How to Read a MyFXBook Track Record

By Rise Together FX team · 9 min read

Generic stats dashboard with Gain, Drawdown and Trades panels and table rows shown as blank placeholder bars, under a magnifying glass

If anyone shows you a trading track record, there's a good chance it's on MyFXBook. The pages are packed with numbers, badges and charts, and it's tempting to come away remembering only the biggest figure on the page. This guide explains what each part means, what the verification badges do and don't prove, the red flags to look for, and what no track record can tell you.

Trading forex and CFDs is high risk and you can lose all the money you put in. Most retail CFD accounts lose money. This article is general education, not financial advice.

What MyFXBook is (and isn't)

MyFXBook is a website where traders connect their trading accounts so that the trading history can be analysed and, if the owner chooses, published. It calculates statistics such as gain, drawdown and monthly results from the account's trades.

It's worth being clear about what it is not:

It isn't a broker. It doesn't hold money or place trades for you.
It isn't a regulator. A MyFXBook page says nothing about whether a person or firm is authorised to offer a service. For that, check the FCA Register.
It isn't an endorsement. A page being public, or even verified, doesn't mean MyFXBook recommends the strategy.

Think of it as an independent way of displaying an account's history, with some checks that the history is genuine. That's useful, but it's only one piece of the picture.

Track-record verified vs trading-privileges verified: what each badge means

MyFXBook shows two separate verification checks near the top of a page. They answer different questions.

Track record verified

This means the trading history shown on MyFXBook matches the history provided by the broker for that account. MyFXBook does this by connecting to the broker using the account's investor password (a read-only login), along with the account number, broker and server. In short: the trades on the page are the trades that happened on that account.

Trading privileges verified

This means the person who added the account to MyFXBook has the master (trading) password, so they own the account or can trade on it. MyFXBook checks this by asking the person to do something on the trading platform that needs the master password: either changing the investor password or opening a pending order.

What the badges don't prove

Even with both badges:

The strategy may still lose money, including all of it.
You can't tell from the badges alone whether the account is the only one the trader runs, or the best of several.
MyFXBook itself says verified accounts might have some inaccuracies outside its control.

MyFXBook lists systems in its public systems section only when they're verified for both track record and trading privileges. If a page shows neither badge, treat its numbers as unconfirmed.

Can a MyFXBook page be faked? Verification makes it much harder to invent trades, because the history is checked against the broker's own data. But a genuine history can still be presented selectively: for example, by publishing only the account that did well, or by choosing when the record starts. The checks below help with that.

Gain vs absolute gain

MyFXBook shows two different "gain" figures, and they often disagree.

Gain uses a time-weighted return. It chains together the percentage result of each trade, measured against the balance the account had when the trade was opened. MyFXBook says deposits and withdrawals made along the way don't affect it. It describes the trading, not the money.
Absolute gain compares the account's total profit with the money put in, and the timing of deposits and withdrawals is ignored. MyFXBook's help page describes this as profit compared with net invested funds (total deposits minus total withdrawals), though the formula it shows divides total profit by total deposits. It's closer to the money result for that account.

Neither is "the real one". They answer different questions, and the gap between them can tell you a lot about how money moved in and out. We explain this with worked examples in MyFXBook Gain vs Absolute Gain.

Drawdown on MyFXBook: balance vs equity

Drawdown is the fall from a high point to a later low. On MyFXBook you'll usually find a single maximum drawdown figure plus a drawdown chart.

What to know:

Balance only changes when trades close. Equity includes the profit or loss on trades that are still open. A strategy that holds losing trades open can have a balance line that looks smooth while equity drops sharply underneath. See Equity vs balance.
MyFXBook describes drawdown as a loss, realised or not, at some point in the account's history, and announced equity-based drawdown in 2012.
The figure is the largest drawdown in the record shown on the page. MyFXBook's help page says it calculates drawdown three ways (end-of-day, intraday and growth) and shows the highest of the three. If the record started late, earlier falls won't be in it.
A maximum drawdown is a record of the past. It is not a limit or a target, and future drawdowns can be larger. Our guide to drawdown explains why.

When you read a page, put drawdown next to gain. A large gain alongside a large drawdown tells a very different story from a large gain alongside a small one.

Monthly results, trade count, account age and lot-size changes

Monthly results

MyFXBook shows a month-by-month breakdown. Look at the losing months as well as the winning ones, and at how deep the worst months were.

Number of trades

A handful of trades can produce almost any result by chance. A longer history with many trades gives you more to judge, though it still can't predict the future.

Account age

How long has the account been running? A record of a few months may not have met a difficult market yet. Check the start date, not just the headline figures.

Lot size and position size

If trade sizes grew over time, recent results carry more weight in money terms than early ones. Some pages show trade sizes and some don't. Hidden sizing makes it harder to judge how much of the account each trade put at risk.

Red flags

None of these proves anything on its own, but each is a reason to look more closely.

A short history. A few weeks or months of results.
One big month. Most of the gain came from a single month or a handful of trades.
Deposits that hide losses. Money added during a drawdown can make the balance chart look healthier than the trading was. Compare gain with absolute gain, and check the deposit history.
Large withdrawals followed by strong percentages. Gain can look good if trades did well on a small balance after doing badly on a large one.
A smooth balance line with deep equity drawdowns. Often a sign of a strategy that holds losing trades open. See Grid trading vs martingale.
Accounts that disappear. If a trader's earlier accounts are no longer public, ask why.
A record that starts part-way through. Check whether the page tracks the account from its first trade.
No verification badges, or only one of the two.
Big claims elsewhere that the page doesn't support. If marketing quotes a figure, find it on the live page and check the date.

What no track record can tell you

Even a long, verified record has limits.

Future results. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Markets change, and strategies can meet conditions they haven't traded through before.
Your own results. Someone starting at a different time, with a different account size or different costs, can get a very different outcome from the same strategy.
Your costs. The record reflects that account's spreads, commissions and swaps. Another account may pay more.
The worst case. The largest past drawdown isn't the largest possible drawdown.
Whether a firm is authorised. Only the FCA Register can tell you that.

Worked example: reading a page step by step

Here's how to read a page in order, using a made-up account.

Illustrative mock-up (made-up numbers to show the method; not based on any real account or on our strategy):

Field on the page Mock value

Track record Verified

Trading privileges Verified

Account started 14 months ago

Gain +18%

Absolute gain +9%

Maximum drawdown 27%

Deposits £5,000 in total, including a £2,000 top-up in month 6

Withdrawals None

Losing months 4 of 14

Field on the page	Mock value
Track record	Verified
Trading privileges	Verified
Account started	14 months ago
Gain	+18%
Absolute gain	+9%
Maximum drawdown	27%
Deposits	£5,000 in total, including a £2,000 top-up in month 6
Withdrawals	None
Losing months	4 of 14

Verification: both badges are present, so the trades match the broker's records and the publisher has trading access.
Age: 14 months is a moderate history. It may not include a difficult period for this strategy.
Gain vs absolute gain: gain (+18%) is double absolute gain (+9%). With a top-up in month 6 and no withdrawals, that suggests the extra money went in before a weaker period, so the money result was worse than the trading percentages.
Drawdown: a 27% maximum drawdown means the account fell at least 27% from a high at some point. That's the minimum it has shown it can fall, not the most it could.
Monthly results: four losing months out of 14. Check how deep they were and whether they came together.
Conclusion: the page tells you what happened to this account. It can't tell you what will happen next.

Checklist: reading any track record

Print this or keep it handy.

[ ] Is the track record verified?
[ ] Are trading privileges verified?
[ ] When did the record start, and does it start from the account's first trade?
[ ] How many trades and months does it cover?
[ ] What are gain and absolute gain, and why do they differ?
[ ] What is the maximum drawdown, and is it based on equity?
[ ] Does the balance line look much smoother than the equity line?
[ ] What do the deposits and withdrawals show?
[ ] How deep were the worst months?
[ ] Did trade sizes change over time, or are they hidden?
[ ] Does the strategy add trades or increase size when price moves against it?
[ ] Is the firm behind it on the FCA Register, and what does the register say?
[ ] Have you read the risk warning, and could you afford to lose all the money involved?