What Is a Partial Close in MetaTrader?
A partial close exits part of a position's volume while the rest keeps running — and MetaTrader records that routine action in a surprisingly roundabout way. MT4 closes the original ticket and reopens the remainder under a new number; MT5 keeps the position and logs every reduction as a separate deal. Either way, one decision ends up as several rows of history, which quietly changes what 'a trade' means in any statistic computed from that history. Knowing how each platform records partials — and how to read the rows they leave behind — keeps them from skewing your numbers.
Key takeaways
- A partial close exits part of a position's volume at market; the remainder stays open with the original entry price, stop loss and take profit.
- MT4 closes the whole ticket at the partial volume and reopens the remainder as a new order, usually marked with a comment like 'from #5203318'.
- MT5 keeps one position and records each reduction as a separate 'out' deal; the position id ties every deal back to the same position.
- Each partial becomes its own closed row in the history, so one decision can appear as two, three or more 'trades' in exports and reports.
- Counting rows instead of positions inflates trade count and distorts win rate and average win — reassemble partials before computing statistics.
- Swap and commission are split across the partial rows, so the whole-position result is the sum of every row's net P/L, not just the price profit.
Closing part of a position
A partial closeexits some of a position’s volume at the current market price and leaves the rest running. Holding 0.90 lots of GBP/USD, you can close 0.30 and keep 0.60 open — same entry price, same stop loss and take profit, same magic number. Traders use it to scale out of a move in stages, to cut exposure ahead of a news release, or to free margin without abandoning the position entirely.
Mechanically there is nothing exotic about it: the platform simply sends a closing market order for less than the full volume. The surprise is the paperwork. MT4 and MT5 record the same action in two completely different ways, and both turn one trading decision into several rows of history.
MT4: the remainder becomes a new order
MT4 has no separate concept of a position — the order is the position. So when you partially close ticket #5203318 (buy 0.90 lots) by 0.30 lots, the server closes that order at 0.30 lots and immediately reopens the remaining 0.60 lots as a brand-new orderwith a new ticket number. The new ticket inherits the original open price, open time, stop loss, take profit and magic number, and its comment normally reads something like “from #5203318”. Scale out twice more and the chain grows:
- #5203318 — closed with 0.30 lots; the original ticket retires here.
- #5203342— the 0.60-lot remainder, comment “from #5203318”; later closed with 0.30 lots at the second partial.
- #5203367— the final 0.30 lots, comment “from #5203342”; closed in full when the trade ends.
MT5: one position, many deals
MT5 separates orders (instructions), deals (executions) and positions (the resulting exposure). A partial close executes as a deal in the outdirection: the position’s volume drops from 0.90 to 0.60 lots, but the position itself survives — same identifier, same open price, same open time.
Every reduction adds one more out deal with its own ticket, exit price, volume and profit, and every deal stores the position id of the position it belongs to. That id never changes for the life of the position, so the full story — one opening deal, three closing deals — stays connected no matter how many partials there are. In netting mode an opposite-direction trade trims the position the same way; in hedging mode you choose which position to reduce.
The terminal can even do the stitching itself: the History tab switches between a positions view, an orders view and a deals view, and the positions view aggregates the deals back into one line per position. Exports and third-party reports, however, often work from the deal list — which is where the row counting starts.
One decision, several history rows
However the platform stores it, a position scaled out in three steps leaves three closed rows behind:
Buy 0.90 lots
One decision — GBP/USD at 1.2640
Partial close 0.30
Row 1 · 0.60 lots still open
Partial close 0.30
Row 2 · 0.30 lots still open
Final close 0.30
Row 3 · position fully closed
Those rows flow unchanged into the account statement and any export built from it. What differs between the platforms is how the rows are labelled and what connects them:
| Behaviour | MetaTrader 4 | MetaTrader 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Position after the partial | Original order is closed; the remainder reopens as a new order | Position stays open with reduced volume |
| Ticket numbers | Remainder gets a new ticket; a “from #...” comment links the chain | Position id never changes; each reduction is a new deal ticket |
| History rows | One closed order per partial, each under a different ticket | One out deal per partial, all sharing the position id |
| Entry price and time | Copied unchanged onto the remainder ticket | Unchanged on the position |
| Reassembling the trade | Follow the comment chain from ticket to ticket | Group deals by position id |
Reading the P/L of a scaled-out trade
Each row reports the profit of its own slice — its volume times the distance between the shared entry and that row’s exit. No single row describes the trade; only their sum does.
Summing one scaled-out position
- Buy 0.90 lots GBP/USD at 1.2640 — one decision, MT5 position id 88412070.
- Row 1: close 0.30 lots at 1.2685 → +45 pips × $3 per pip = +$135.
- Row 2: close 0.30 lots at 1.2710 → +70 pips × $3 per pip = +$210.
- Row 3: close 0.30 lots at 1.2625 → −15 pips × $3 per pip = −$45.
- Commission at $5.50 per lot round turn: 0.90 × 5.50 = $4.95, recorded as $1.65 per row.
- Position result: 135 + 210 − 45 − 4.95 = +$295.05 — one winning trade.
Costs follow the volume. Commission is typically split in proportion to the closed amount, so each row carries its share. Swap behaves differently: it accrues on whatever volume is still open at each rollover, so the 0.30 lots that ran longest collect more financing than the slice closed on day one. Exactly where those amounts surface in the rows is broker-side configuration — which is why the only safe definition of the trade’s outcome is the sum of every row’s net P/L, swap and commission included.
What partials do to your statistics
Count the rows above naively and the history says: three trades, two winners, one loser — a 66.7% win rate and an average win of $172.50. In reality the trader made one decision and it won $295.05 net. Across a quarter the distortion compounds: forty decisions scaled out in three parts each become 120 “trades”, the win rate reflects the per-slice pattern rather than per-decision results, and the average win shrinks because every large winner has been diced into pieces.
The fix is reassembly before arithmetic. On MT5, group deals by position id and treat each group as one trade with one entry, a volume-weighted exit and a summed net result. On MT4, walk the from-# comment chain and merge the tickets it connects. Analytics that do this to your own MetaTrader history report decisions; analytics that count rows report bookkeeping.
Frequently asked
Why did my MT4 order get a new ticket number after a partial close?
Because MT4 has no separate position object — the order is the position. The server closes the original order at the volume you specified and reopens the remainder as a new order with its own ticket, normally carrying a comment such as 'from #5203318' that points back to the original. The remainder keeps the original open price, open time, stop loss and take profit.
Does a partial close change the entry price of what is left?
No, on either platform. In MT4 the remainder order inherits the original open price and open time; in MT5 reducing a position's volume leaves its open price untouched. Only adding volume to a netted MT5 position recalculates the average entry — closing part of one never does.
Is a position closed in three parts one trade or three?
The history shows three closed rows, but they came from one decision with one entry and one risk. For statistics it is usually more honest to group the rows back into a single position — by position id on MT5, or by following the ticket-comment chain on MT4 — and judge the summed result as one trade.
How are swap and commission divided when only part of a position is closed?
Commission is typically allocated in proportion to the closed volume, so each partial row carries its share. Swap accrues on whatever volume is still open at each rollover, which means a remainder that runs for more nights collects more financing than the slices closed earlier. Exactly where these amounts appear in the rows is broker-side configuration.
Related guides
Market Orders vs Pending Orders in MetaTrader
Market vs pending execution, where the four pending types sit around the quote, attached SL/TP, and broker placement limits.
How to Read a MetaTrader Account Statement
What each block of an MT4/MT5 statement means, how to decode a closed-trade row, and where the raw report stops short.
Why Data Quality Matters in Trade Analytics
The record-keeping faults that corrupt trade analytics — missing rows, doubled imports, shifted days — and the fix for each.
Related NuvoraSync features
Sources & further reading
- MQL5 Documentation — Trade functions: orders, deals and positions — the MT5 trade model in which executed deals change position volume and carry the position identifier.
- MetaTrader 5 Help — Trade history — how the History tab presents trade history as positions, orders or deals.
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This article is for educational purposes only. It does not provide trading signals, investment advice, financial recommendations, broker recommendations or trade execution.