When every EA trade lands in one MT5 account history, the account total can hide which strategy is helping and which strategy is hurting. Magic numbers solve that identity problem by tagging trades with a strategy-specific identifier.
What to track by magic number
At minimum, track net profit, floating P/L, max drawdown, symbol, average hold time and active version. If one magic number is profitable but creates most of the floating drawdown, it should not be judged only by closed P/L.
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Magic number | Identifies the EA or strategy group. |
| Symbol | Separates behavior by market. |
| Version | Connects results to the settings that produced them. |
| Drawdown | Shows risk, not just outcome. |
Version your EAs
A magic number is not enough if the same EA changes settings every week. Add a version tag to your notes, comments or reporting workflow. Then compare version against version rather than treating the whole account as one experiment.
Do not ignore account-level risk
A magic number can look healthy while the account is overexposed because other EAs are correlated. Pair magic-number reporting with account monitoring, especially margin level and equity curve tracking.
xTriel helps keep MT5 account state visible while you evaluate EA performance.