What Is a Verified Track Record? Definition and Checks

A verified track record is a record of trading results that arrives directly from the broker through a read-only connection, continuously, with no step in the chain where the publisher can edit, delete or re-order anything. It is the difference between a claim and evidence. Two separate questions hide inside the phrase, and most arguments about verification come from confusing them.

How it works

The first question is whether the data is real. That is answered by the connection itself: a channel that can read the account but never write to it, running without interruption, so the record is built continuously rather than exported at a convenient moment. On ShowMyTrades that channel is one of four — an Expert Advisor installed in MetaTrader 4 or 5, a direct connection using the MT4 investor password, cTrader OAuth2 authorisation, or the TradeLocker REST API. None of them can place, modify or close an order. Read-only credentials are the industry mechanism for this, and third-party trackers such as Myfxbook connect MetaTrader accounts the same way.

broker server → read-only connection → ShowMyTrades → public page
                no editable step anywhere in the chain

The second question is whether the person publishing the page owns the account. A read-only feed proves the trades exist; it does not prove whose they are, because an investor password can be handed to anyone. Closing that gap requires an action only someone with trading rights can perform: placing a pending order at an unreachable price with the publisher's user ID in the comment field. On cTrader, one OAuth authorisation answers both questions at once.

A record can pass one and fail the other, which is why they are counted separately.

Why it matters

Everything downstream of the connection is arithmetic. If the inputs can be edited, the profit factor, the drawdown and the equity curve are all decoration, no matter how detailed the page looks. A screenshot, a PDF statement and a spreadsheet share the same defect: they are produced by the person asking you to trust them.

Continuity matters as much as read-only access. A record that can be paused and resumed lets a bad month disappear. When the feed is continuous, an interruption is itself visible on the page — which is information, not an absence of it.

What the data shows

Verification is opt-in and requires effort, and the numbers reflect that. Across the 10,000+ accounts published on ShowMyTrades (August 2026), only 65 carry Track Record Verified and 264 carry Trading Privileges Verified. More accounts prove ownership than prove data provenance, because placing one pending order is easier than changing a password at the broker.

Verified does not mean good. Across the public accounts with trading history, median time-weighted return is +3.2%, 63.0% are positive, and the median deepest drawdown is 9.7% — with 17.6% of accounts having lost more than half their peak value at some point. That distribution, built from 15,436,464 synchronised trades, is what an honest record looks like, and it is nothing like the ones used in advertising.

Where you see it on ShowMyTrades

Both badges sit in the Certifications group in the header of every account page, above the numbers: Track Record and Trading Privileges, green when granted and grey when not, each with a tooltip explaining what it certifies for that platform. The same group also shows Real Account or Demo Account, derived from the broker server rather than self-declared.

Verification is managed in the account settings, where the Investor Password (Optional) field lives — clear it and the Track Record badge turns grey on the same save. Both badges are also rendered inside the Complete Dashboard widget, which embeds the account header, so an embed on someone else's site carries its own provenance.

Common misunderstandings

• A link to a tracking site is not verification. Any platform can host an unverified account. Look for the badge on the page, not for the domain in the URL.
• Track Record Verified does not prove ownership. It proves the trades are real. Someone reselling another trader's investor password can produce a genuine feed of trades that are not theirs.
• Verified is not the same as profitable. The badge certifies provenance and nothing else. Read gain and drawdown together afterwards.
• A verified demo account is still a demo account. Demo fills are optimistic in exactly the conditions where live fills hurt.

The procedure for both badges, step by step: how to verify your trading account.

Related terms