IC Markets MT5 deals tab: fields for execution forensics
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2026 7:47 pm
The MT5 deals tab is where my execution forensics live.
Fields I care about: time, symbol, type, volume, price, commission, swap, profit, and comment or magic number if any. I export weekly to CSV. Odd slips get a chart screenshot with the same timestamp. Without the deals tab I am arguing from memory, which always sides with me.
How I use the export: one column for intended price, typed from my notes, next to the fill price from the tab. The difference is my slip estimate. A pivot by hour of day shows where the worst fills cluster, and for me that is always the first two minutes after 08:00 and anything around US data.
Two traps worth knowing. The history tab shows orders and deals separately, so partial fills can look like extra trades. And times are server time, which for most brokers is not London, so convert before comparing with your journal.
I teach new members to open that tab before they open another indicator. If you cannot reconstruct a fill, you cannot improve execution. Forensics first, poetry later.
Fields I care about: time, symbol, type, volume, price, commission, swap, profit, and comment or magic number if any. I export weekly to CSV. Odd slips get a chart screenshot with the same timestamp. Without the deals tab I am arguing from memory, which always sides with me.
How I use the export: one column for intended price, typed from my notes, next to the fill price from the tab. The difference is my slip estimate. A pivot by hour of day shows where the worst fills cluster, and for me that is always the first two minutes after 08:00 and anything around US data.
Two traps worth knowing. The history tab shows orders and deals separately, so partial fills can look like extra trades. And times are server time, which for most brokers is not London, so convert before comparing with your journal.
I teach new members to open that tab before they open another indicator. If you cannot reconstruct a fill, you cannot improve execution. Forensics first, poetry later.