Why does bybit api return an empty list after requesting trade history?

I am trying to get my trade history from the Bybit api V5, but it keeps returning an empty list although getting my wallet balance works.

I wrote this code below and although the "getBybitWalletBalance" function works perfectly, the "getBybitTradeHistory" function keeps returning an empty list. My last trade on BTCUSDT perpetuals was a month ago. I also tried the other categories, but they all give the same output.

bybit.php

<?php

    $apiKey = '...';
    $apiSecret = '...';
    $window = "5000";

    // Global
    function bybitSignature($method, $path, $query, $body) {
        global $apiKey, $apiSecret, $window;
        $timestamp = round(microtime(true) * 1000);
        if($method === "GET") {
            return hash_hmac("sha256", $timestamp . $apiKey . $window . $query, $apiSecret);
        } else {
            return hash_hmac("sha256", $timestamp . $apiKey . $window . $body, $apiSecret);
        }
    }

    function bybitCurl($url, $signature) {
        global $apiKey, $window;
        $timestamp = round(microtime(true) * 1000);
        $ch = curl_init();
        
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
            "Accept: application/json",
            "X-BAPI-API-KEY: " . $apiKey,
            "X-BAPI-TIMESTAMP: " . $timestamp,
            "X-BAPI-SIGN: " . $signature,
            "X-BAPI-RECV-WINDOW: " . $window
        ));
        
        if(curl_errno($ch)) {
            return curl_error($ch);
        } else {
            return curl_exec($ch);
        }
        
        curl_close($ch);
    }

    // Trade
    function getBybitTradeHistory($category) {
        return bybitCurl("https://api.bybit.com/v5/execution/list?category=" . $category, bybitSignature("GET", "/v5/execution/list", "category=" . $category, ""));
    }

    // Account
    function getBybitWalletBalance($accountType) {
        return bybitCurl("https://api.bybit.com/v5/account/wallet-balance?accountType=" . $accountType, bybitSignature("GET", "/v5/account/wallet-balance", "accountType=" . $accountType, ""));
    }

    var_dump(json_decode(getBybitTradeHistory("linear"), true));

?>

output array(5) { ["retCode"]=> int(0) ["retMsg"]=> string(2) "OK" ["result"]=> array(3) { ["nextPageCursor"]=> string(0) "" ["category"]=> string(6) "linear" ["list"]=> array(0) { } } ["retExtInfo"]=> array(0) { } ["time"]=> int(1751725711326) }

I have no experience with ByBit API, but the documentation is easy to find and pretty clear. It describes request parameters startTime and endTime, and that if:

startTime and endTime are not passed, return 7 days by default

Your code does not pass either parameter, so you're only getting the last 7 days' history. You mention your last trade was a month ago, so it won't show up.

The docs describe how to use the parameters, and that you can retrieve at most a 7-day window of history. Depending on what you're trying to do you could either set up a single window including your last trade or maybe do some kind of pagination, where you can scroll back week by week.

Here's a quick and dirty way to at least see your last trade, assuming your last trade was 30 days ago.

// The docs show that using only startTime means we will get a window
// between startTime and startTime+7 days, so if we pick a start day
// say 33 days ago, that window will include your last trade 30 days
// ago.  This is likely not a good real solution for whatever your 
// app is trying to do but will at least get you a result and 
// familiarity with using the timestamps.

$now = new DateTime();
$startTime = $now->modify('-33 days')->format('Uv');

$query = "category=" . $category . "&startTime=" . $startTime;
echo bybitCurl("https://api.bybit.com/v5/execution/list?" . $query,
    bybitSignature("GET", "/v5/execution/list", $query));