Questions and answers

Short answers, each with a link to the guide’s page that says more. Not answered here? Write to support@takejournal.com.

Getting started

What is TakeJournal?

A trading journal for futures, prop-firm and copy traders. It reads your fills from your broker or prop firm, builds your trades from them (one trade across every account a copier copied it to), and shows where each account stands against its firm’s rules, with the journal, the analytics and an AI that reads them. Stocks, options, crypto and forex work too. First steps →

Does TakeJournal trade for me, or copy trades?

No. It only reads. It never places, changes or cancels an order, on any platform; a copier is a separate tool, and TakeJournal shows what the copier did.

Can I see it without an account?

Yes: the demo is the whole journal on sample data, read-only: a futures master with its followers, prop accounts in evaluation and funded, stocks and options, crypto and forex.

Is there a free trial?

Every new account starts on Free, with no card and no time limit: one account, trades typed in or a file imported a day. It can switch on a 7-day trial of the Pro plan once (Profile → Plan and billing → Start your 7-day trial of Pro), with 10 AI answers. When it ends, Free applies again and nothing is deleted. Pricing →

How soon can I start?

At once: sign up with Google or an e-mail address (confirmed by a link), add a connection or import a file, and your trades are there within minutes.

Brokers, imports and data

Which brokers and platforms work?

Live sync with TopstepX, the NinjaTrader 8 add-on, MetaTrader 4/5, cTrader, TradeLocker, DXtrade, Match-Trader, IG, Capital.com, OANDA, Interactive Brokers, Trading 212 and 22 crypto exchanges (Rithmic and tastytrade coming soon); the exports of Tradovate, NinjaTrader, R|Trader Pro, Bookmap, Interactive Brokers and the crypto exchanges as files; and any other broker’s statement through the AI import. The brokers page lists each one with its plan and its status. A Tradovate file of several accounts imports them all in one step. Brokers and imports →

How often do my trades come in?

A broker connection syncs when you press Sync now, on the dashboard or the Connections page, on every plan. On Fleet it also syncs by itself while TakeJournal is open in a tab and the connection’s markets are open: Rithmic as soon as it reports a fill (one session stays signed in), the others every 2 minutes, Interactive Brokers when its statements are ready; once after the markets close, then not until they open, and a closed page syncs nothing. The NinjaTrader 8 add-on and the MetaTrader programs send each fill as it happens. Rithmic: syncing →

What if I trade while the NinjaTrader add-on is off?

Keep NinjaTrader with the add-on running whenever you trade: NinjaTrader shows an add-on only its current session, so an order filled while it was closed never comes through it. Since version 1.2.0 the add-on also sends your positions; when they show a close TakeJournal never got, the trade is closed without an exit, left out of your statistics and not paired with your next fills, and an alert and an e-mail tell you to add the closing fill or import NinjaTrader’s Executions export. The MetaTrader programs send what the terminal missed once it runs again. NinjaTrader 8: a missing close →

What if my broker’s history misses a close?

The NinjaTrader 8 add-on (from version 1.2.0), Rithmic, TopstepX, OANDA, cTrader, DXtrade, IG, Capital.com, TradeLocker and the MetaTrader programs from version 1.3.0 report your accounts’ open positions with every sync. Where the broker holds none while the journal still holds a trade open, the trade is closed without an exit, left out of your statistics and not paired with your next fills, and an alert and an e-mail tell you to add the closing fill. tastytrade, Interactive Brokers and the brokers through SnapTrade report their positions too, the last two once a day; a difference in shares no missing close explains raises no warning there. A missing close →

Which prop firms work?

Topstep through the TopstepX API; NinjaTrader and Tradovate accounts through their exports, and through the NinjaTrader 8 add-on when you trade in NinjaTrader 8 Desktop. The firms whose accounts run on Rithmic (Apex, Bulenox, Take Profit Trader and others) through the NinjaTrader 8 add-on or R|Trader Pro’s export; their live sync is coming soon. The forex firms (FTMO, FundedNext, FundingPips, The5ers and others) through MetaTrader, cTrader, DXtrade, TradeLocker or Match-Trader. A Tradovate file of several prop accounts imports them all in one step, each into its own account (Tradovate). Brokers and imports →

Does TakeJournal know my prop account’s real balance?

A broker connection that reports it brings it with every sync, Rithmic and TopstepX among them. A manual account fed from Tradovate’s files gets it from Tradovate’s Account Balance History: the last day’s balance, with the journal’s trades after it, is the account’s balance, and the firm’s rules count from it; every day is compared with the journal. Its Cash History brings the start balance, the payouts and resets, and the fees the fills lack. Otherwise the balance is the start balance with the trades and the money in the ledger. Tradovate: balances and money moved →

Can I connect a demo or practice account?

Yes, like a live one, and it counts as an account like any other. Where the connection asks, choose the demo: Demo under Demo or live at IG and Capital.com, fxTrade Practice under Where the token was made at OANDA, demo.tradelocker.com under Where you sign in at TradeLocker. TopstepX’s Practice and Combine accounts come in with the others, the NinjaTrader 8 add-on sends its Sim accounts (Sim101), MetaTrader and DXtrade read a demo login like a live one, and cTrader offers your demo accounts beside the live ones when you connect your cTrader ID. Binance, Bybit and the twelve other exchanges with a demo or a testnet (the list) take Demo or testnet under Account. A file import reads a demo account’s export too. A simulator, demo or paper account arrives with the type Practice, out of Real results, unless it is a prop firm’s (the account types). An account of the type Practice stays out of Spotter’s messages unless you switch it on (practice accounts). What counts as an account →

My broker is not listed. What can I do?

Import its statement: the AI import reads a CSV, Excel, HTML or PDF file of any broker, maps its columns and shows the trades before anything is saved. Then send us a sample at support@takejournal.com: a format several traders use becomes a known one, read without the AI. Any broker’s export →

Can I paste my trades instead of a file?

Yes: when a broker or a prop firm’s dashboard shows the trades as a table but has no export, copy the table with its header row and paste it into Import trades → Paste a table. It is then read like a file of the same columns: a known layout at once, a new one mapped and checked before anything is saved. Paste a table →

What does the AI import send out?

The file’s name, its column names and the first twenty rows, with account numbers, other long identifiers and e-mail addresses replaced by placeholders before the sample leaves the server; for a PDF, the text of its pages, masked the same way (its header may show your name and address as printed). The AI answers with the mapping (or the fills it found); the rest of the file is read on the server. The AI provider (privacy policy) does not train on these requests and does not keep them after answering. You choose the AI in the dialog each time; without it the columns are mapped by their names. Any broker’s export →

Can I download a file I imported again?

Yes: every file an import reads is kept, compressed, and its name under Imports on the account’s page downloads it as you imported it; a pasted table is kept as its CSV. The files count in your storage. Delete file deletes one for good; they also go with the account they went into, with a start over and with your TakeJournal account. Download a file again →

Can I enter trades by hand?

Yes, on a manual account: futures, stocks, options and option strategies, crypto and forex, each with its fees. Free is for exactly that. Editing trades →

Which assets are supported?

Futures (CME, Eurex and other exchanges), stocks and ETFs (fractions of a share too), options with their strategies recognised (verticals, straddles, iron condors and others) and their rolls, crypto spot and perpetuals with their funding, forex and CFDs with lots, pips and swap. Crypto → · Forex →

Can I keep several brokers and accounts in one journal?

Yes, side by side, each account in its own currency. The plans differ in how many accounts are in use and how many broker logins sync. Pricing →

Do my trades get charts?

Yes, on the broker’s own bars where the connection keeps a history: 1-second bars from TopstepX, 1-minute bars from the crypto exchanges and the forex and CFD brokers. Each trade shows its entries and exits, its MFE and MAE, its exit efficiency, and plays back bar by bar. On Trader in 1-minute bars, on Pro and Fleet in the finest bars the source gives. Charts, MFE and MAE →

Can I undo an import?

Yes, for 30 days: an import into a manual account has Revert in its row under Imports, a bulk edit has Undo in its message and in Recent changes; the dialog says in numbers what goes back. Single edits offer Undo in their message. A merge or a split of trades has Undo in its message and in Recent changes too. Editing trades →

Can I clear my journal and start over?

Yes, without deleting your account: Profile → Data → Start over deletes the trades with their fills, notes and screenshots, the day and week journal and the AI reviews, and keeps your plan, and your accounts and connections, tags, strategies and settings unless you untick them. Kept broker connections then download their trades again. Export first if you might want the old journal back; there is no undo. Your data →

Where do the fees come from?

From the broker when it reports them per fill (Rithmic, Interactive Brokers, Fills.csv). A fill that comes without a fee, typed in or imported, is priced by the account’s fee schedule when you set one (ready-made for Interactive Brokers, tastytrade, Schwab and Robinhood, or your own); otherwise a future pays a standard rate per contract. Every P&L is net of fees.

Which time zone?

The one on your profile, everywhere in the app (your browser’s until you change it); the exports write UTC. A NinjaTrader 8 export carries no zone, so its import assumes your browser’s and says so.

My evening trade shows on the next day. Why?

Because that is its trading day: a futures session starts at 18:00 New York time the evening before, so a fill at 19:00 ET on Monday is Tuesday’s, exactly as your broker and your prop firm date it and as their daily loss and consistency rules count it. Stocks and options stay on the exchange’s calendar day. The trading day →

Trades, journal and analytics

Why do the trades on all my accounts show as one trade?

Because they are one decision. The master’s trade carries it with the followers’ money summed next to it, and its page shows every account; All accounts in the filter bar lists them one by one. Master and followers →

A follower on TopstepX, Tradovate or NinjaTrader shows as a separate trade. Why?

Its account does not yet say whose master it follows. On the account’s page set the role to Follower, the copy size, and “Follows the master of” to the master’s connection, then save; its trades join at once, the past ones too. Until then its page says why, and the Accounts page marks it “no master”. When a follower does not join →

What can I write in the journal?

Notes and screenshots on each trade (drop images on any page), tags in your own categories, a strategy with its checklist, a rating, and a calm scale; on each day your mood, sleep, grade, plan and screenshots; templates for the notes you write often. The journal →

Does it show economic news like FOMC, CPI or NFP?

Yes, on every plan: the calendar’s days and a day’s page show the scheduled US releases from the official calendars (BLS, BEA, the Census Bureau, the Fed’s FOMC calendar and its calendar of the Fed governors’ speeches and testimonies, with the ISM PMIs by ISM’s schedule) with their times in your time zone and TakeJournal’s impact rating, the high-impact ones by default, medium, all or none as you choose. Forecasts, the figures released and other countries’ releases are not shown yet. A firm’s news rule is checked against them too (News). Economic events →

Can I see which of my trades went through the news?

Yes. A trade that was open when a high-impact US release came out carries a red dot with the release in the day’s rows and the trades list, and its page names every release inside it. The News filter keeps the trades through the news or away from it, with a window of up to 15 minutes around each trade, and the statistics’ News tab sets their results against the rest. The marks and the filter are on every plan, the tab with the breakdowns. Trades through the news →

Which statistics are there?

The dashboard with the cards you choose; the calendar in money or in R; breakdowns by session, by the trade’s number in its day and by the trade before it (the revenge trades); a cross tab of any two dimensions; a discipline score with a tilt strip and what breaking each rule cost; what-if scenarios; periods compared; your results by market regime; and, on Pro and Fleet, the pass chance of an evaluation. The dashboard →

Does TakeJournal show the SQN or the Kelly criterion?

Yes: the System quality card on Statistics shows Van Tharp’s SQN with his bands and the Kelly criterion with half-Kelly, in R when enough trades have a known risk, from 30 closed trades in the filters; the dashboard can show it too. Kelly is arithmetic on your past trades, not advice. System quality →

Can I see what breaking my rules costs?

Yes. The Discipline card shows beside each part of the discipline score (a Mistake tag, a revenge trade, one trade too many a day…) what the trades that broke it made, and a click lists them. On Statistics, What if plays your trades again without the rule breaks or a tag, with a daily stop or a capped loss, beside the real equity, and shows whether each prop account would have passed or been kept. What if →

Are partial exits counted FIFO, LIFO or by average cost?

As the account is set: FIFO (the oldest units first, as brokers count), LIFO, or the average cost; by default FIFO, and the average cost for crypto. The method splits a trade’s result between its exits, shown on the trade’s Fills tab, and an open trade’s result realized so far; the trade’s own result, the balance and the statistics are the same with every method. Partial exits →

Can I merge or split trades?

Yes: tick trades of one instrument and one direction that follow one another on the Trades page and merge them into one, or split a trade at any of its fills on its Fills tab. Both apply on every account of the trade, survive every sync and import, and can be undone. Merging and splitting →

Are dividends counted?

On a stock account, yes, apart from the trading P&L. The dividends and the tax withheld from them come from Interactive Brokers, tastytrade, Trading 212 and SnapTrade, from an imported statement, or typed into the account’s ledger. Each belongs to the trade that held the shares on its ex-date (else on the day it was paid), whose page shows them beside its P&L; the balance includes them, the statistics show them apart, and the Dividends filter counts them in. Dividends →

What happens to a position held across a stock split?

Interactive Brokers, tastytrade and SnapTrade report a stock’s splits and symbol changes, and they come in with the sync or the statement by themselves. Any other you type in on the stock’s Fills tab: the shares, say 2 for 1, and the day. The fills before it then count twice the shares at half the price, so a sale after the split closes what was bought before it and each trade’s result stays the same. A reverse split and a symbol change are typed in the same way; the fills stay as the broker reported them, struck through beside what counts now. Options on it are adjusted too: the split offers it for the options held across it, and an option’s Fills tab types in any other adjustment. Splits and symbol changes →

Does it show an option position before expiry, with the Greeks?

Yes, from Trader: an option trade’s or a strategy’s page draws the P&L of today and of two dates to expiry (of the entry and the exit once it is closed) over the line at expiry, calendars and diagonals to their first expiry, with the position’s delta, gamma, theta and vega. You type the underlying’s price at the entry and now; the implied volatility comes from the premium you paid, and you can type your own. Black-Scholes, Black-76 on futures. Option curves →

What does the AI do?

It answers questions about your journal in the app’s chat, reviews your week by itself from Trader and your day from Pro, and maps statements the import does not know. On Fleet, Spotter speaks up by itself before, during and after your session, from your trades and your rules. Each plan has its AI answers a month; the guide’s answers, the reviews and Spotter’s messages are free. The AI chat → · AI reviews → · Spotter →

Can the AI change my journal?

Only when you click. Ask the chat to tag trades, to suggest your daily rules or to write a day’s note, and it shows the change as a card: Apply saves it, Cancel leaves everything as it is, and an applied change can be undone for 30 days. You can switch the proposals off in your profile. Changes it proposes →

Can I share a trade or a week?

Yes: a public link to a day, a week, a month or one trade, in money, percent or R, with no account number on it; anyone opens it without signing in, and you can revoke it any time. Sharing →

Can I put a trade on my blog?

Yes: Embed next to a shared link gives the code of a frame with its card, for a blog or a forum that allows HTML; revoking the link takes the card down everywhere. Embed on a website →

Can I export my data?

Yes, any time and on every plan: the trades, fills and cash of every account as CSV, and everything at once as one JSON file. Your data →

Is there an API?

Yes, on Pro and Fleet: a personal key made on Profile → AI and API lets your own scripts and spreadsheets read your accounts, trades, fills and statistics, and your notes if you allow it. It only reads, within limits a minute and a day. API keys →

Can I ask Claude or ChatGPT about my journal?

Yes, on Pro and Fleet: TakeJournal’s MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor and other AI assistants read your journal and answer questions about your trading. You connect it in the assistant and allow it on TakeJournal; it only reads, and you can disconnect it any time. AI assistants →

Prop firms and copy trading

Does TakeJournal know my firm’s rules?

Yes. Pick the firm’s product and the account gets its rules: the drawdown and how it trails, the daily loss limit, the consistency rule, the minimum trading days and the payout conditions, for the futures and forex firms on the Prop firms page: Apex, Topstep, Tradeify, Lucid, FTMO, FundedNext and more. Each account shows where it stands, and alerts warn before a limit. It also counts the days without a trade against a firm’s activity rule and an evaluation’s time limit. It knows the time of day a firm wants your positions closed by, too. And how long it wants a trade held. And the minutes around high-impact news it wants you out of the market. And the contracts it allows, tier by tier as the profit grows. And the payouts before it moves the account live, and the payouts a month allows. And how many accounts, or how much capital, it lets you hold at once. And the leverage per asset class, and how a funded account scales up. And the profit that moves an account live, a payout’s cap in % of the account, one position at a time, and how much profit an account may give back from its peak. And how much one trade may lose, closed or open. And the weekday it pays out on, a payout’s cap in % that changes with the payout’s number, and a daily cap on the profit that counts toward the target. And a day that counts only with a trade held long enough, a time limit in hours, and payout periods in trading days. Firm rules →

Can it warn me before I hit a limit?

Yes: an alert at the share of the daily loss limit or of the distance to liquidation you choose, in the app, and as a push notification on a device where the app is installed. It also warns when an account nears a firm’s limit of days without a trade or an evaluation’s time limit runs out. And half an hour before a firm’s flat-by time when a position is still open. And a quarter of an hour before a high-impact release when a position is open. Alerts →

Does it track fees, resets and payouts?

Yes: each account’s cash, its evaluation fees, resets, payouts and the funded account that followed the evaluation, so you see what the firm cost you and paid you. Cash and lineage →

Does it check my copier?

Yes: every follower’s fills against the master’s, with the missed and the late ones and the size each account took. Copy quality →

Security and privacy

Is my broker login safe?

It is stored encrypted and used for nothing but reading your orders and fills; TakeJournal never trades with it. Delete the connection and the login goes with it. Where a platform issues a key or signs you in on its own page, that key or sign-in is kept instead of a password, encrypted the same way. Privacy →

Who can see my journal?

Only you, and what you share by a link. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising; it lives on our server in the EU, is backed up daily, and all traffic is encrypted. The services that help run TakeJournal (payments, e-mail, the AI) are named in the privacy policy with what each receives. Privacy →

Do you track visitors?

No tracking, no advertising and no analytics services. We count the visits of the web site and the app ourselves, without cookies: only how many people a day load a page, from a key that changes every day and is never stored, nor is the IP address. We also count which site or link brought them (such as betalist or google) and keep that name with an account made from the visit. Privacy →

Do you keep what I ask the chat on this site?

Yes, for 30 days after the conversation’s last question: each question as you wrote it, the page and the answer, so that we see what visitors ask and can improve this guide and these answers. Only our team reads them, and nothing tells us who you are unless you write it. Privacy →

Can I protect my account with a second step?

Yes: two-factor sign-in with an authenticator app, switched on in Profile → Security, with recovery codes for a lost phone. Your data →

I signed up with Google. Can I also sign in with a password?

Yes: Profile → Security → Set a password gives your account one, and from then on your e-mail address and that password sign you in too; Google stays linked until you unlink it. Your data →

How do I delete my account?

In Profile → Security, at its foot: it shows what goes, then deletes everything at once, including a subscription. Your data →

Plans and billing

What counts as an account?

Every account in use: one synced from a broker or a prop firm, and a manual account with trades typed in or imported from files, practice accounts included. An ended account keeps its trades and no longer counts. It takes no trade dated after its end day. Pricing →

Can I have more than one Free account?

One per person. Several Free accounts of one person get around the Free plan’s limits: once a day we compare the trades of Free accounts with those of other accounts, and a person on our team looks at a match before anything happens. For more accounts, Trader and the plans above hold several. Privacy →

What is an AI answer?

One answer of the AI chat that read your journal, or one statement the AI maps or reads, however many pages it has. Trader has 100 a month, Pro 250, Fleet 600; the guide’s answers and the AI reviews are free, and there is no limit a day. Pricing →

Is there a storage limit?

No plan has a limit in gigabytes. A screenshot is stored at up to 2 MB, and a trade, or a day, holds as many screenshots as its plan includes: 5 on Trader, 20 on Pro, 50 on Fleet. Pricing →

How do I upgrade?

In the app: on Free, Upgrade in the sidebar on every page; on Trader and Pro, See the plans beside your plan’s name. Both open Plans: every plan side by side with its price a month or a year, its limits and what it adds. You choose one, pay on Stripe’s page, and the plan switches as soon as the payment is in; with a subscription, Switch to changes it in Stripe’s portal. Pricing →

How do I pay?

By card through Stripe, monthly or yearly; the pricing page shows both. Prices are in US dollars without VAT; for customers in the EU, VAT is added on the payment page before they pay. Your invoices are on the billing page the app opens. Pricing →

Do you have discount codes?

Sometimes, for a launch or a campaign. A code goes into the promotion code field of Stripe’s payment page; a link with a code (it ends in ?promo= and the code) keeps it in your browser for 30 days, and Plans then shows what it gives and applies it for you. While an offer runs, a bar at the top of the app names it to accounts without a subscription. If a link brought you a code of its own, the bar shows that code instead, and after a trader’s invitation link it shows none: the code or the invitation you came with is the one that counts. A code takes off what its campaign says: a share or an amount, of the first payment, of the first months or of every payment. It does not apply to payments already made. A prop firm can give its traders a partner code: 30 days free, then 20% off Pro and Fleet for as long as the subscription lasts, on a first subscription (Trader is paid without it). A code from a partner web site or creator works the same way: the partner earns a commission from us, your price does not change, and the partner never sees your name or e-mail address. Pricing →

Can I invite other traders?

Yes, with a paid plan: Profile → Plan and billing → Invite traders has your own link. A trader who signs up through it and subscribes within 30 days gets a discount on their first subscription, and you get the amount of their first payment, without VAT, as credit for your plan once it is 14 days old and not refunded, up to a year of your plan ahead. You see their plan and your reward, never their name or e-mail. A plan given to you for free (a 100% code) keeps the link and the trader’s discount, but earns you no credit. Invite traders →

Can I cancel?

Any time, in the app: Cancel subscription… on Plan and billing. The plan runs to the end of the period you paid for, then your account moves to Free and keeps all its data. Upgrade and billing →

Can I pause my subscription?

Yes, a monthly plan, for one, two or three months, once in twelve months: Pause… on Plan and billing. You keep the plan to the end of the month you paid; during the pause your account is on Free with all its data, nothing is charged, and the plan comes back with its next payment. A yearly plan cannot be paused. Upgrade and billing →

Do you give refunds?

Yes: within 14 days of the first payment of a yearly plan you get it back in full, of a monthly plan the part of the month you have not used. Renewals are not refunded. Write to support. Terms, section 8 →

What happens to my data if I downgrade or stop paying?

Nothing is deleted. The features of the higher plan stop, accounts above the limit wait until you choose which stay in use, and trades closed before the plan’s history window hide until a plan allows them again. Open positions always show, however long ago they opened. Your data →

Using TakeJournal

Does it work on a phone?

Yes; the layout folds for tablets and phones, and the ticker with the tightest distance to liquidation stays at the top. It installs as an app (Profile → Notifications → The app, from Chrome or Edge, or Safari’s Share on an iPhone), and the alerts, and on Fleet Spotter’s messages, then come as push notifications on that device; there is no app in the App Store or Google Play. The app →

Which languages?

The app, this guide and the web site: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Simplified Chinese.

Can I ask for a feature?

Yes: write to support@takejournal.com or use Report a problem or an idea in the app. The roadmap shows what we work on next.

Where do I ask?

support@takejournal.com, answered within one business day, Monday to Friday, Prague time; bugs and wishes go to the same address.