How to export an MT5 HTML report for your trading journal
TradeForge team · Last updated
In MetaTrader 5 on desktop, open the History tab in the Toolbox, right-click, choose Report, and save it as HTML. That file holds your orders, deals and positions for the period shown, and a trading journal can import it. Keep MT5 in English when you save it, and know your broker's server time.
Step by step
MetaQuotes' help says to select "Report" in the context menu of the History tab, and that the report is generated as HTML (MetaTrader 5 Help: Trading report, accessed 2026-11-06).
- In MetaTrader 5 on desktop, open the Toolbox and its History tab.
- Make sure the tab covers the dates you want. The report only includes that period: a position appears if it opened or closed inside it.
- Right-click in the History tab, choose Report, then HTML, and save the file.
What the report contains
According to the same help page, the report has a header (broker, account, currency), tables of orders, deals, open positions and working orders, a summary (balance, equity, margin) and statistics. Each table carries the same fields as the matching tab in the terminal, so the order records include their S/L and T/P levels.
That is why an MT5 report gives a journal more than many exports: with the stop loss on each trade, the R-multiple can be calculated instead of estimated.
Import it into TradeForge
- In TradeForge, open Accounts, choose MetaTrader 5, set your broker's server time and name the account.
- Press Import file and pick the report.
- To update, save a new report and import it again. Trades already imported are skipped.
What comes in: symbol, direction and size; entry and exit prices and times; net P&L and commission; stop loss, planned and actual R; balance and currency.
Pitfall 1: server time
The times in an MT5 report have no time zone. They are in your broker's server time, which is often not UTC and not your local time. If the journal assumes the wrong zone, trades land on the wrong day.
Your broker's server time is shown in MT5's Market Watch. If it is 2 hours ahead of UTC in winter and 3 in summer, choose "GMT+2/+3, US DST" in TradeForge. If you're not sure, ask your broker.
Picked the wrong one? Change it on the account and import the report again. The existing trades get the corrected times.
Pitfall 2: language
TradeForge reads English reports only. If your MT5 runs in another language, switch it to English before you save the report.
Pitfall 3: it doesn't update by itself
A report is a snapshot. There is no live sync for MT5 in TradeForge, so save and import a new report after each session or week. Re-importing an overlapping period is safe: duplicates are skipped.
What about MetaTrader 4?
TradeForge imports MetaTrader 5 reports only.
More detail and FAQs are on the MT5 integration page. For how R works with and without a stop loss, see What is an R-multiple?
This article is general education, not investment advice. Prop-firm rules change: check your firm's current rules.