How to read an MT5 Strategy Tester report, and what to check after PF and drawdown
An MT5 Strategy Tester report tells you whether an EA made money: profit factor, drawdown, win rate. It does not tell you whether the losses come from the entries or the exits. To decide what to change next, you also need each trade's maximum favorable excursion (MFE) and maximum adverse excursion (MAE).
The main fields in the report
The top of the report summarises the whole test period. Labels follow your terminal's language; the English names are used here.
| Field | Meaning | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Total Net Profit | Gross profit minus gross loss over the period | The same net profit can hide very different trade counts and drawdowns. |
| Profit Factor | Gross profit ÷ gross loss | Above 1 means the period was profitable overall. It swings a lot when there are few trades; see the profit factor guide. |
| Expected Payoff | Average profit per trade (net profit ÷ trades) | Compare it with your spread and commission. A small edge per trade disappears when costs rise a little. |
| Recovery Factor | Net profit ÷ maximal drawdown | How much the EA earned for the drawdown it went through. |
| Balance Drawdown Absolute | How far the balance fell below the initial deposit | Zero if the balance never went below the deposit, even if there was a large drop later on. |
| Balance Drawdown Maximal | Largest peak-to-trough drop in money (percent in brackets) | The drop the account would actually have had to sit through. |
| Balance Drawdown Relative | Largest peak-to-trough drop in percent (money in brackets) | Not necessarily the same drop as Maximal; a drop early on, with a smaller balance, looks larger in percent. |
| Equity Drawdown | Drawdown measured on equity, including open positions | Usually larger than the balance figure. Grid and martingale risk shows up here. |
| Total Trades / Profit Trades | Number of trades and the share that closed in profit (win rate) | Win rate alone says little. Read it with the ratio of average win to average loss. |
| Maximum consecutive losses | Longest losing streak (loss amount in brackets) | Whether you, and the account, could live through it. |
What the report can't tell you
Every number in the report is a total or an average. None of them says which part of the EA to change.
A profit factor of 0.58 tells you the EA is losing. Losses come in two kinds:
- The trade was in profit first, then lost (an exit problem). The entry was fine and the profit was given back. Look at the take profit, a trailing stop, or moving the stop to break even.
- The trade went wrong right away (an entry problem). No exit would have saved it. Look at the entry conditions or the market conditions you trade in.
Telling them apart needs MFE and MAE for every trade, and the MT5 report doesn't include them. The idea is covered in the MFE and MAE guide.
Example: taking a sample report apart
Here is a breakout EA run on synthetic EURUSD M15 data. The report says:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Trades | 136 |
| Win rate | 33.8% (46 won, 90 lost) |
| Profit factor | 0.58 |
| Net profit | -965 |
| Longest losing streak | 18 |
All that says is that it loses. With bar data for the same period, MFE and MAE can be computed for each trade, and the 90 losers split like this:
| Kind of loser | Trades | Range when the trades are resampled |
|---|---|---|
| In profit first (exit problem) | 31 | 27-43% |
| Went wrong right away (entry problem) | 30 | 24-41% |
| In between | 29 | - |
The ranges are the 5th to 95th percentiles from resampling the losers 1,000 times. They overlap almost completely, so on these numbers neither kind clearly dominates.
Add a cost of 3 pips per trade and the split becomes 22 exit problems and 40 entry problems, because an open profit smaller than the cost could never have been banked. With costs included, this EA's losses lean towards the entry.
A stop that is too tight was also checked. Of the 90 stopped-out trades, none went on to reach the EA's typical take-profit distance after the exit, so there is no sign that the stop is too tight.
By market regime, 93 of the 136 trades were entered in a range, and they account for -685 of the -965 total. For a breakout EA, a filter that skips ranges is a better first experiment than a new exit. See the market regime guide.
Try it on your own EA
The free MT5 report analyser does all of the above automatically. No signup, and your files are processed in the browser and never uploaded.
- In the Strategy Tester's results tab, right-click and save the report as HTML.
- Export bar data for the same symbol and period as CSV from MT5's Symbols window (used for MFE/MAE and regimes).
- Load both files into the tool. Without the bar data you still get the basic statistics and exit reasons.
It reads MT5 HTML reports only; MT4 is not supported yet.
FAQ
Should I look at balance drawdown or equity drawdown?
Both. Balance drawdown only counts closed trades, so it misses losses that were open at the time. For EAs that hold positions for a long time, or that average down, equity drawdown is closer to what the account really went through.
What profit factor is good enough to trade live?
There is no fixed threshold. With few trades the number swings widely, and a wider spread alone can push it below 1. The profit factor guide covers how to read it together with the trade count.
Which timeframe should I export the bar data in?
The EA's own timeframe or a shorter one. Shorter bars trace each trade's path more closely, so MFE and MAE come out more accurate.