Trade Journal Excursion Stats and Screenshots MT4
- Utilities
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Kazuma Uezono
MQL5 / MQL4 / Pine Script v6 developer and active trader.
Seller on the MQL5 Market (indicators for MT4/MT5).
Services:
- TradingView Pine Script to MT5/MT4 conversion (bar-by-bar matching, with tester report)
- MT4 to MT5 migration - Version: 1.4
- Updated: 13 November 2026
- Activations: 5
Trade Journal Excursion Stats and Screenshots MT4 is a utility Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 4 that writes down every closed order for you. Each closed order becomes one row in a CSV file with its result, its MAE and MFE (Maximum Adverse Excursion = the largest move against the order; Maximum Favorable Excursion = the largest move in its favor), the R multiple and how long it was held. An HTML summary is updated as well, and a chart screenshot is saved at entry and exit when a chart of that symbol is open. Manual orders and orders of your other EAs are both recorded, filtered by symbol and magic number if you wish.
This EA only keeps records. It is not a trading strategy and gives no buy or sell signals. It does not rate your trades or your method, and it does not promise or improve any result. On real and demo accounts it never opens, closes or modifies an order. (In the Strategy Tester alone it places small demonstration orders; see Notes and Limits.)
Account details stay out of the journal: the account number, server name and balance are not written to the files or the screenshots and are not shown on the panel. The folder is named after a journal name you choose (default "MyJournal"). owner.txt, which keeps two accounts from writing into one journal, holds only a short hash, not the account number or the server name. A screenshot shows the chart area only; whatever other indicators, EAs or chart comments display on that chart appears in it as it is.
Features
- journal.csv: one row per closed order, 32 columns (position_id = the ticket, symbol, side, lots, open and close time and price, initial SL and TP and their source, profit, commission, swap, net, pips, holding time, MAE and MFE as price distance, pips and money, MAE/MFE data source, risk money, R multiple, entry and exit image, magic number, comment, note such as close: SL / close: TP / from #ticket).
- journal.html: trades, net total, average R, average MAE and MFE (pips for FX, and R) for all, winning and losing trades; MAE and MFE distribution tables in R and in pips; the newest trades with image links. Every figure comes only from the trades in your journal.
- PNG screenshots at entry and exit in the journal's images folder, linked from the HTML.
- MAE and MFE follow the price while the order is open; time when the EA was not running is filled from M1 bars.
- At start, closed orders of the last N days that are missing from the journal are added (default 7).
- Each order is written once: restarts, timeframe changes and a second chart with the same journal name do not create duplicates.
- Partial closes: MetaTrader 4 gives the remaining part a new ticket ("from #..."). The EA continues the MAE/MFE of the original order for it and writes "from #<original ticket>" in the note, so each closed part gets its own row.
- Panel in English or Japanese (follows the terminal language), also used for the HTML: journal name, recorded trades, open orders being watched, last recorded trade, status.
- Comma or semicolon as the CSV separator.
Main Inputs
MetaTrader 4 lists the 19 inputs without group titles, in this order:
- Symbols (empty = all), magic numbers (empty = all EAs), include manual orders (default ON), add unrecorded closed orders of the last N days at start (default 7, 0 = none).
- Journal name = folder name (default "MyJournal"; not your account number), CSV separator (new file only), HTML summary ON/OFF, number of newest trades in the HTML (default 1000).
- Price used for MAE / MFE: closing price side (Bid for buys, Ask for sells; default) or chart price (Bid) for both.
- Screenshots ON/OFF (default ON), image width and height (default 1280 x 720).
- Show panel, language, corner, X and Y offsets, font size.
- Strategy Tester demo orders ON/OFF.
How It Works
- Location: MQL4\Files\TradeJournal\<journal name>\ (File > Open Data Folder). Inside: journal.csv, journal.html, images, and the helper files written_ids.txt, open_state.txt and owner.txt.
- MAE and MFE are positive distances from the open price, in price, pips and money. Default: buys with Bid, sells with Ask (the closing side); one input changes this to Bid for both.
- Live tracking: the chart's own symbol is read on every tick. Other symbols are read four times per second, so a very short spike between two reads can be missed.
- Filling gaps: MetaTrader 4 has no tick history for EAs, so time when the EA was off is filled from the highs and lows of M1 bars. The column mae_mfe_source shows tick, bar or tick+bar, with "(incomplete)" if bars were missing.
- Entry bar and exit bar: when M1 bars are used, only the close of the entry bar and the open of the exit bar count. The high and low of these two bars are left out, because they may come from before the entry or after the exit, so moves inside those bars can be missed. Less than one minute: only the open and close prices.
- Sells measured with Ask on M1 bars: the spread at the time of filling is added, so the values are estimates.
- The EA may add a symbol to Market Watch (SymbolSelect) to read its bars.
- Pips only for symbols with 3 or 5 decimals (normally FX), 10 points = 1 pip. Gold, indices, crypto and other symbols have empty pips columns; read the price and money columns. HTML pips tables and averages include FX trades only. A non-FX symbol that your broker quotes with 3 or 5 decimals also gets pips.
- R multiple = (profit + commission + swap) / initial risk; initial risk = open price to first stop loss x lots in account currency, at the rate when the order is recorded. No stop loss = empty R. If the EA was not running when the order was opened, the first stop loss is unknown: R stays empty and the note shows the stop loss at close.
- Screenshots need a chart of the order's symbol that is already open. Without one the journal shows "no chart" (no chart is opened for you). MetaTrader 4 writes the image a few seconds after the request; the EA waits up to 25 seconds and writes "failed" if no file appears, shows it on the panel and keeps recording. "off" = screenshots OFF, "EA off" = the EA was not running then.
Notes and Limits
- A record, not advice. The numbers show what your past orders did; what you conclude and how you trade is your decision. Past results do not show future results.
- Orders added at start depend on the period selected in the Account History tab of the terminal. If older orders are missing, choose a longer period there (for example All History) and restart the EA.
- M1-bar values are approximations, and the inside of the entry and exit bars is not seen.
- One journal name per account. A journal name that belongs to another account stops recording with a message; switching accounts while the EA runs also stops it until you attach it again with another name.
- Two charts with the same journal name: one writes, the other waits and takes over within about 15 seconds if the first stops.
- journal.csv open in Excel: the file is locked, the EA retries every 5 seconds and shows it on the panel. Nothing is lost. Open a copy if you want to read while recording.
- Recording runs only while MetaTrader 4 is running; orders closed meanwhile are added at the next start within the last N days.
- Panel lines are cut at about 63 bytes (Japanese text sooner).
- Strategy Tester: with "Tester only: small demo trades to show the journal" ON (default), the EA places small demonstration orders so that the journal has something to show: minimum lot, magic 73250, at most one per day, buy and sell in turn, with stop loss and take profit, closed after about 3 hours, none around the day change when spreads are wide. They are not a method, not a signal and not aimed at any market time. The tester report contains only these orders and is not a trading result (it can be a loss). No screenshots in the tester. Real and demo accounts never get these orders.
Compatibility and Support
- MetaTrader 4. The MetaTrader 5 edition is sold separately.
- One chart is enough. Keep a chart open for each symbol you want screenshots of.
- No DLLs, no internet, no outside server; the files stay on your PC.
- Test it on a demo account first.
- Support via MQL5 messages within 3 business days for installation, settings, files and bugs. Reviews of your trades, stop or target suggestions, market views and trade decisions are not offered.
- No result of your trading is promised or implied.
