diff --git a/freqtrade/plot/plotting.py b/freqtrade/plot/plotting.py
index 60f838db2..095ca4133 100644
--- a/freqtrade/plot/plotting.py
+++ b/freqtrade/plot/plotting.py
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ from freqtrade.data.btanalysis import (calculate_max_drawdown,
                                        create_cum_profit,
                                        extract_trades_of_period, load_trades)
 from freqtrade.data.converter import trim_dataframe
-from freqtrade.exchange import timeframe_to_prev_date
 from freqtrade.data.history import load_data
+from freqtrade.exceptions import OperationalException
+from freqtrade.exchange import timeframe_to_prev_date
 from freqtrade.misc import pair_to_filename
 from freqtrade.resolvers import StrategyResolver
 
@@ -504,6 +505,9 @@ def plot_profit(config: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
     trades = trades[(trades['pair'].isin(plot_elements["pairs"]))
                     & (~trades['close_time'].isnull())
                     ]
+    if len(trades) == 0:
+        raise OperationalException("No trades found, cannot generate Profit-plot without "
+                                   "trades from either Backtest result or database.")
 
     # Create an average close price of all the pairs that were involved.
     # this could be useful to gauge the overall market trend
diff --git a/tests/test_plotting.py b/tests/test_plotting.py
index 0258b94d1..5bb113784 100644
--- a/tests/test_plotting.py
+++ b/tests/test_plotting.py
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ def test_start_plot_profit_error(mocker):
 def test_plot_profit(default_conf, mocker, testdatadir, caplog):
     default_conf['trade_source'] = 'file'
     default_conf["datadir"] = testdatadir
-    default_conf['exportfilename'] = testdatadir / "backtest-result_test.json"
+    default_conf['exportfilename'] = testdatadir / "backtest-result_test_nofile.json"
     default_conf['pairs'] = ["ETH/BTC", "LTC/BTC"]
 
     profit_mock = MagicMock()
@@ -384,6 +384,12 @@ def test_plot_profit(default_conf, mocker, testdatadir, caplog):
         generate_profit_graph=profit_mock,
         store_plot_file=store_mock
     )
+    with pytest.raises(OperationalException,
+                       match=r"No trades found, cannot generate Profit-plot.*"):
+        plot_profit(default_conf)
+
+    default_conf['exportfilename'] = testdatadir / "backtest-result_test.json"
+
     plot_profit(default_conf)
 
     # Plot-profit generates one combined plot