to predict prices.
1. Freeze the raw record
Start with the fields that came from the terminal or broker history:
- Symbol, direction, order type, volume, and ticket
- Open and close timestamps
- Requested or planned levels, when available
- Actual open and close prices
- Stop-loss and take-profit values
- Commission, swap, and the account currency
- Magic number, comment, and setup label
Keep the raw values unchanged. Add derived fields beside them instead of overwriting the source. This makes the review auditable and prevents a spreadsheet formula from silently changing the evidence.
2. Normalize the cost of the trade
Gross profit is only one part of the result. A simple net view is:
net result = gross profit - commission - swap - other known costs
For execution analysis, also calculate the distance between the expected level and the actual fill when the expected level is recorded. Treat that as an execution metric, not as proof that a strategy is good or bad.
Be careful with points, pips, tick size, and symbol digits. A value that looks comparable across EURUSD, XAUUSD, and an index may not represent the same economic distance. Store both the raw price difference and the normalized unit you used.
3. Compare the plan with what happened
A review becomes useful when it compares the intended process with the realized process:
- Was the entry inside the allowed distance from the trigger?
- Did the stop and target match the recorded plan?
- How long was the position held?
- Did the trade experience large adverse or favorable movement before closing?
- Were costs unusually high for this symbol or session?
These questions do not require an automated trading system. They require consistent definitions and a clear distinction between observed facts and interpretation.
4. Segment before you optimize
Aggregate performance can hide a repeatable problem. Break the review into sensible groups such as symbol, direction, session, setup, weekday, or volume band. Then check whether a pattern survives a reasonable sample size.
Avoid drawing conclusions from one or two trades. A filter that improves a tiny sample may simply be fitting noise. Record the number of observations next to every summary statistic.
5. Make the tool safe to run
For a review utility, safety is a feature:
- Read account and history data only
- Do not send, modify, or close orders
- Avoid external network calls and hidden dependencies
- Make missing data visible instead of inventing values
- Keep the same calculation definitions in tester and live review modes
- Show the source fields behind every derived metric
A read-only tool can still be valuable because it reduces the time between a trade and a structured post-trade review without adding another execution path.
A compact review table
A useful first export might look like this:
Ticket | Symbol | Side | Gross | Commission | Swap | Net | Hold time | Entry deviation | Exit deviation
------ | ------ | ---- | ----- | ---------- | ---- | --- | ---------- | --------------- | --------------
12345 | EURUSD | Buy | 18.40 | 1.20 | 0.00 | 17.20 | 42m | 0.3 pip | 0.1 pip
The exact columns will vary by broker and strategy. The important part is that every number has a definition and can be traced back to the original record.
A practical implementation
TradeCoach for MT5 follows this read-only approach: it focuses on trade-process intelligence, execution context, and cost visibility rather than placing trades or generating signals. The product page includes the implementation details and a quick-start guide:
https://www.getly.store/product/tradecoach-mt5-trading-process-intelligence
For a longer explanation of the review workflow, see the companion guide:
The goal is simple: make the review more consistent, make the assumptions visible, and keep the analysis separate from execution.
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