Trade Journal

The Trade Journal is your complete trading history. Every trade the bot opens and closes is logged here with full details.

What You See

The Trade Journal displays a table of trades, with each row representing a trade or trade group. Key columns include:

• Date/Time — When the trade was opened or closed
• Strategy — Which strategy triggered the trade
• Underlying — What was traded (SPX, SPY, etc.)
• Type — The strategy type (iron condor, credit spread, etc.)
• Entry Credit — How much premium was collected
• P&L — The realized profit or loss
• Exit Reason — Why the trade was closed (profit target, stop loss, time stop, manual, etc.)
• Notes — Optional annotations you can add

Trade Grouping

Trades are organized as groups when they involve multi-leg strategies. An iron condor group, for example, contains all 4 legs as a single entry. Click a group to expand it and see individual leg details.

Trade Status Indicators

Each trade shows status badges:

• ✅ Filled — Trade was successfully executed
• ⏳ Pending — Order is still being processed
• ❌ Rejected — The broker rejected the order
• ⏰ Timeout — Order didn’t fill within the time limit

Close Status

• Filled (green) — Position was closed successfully
• Pending (amber) — Close order submitted, waiting for fill
• Rejected (red) — Close order was rejected by broker
• Timeout Unknown (amber) — Close order status is unclear

P&L Status

The P&L column may show:

• A green or red dollar amount — confirmed realized P&L
• “Pending” — P&L hasn’t been finalized yet

Slippage Detection

If a trade was triggered by a stop loss but ended up with a positive P&L (or vice versa), the journal shows a “slip” badge. This means there was slippage between the trigger price and the fill price — common in fast-moving markets.

Adding Notes

You can add personal notes to any trade for your own reference:

1. Click the edit icon (pencil) on any trade
2. Type your notes in the text box
3. Click Save

This is great for journaling lessons learned: “Market gapped at open, should have waited” or “Perfect setup, textbook entry.”

Filtering and Navigation

• Use the date range and strategy filter controls at the top to narrow down which trades you see
• Trade groups can be expanded/collapsed to show or hide individual legs
• The journal includes a decision trace link — click it to see the exact reasoning the bot used for each decision

Stats Summary

The Trade Journal calculates aggregate statistics:

• Total trades in the selected period
• Win rate — percentage of profitable trades
• Average P&L per trade
• Total P&L for the period

Reconciliation Tools

At the top of the Trade Journal, you may see options to:

• Reconcile from broker fills — Compare the journal against actual broker records to catch any discrepancies
• Import missing trades — Add any trades that the journal missed

These are useful if the bot experienced a disconnect and some trades weren’t logged properly.

💡 Tip: Review your Trade Journal at the end of each trading day. Look for patterns — which strategies are performing well? Which exit reasons are most common? This data helps you tune your strategies.