Trading journal that knows the scan behind every trade
A trading journal is only useful if you actually keep it. DayTradingSoftware imports your executions from a broker CSV, groups fills into trades, nets out commissions and stores the scan state at the moment you entered, so your weekly review starts with facts instead of memory.
A trading journal app built for active stock traders
Most traders know they should journal and most stop after two weeks, because typing every fill into a spreadsheet after a long session is tedious. The journal in DayTradingSoftware removes the typing. You drop in the execution export from your broker, the app pairs buys and sells into round trips, calculates net P&L after fees and asks you for only the part a machine cannot know: why you took the trade and what you would do differently.
The journal sits in the same workspace as the stock scanner, so a trade taken from a gapper on the premarket list arrives with its context attached. Gap percent, relative volume, float, price and time of day are recorded from the scan you were running. That link is the reason the journal exists here at all.
Import trades from your broker CSV in a minute
Most popular US brokers let you download an execution or trade history file. You export it for the day or the week, upload it and the journal reads symbol, side, quantity, price, time and commission. Partial fills are merged into one position, scale ins and scale outs are kept as separate executions inside the same trade, and short sells are handled the same way as longs.
- CSV import from the execution exports of popular US brokers
- Manual entry for anything a file does not cover, such as a trade from a second account
- Duplicate detection, so importing the same file twice does not double your P&L
- Net P&L after commissions and fees on every trade
- Your broker login stays with you, import is file based only
You never connect your brokerage account and the app never places orders. It reads a file you chose to upload and nothing else.
Trading journal analytics that answer real questions
Once a few weeks of trades are in, the analytics show where your edge is and where it leaks. Every report can be cut by setup, by hour, by weekday, by price bucket, by float bucket and by hold time.
- Expectancy per trade in dollars and in R
- Profit factor, the gross wins divided by gross losses
- Average R on winners and on losers
- Maximum drawdown in dollars across the selected range
- Win rate shown next to average win and average loss, never on its own
A typical finding looks like this: trades taken in the first 15 minutes after the 9:30 ET open carry most of the profit, while trades after 11:00 ET give much of it back. Another common one: stocks under $5 with float above 50 million shares show a negative expectancy for this trader, even though they appear on the scanner every morning. The journal does not tell you what to do with that, it only makes it visible.
For the intraday specifics such as R per trade, hold time and mistake cost, see the day trading journal page.
Which of your scans actually make you money
Because each entry stores the scan state when you entered, the journal can group your results by scan condition rather than only by ticker. You can see whether gaps above 20 percent worked better for you than gaps of 8 to 12 percent, whether relative volume above 5x mattered, and whether low float names helped or hurt. That closes the loop between finding a stock and judging the decision.
It's the scanner and the journal in one, and it tells you which of your scans actually make you money. If you want to test a rule on history before trading it, the same filters feed the backtesting software.
A weekly review routine that takes 20 minutes
Many traders use a simple routine on Friday after the close or on Saturday morning:
- Import the week's executions and check that every trade has a setup tag
- Open the setup report and note the best and worst setup by expectancy in R
- Open the mistake report and find the one mistake that cost the most dollars
- Write one rule for next week, for example no new trades after two losses in a row
- Check the rule against last week's trades to see how much it would have changed
After each session, the ai day trading software review can summarize the day from your own entries, which shortens the daily part of this routine.
What a journal can and cannot do
A journal measures your past decisions. It does not predict the next trade and it is not investment advice. Patterns in a small sample can be random, so treat any report built on fewer than 30 trades as a hint, not a conclusion. Past performance and backtests do not guarantee future results. Trading involves substantial risk of loss.
Journal on every plan
Every plan includes unlimited trades, CSV import and analytics. Starter is $49 per month or $24 per month billed yearly at $288. Pro adds chart snapshots at entry, setup and mistake tags and advanced reports for $149 per month or $74 per month billed yearly. Desk adds a team view of journals and daily loss limits per trader. Yearly billing is the default and saves 50 percent. Full details are on the pricing page.
FAQ
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Do I need to connect my brokerage account
No. The journal works from the CSV file your broker lets you download, plus manual entries. We never ask for your broker login and the app cannot place or cancel orders.
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Which brokers can I import from
The importer reads the execution or trade history exports of popular US brokers. If your file has symbol, side, quantity, price, time and commission columns, it can be mapped once and reused.
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Does deleting trades free up anything on my plan
Trades are unlimited on every plan, so there is nothing to free. Usage based features such as backtests and AI day reviews are counted as usage in the billing period, and deleting a result does not return it.
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Is the journal useful without the scanner
Yes, you can import trades from anywhere. The scan link simply adds more context when the trade started from a DayTradingSoftware scan.