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MetaTrader 5 (MT5) · Ghana

A minus in MetaTrader 5 does not mean one thing. In a single row it can mark the side a position was opened on, money that has left the account, or the direction of a move — three meanings sharing one symbol.

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The minus sign in MetaTrader 5 carries three unrelated meanings and they appear in the same row. In a volume or direction column it marks which side a position was opened on. In a swap or commission column it marks money that has left the account. In a price or change column it marks the direction of a move and nothing else. Reading a row correctly means knowing which of the three is in front of you, and knowing which columns belong to the same money and can therefore be added together.

Measured order execution — Standard

How orders actually filled when real market orders were placed on Exness’s MT5 feed — fill time, slippage and rejects by order size:

InstrumentOrder sizeAvg fillAvg slippageFails
EURUSDm0.01 lot151 ms-0.333 pts0
EURUSDm0.1 lot151 ms-0.333 pts0
EURUSDm1.0 lot146 ms-0.333 pts0
GBPUSDm0.01 lot141 ms0.667 pts0
GBPUSDm0.1 lot130 ms0.0 pts0
GBPUSDm1.0 lot135 ms0.333 pts0
XAUUSDm0.01 lot141 ms0.0 pts0
XAUUSDm0.1 lot151 ms80.0 pts0
XAUUSDm1.0 lot130 ms-72.333 pts0

Small sample (a few round-trips per size); indicative. The same pricing engine feeds every platform the broker offers.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) at Exness

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Exness Trade appSpread (+ commission on Raw/Zero)Managing trades and automatic withdrawals on the goiOS, Android

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Colour is a setting, not information

The terminal paints figures according to a colour scheme that lives on the machine, not in the account. The same position can appear red on a desktop and blue on a phone, and a scheme changed once to suit a dark background keeps applying afterwards. Colour is useful for finding a row quickly and useless for deciding what the row says.

The habit forms fast, which is what makes it awkward. After a few weeks red means bad before the number has been read at all, and a negative overnight charge on a position that is comfortably ahead gets treated as a problem. The sign has to be read together with the column heading; on its own it is half a sentence.

Which columns belong to the same money

Only figures denominated in the account currency can be added together, and in a position row that means three: where the position stands against its entry, what holding it overnight has taken, and what opening it cost. Their sum is what the position has actually done. Everything else on the row — the side, the volume, the entry price, the movement measured in the instrument's own units — sits on a different scale.

The mistake that follows from ignoring this is not arithmetic but attribution. A position showing a healthy figure in one column and a steady drain in another is not two separate stories; it is one result that has been split across columns for display.

The total at the bottom is not another column

The summary line under the list already contains the rows above it. Adding a row figure to the summary figure counts the same money twice, and the error is easy to make because both look like independent totals. The safer reading runs downwards: rows describe individual positions, the line underneath describes all of them at once, and the two are never combined.

Reading one row without guessing

  1. Start with the column heading rather than the number: the heading decides which of the three meanings the sign is carrying.
  2. Note the side of the position separately from any figure, so a direction label is never read as an amount.
  3. Take the account-currency columns together — result, overnight cost, opening cost — and treat their sum as the single answer for that position.
  4. Leave figures on any other scale out of that sum entirely: they answer a question about the instrument, not about the account.
  5. Read the summary line last, as a replacement for the rows above it rather than as an addition to them.

Colour can be used to find the row. It should not be used to decide what the row says.

What a minus means, column by column

Where the minus appearsWhat it marksAdds up with
Position sideThe direction the position was opened inNothing — it is a label, not an amount
SwapMoney removed for holding a position overnightResult and commission — same currency, same account
CommissionMoney removed when the position was opened or closedResult and swap — same currency, same account
Result of the positionWhere the position stands now against where it openedSwap and commission — the three together are the answer
Price changeDirection of the instrument since a reference pointNothing — it is a movement, not a balance
Equity against balanceHow far open positions sit from the settled figureNothing — equity already contains them

Anything marked as adding up with nothing has to be read on its own; putting it into a total produces a number that describes nothing.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a minus appear on a position that is doing well?
Because the columns measure different things. A negative swap or commission records money taken out for holding or opening the position, and it can sit alongside a result that is comfortably ahead. The sign belongs to its own column, not to the row as a whole.
Does a red figure always mean a loss?
No. Colour comes from the scheme set on the device and can be changed or inverted, so the same figure may appear in a different colour on another machine. The column heading and the sign carry the information; the colour is presentation.
Which columns in MT5 can be added together?
Those denominated in the account currency: the result of the position, the overnight cost and the opening cost. Their sum is what the position has done. Figures on any other scale do not join that total.
Why does adding a position figure to the total at the bottom give the wrong number?
Because the summary line already includes every row above it, so adding one of them again counts the same money twice. Rows describe individual positions and the line underneath describes all of them together.
A minus in front of the volume — is that a loss?
No. There it marks the side the position was opened on. It is a label rather than an amount and it does not enter any total.
How can the same instrument show a minus in one place and a plus in another at the same moment?
One figure measures the move in the instrument from a reference point and the other measures what an open position is worth against its entry. They can point opposite ways without either being wrong, because they answer different questions.

Reviews

What traders say about Exness on MetaTrader 5:

★★★★★
The application like mt5 is easy and simple to operate, and also provide a simple user interface 👍
— Samwel Onyango2026-06-12
★★★★★
Plataforma sencilla, intuitiva, no sustituye Mt5 en la pc, pero es muy buena.
— Maximiliano Curci2026-05-04
★★★★★
Boa noite, finalmente arrumaram esse sistema de execução de ordem no mt5. As derrapagem que estavam acontecendo no servidor eram. desanimadora. Melhoraram galera da pra operar novamente na exness amém vamos pra cima.
— Alexandre Calegari2026-05-15
★☆☆☆☆
Not right for MetaTrader5. I lost so much money with inaccurate graphs. Rather go somewhere else
— OomCharlie2026-02-10

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