MetaTrader 4 provides in real time the information about the account balance, funds available and all the necessary details related to the trading activity

In this section the interpretation of the summary data concerning an account, as well as reading the data concerning historical transactions.

If a new account has just been opened, one will see the summary data in the grey line at the bottom of the workspace of the MetaTrader 4 platform. It consists of:

• Balance – the net amount of money deposited to the account (either virtual or real), adjusted by the result of the transactions closed so far.
• Equity – current value of the account. This is basically the Balance value, adjusted in real time by the result of the positions open on the account - if there are any.
• Free Margin – funds available for trading or withdrawal. Free Margin is the difference between Equity and Margin described below.

It can be easily noticed that in a case where there are no positions opened on the account, all the three values – Balance, Equity and Free Margin – are equal.

Now, what happens once the position is opened? In such a case two new positions shall appear in the grey line displaying the account summary data :

• Margin – representing the total amount of deposit blocked for the purposes of settlement of the open positions. If more explanation is needed on the deposit for the transactions, please refer to the [Deposit] section. From a formal point of view, the Deposit is discussed in the[Regulation] section.
• Margin Level – shows the relation between the actual value of the account, represented by Equity and the Margin required for open positions.

Now, how is it possible to see the history of all the transactions? Or only those that have been concluded today? There is a special option „History” for that purpose, at the bottom of the Toolbox window.

As it can be seen, for each of the transactions (deals) made in a given time period, you can see the following data:

• Time – the exact moment when the operation was executed.
• Deal – unique number that identifies each of the transactions.
• Order – unique number that identifies the order that has initiated the transaction.
• Symbol – the designation of a market where a transaction has been executed.
• Type – identification of each of the operations. For transaction it is described as „in” and „out”, respectively opening and closing a given transaction.
• Direction – either “buy” or “sell”.
• Order – immediately once the response comes and the price is confirmed.
• Volume – the size of the transaction, it can be displayed both in the number of contracts (by default) or in the amounts trader (by clicking the right-mouse-button and choosing Volumes and then Amounts from the context menu).
• Price – the price level at which the operation has been executed.
• Commission – as by default, in the case of CFD instruments, there is no commission and the field remains typically empty.
• Swap – the amount credited or charged to an account, resulting in a settlement related to the difference between interest rates associated with the specific currencies in each pair.
• Profit – represents the financial result of the transaction - in the case of operations closing a position.
• Comment - may contain other comments related to the transaction, such as notes on the level of execution of orders like Stop Loss or Take profit. For example, if the position has been closed by a Stop Loss order at a price of 26,00; the value of the Profit field will be [sl 26.00].

The MetaTrader 4 platform displays not only the history of actual transactions, but also the history of orders that have been placed. As a result, every position that has been opened is also accompanied by historical orders, that are characterised, among others, by:

• Time - the exact time when the order has been received.
• Order - the unique number that identifies the order.
• Symbol - the designation of a market where the order has been executed.
• Type - for orders it can be "Buy” or „Sell”, depending on the direction of the operation.
• Volume - the size of the order.
• Price – the price level of the order.
• S/L, T/P – Stop Loss/Take Profit levels, if defined.
• State – condition of the order - "filled” in the case of executed orders.

One can define for which period the history of operation should be displayed. It is possible by clicking the right-mouse-button anywhere within the history Tab and choosing „Custom period” from the context menu. The data can be shown just for the current day, the last 3 days, any given days or other period according to individual preferences.