A closed-trade result does not describe the whole path
A report can answer how much has been booked without answering what remained at risk between closures. MQL5 exposes account balance and account equity separately [1]. Before comparing screenshots, identify the observation time and whether open positions were present. Treat a missing equity path as missing information rather than evidence that the path was smooth.
Use a deliberately simplified model for the examples here: no credit, blocked funds or additional charges. Under those assumptions, a balance of 2,000 units with a floating loss of 300 leaves equity of 1,700. Real account reports can contain additional components; the MetaTrader trading-report documentation describes them explicitly [2].
Work through an invented three-point path
Suppose a simulated account begins at 2,000 units. Closed trades take both balance and equity to 2,200 while there are no open positions. Later the balance stays at 2,200, but open positions carry a combined loss of 500. In our simplified example, equity is then 1,700. The booked gain and the current decline can both be true.
The decrease from the selected equity peak is 500 divided by 2,200, or about 22.73 percent. The shortfall below the initial 2,000 is 300 units. These are not competing descriptions of one denominator. They refer to different reference points. None of these invented numbers represents a measured EA result, a client account or a market forecast.
Do not merge monetary and percentage maxima
MQL5 testing-statistics definitions distinguish maximum equity drawdown in money from maximum equity drawdown in percentage terms, and retain the corresponding paired values [3]. The point with the largest cash decline need not be the point with the largest percentage decline. Store the metric name together with its value, not just a column called "DD".
For a separate synthetic illustration, a fall from 1,000 to 800 is 200 units and 20 percent. A later fall from 2,000 to 1,700 is 300 units and 15 percent. The second decline is larger in money; the first is larger proportionally. Asking which one is "the drawdown" without specifying the metric loses a meaningful distinction.
Separate recovery arithmetic from a recovery prediction
After losing 25 percent, a hypothetical 1,000-unit account holds 750. Returning to 1,000 requires a gain of 250 on 750, approximately 33.33 percent. With no external cash flows or extra costs, the recovery fraction is the lost amount divided by the amount remaining. This arithmetic says nothing about how quickly recovery will happen, or whether it will happen at all.
Do not use that fraction as a reason to increase exposure. It is a denominator check, not a trading plan. A deposit can lift an account value without representing trading profit, so mark deposits and withdrawals separately when preparing an account path for interpretation.
Create a six-field observation worksheet
For this exercise, record the observation time, balance, equity, chosen reference peak, subsequent observed trough and external cash flows. Add the source file name and whether the data are simulated, demo-account observations or a live-account report. Keep the original report unchanged and put your calculations in a separate note.
When you only have sampled observations, label your computed decline accordingly. A few saved points do not establish what happened at every intermediate moment. Request a fuller record when that distinction matters. Likewise, do not infer the exact worst time from a final summary that does not contain it.
Turn uncertainty into a reviewable request
An actionable request is: "Please explain the balance-equity divergence in this interval using the attached report and matching settings, and identify what remains unobservable." That is clearer than asking whether a curve is safe. It gives a reviewer a bounded question, a source and an honest place to record uncertainty.
BamaUp’s free EA checklist can help assemble the supporting material. The EA audit page explains the scope of a paid technical review; its deliverables and price need to be agreed for the particular order. Beginners can use the free lessons first. No historical drawdown figure establishes a personal risk budget or guarantees that future losses will remain inside the observed range.
