Trade Journal
Log trades manually or auto-import from exchanges. Screenshots, tagging, and signal linking.
Overview
The Trade Journal is a structured logging system for every trade you take. It captures entry and exit prices, position size, direction, fees, screenshots, tags, and the signal or thesis that triggered the trade. Over time, the journal becomes a personal dataset that feeds directly into the Performance Analytics engine, giving you a quantitative view of your trading edge.
Trades can be logged manually through the journal form, auto-imported from connected exchanges via read-only API keys, or bulk-imported from CSV files. Regardless of the source, every trade is normalized into a consistent schema that supports cross-exchange analysis and accurate P&L calculation including fee deductions.
Journal availability
Manual Trade Logging
Manual logging gives you full control over what is recorded. Navigate to Journal in the sidebar and click New Trade to open the entry form.
Required Fields
| Asset | The token you traded. Type a ticker or select from the dropdown. Supports all tracked assets. |
| Direction | Long or Short. Determines how P&L is calculated relative to price movement. |
| Entry Price | The average price at which you entered the position. For scaled entries, use the volume-weighted average. |
| Position Size | The notional value of the position in USD, or the token quantity. The form auto-calculates the other. |
| Entry Date | The timestamp when the position was opened. Defaults to the current time but can be backdated. |
Optional Fields
| Exit Price | The average price at which you closed the position. Leave blank for open positions. |
| Exit Date | When the position was closed. Required if an exit price is provided. |
| Fees | Total fees paid for the trade (entry + exit combined). Used for accurate net P&L calculation. |
| Funding Paid/Received | Net funding payments over the life of the position. Relevant for perpetual futures held across multiple funding intervals. |
| Exchange | The exchange where the trade was executed. Helps with exchange-level performance breakdowns. |
| Leverage | The leverage multiplier used. Recorded for risk analysis but does not affect P&L calculation on notional size. |
| Stop Loss | Your planned invalidation level. Used for R-multiple calculation in Performance Analytics. |
| Take Profit | Your planned target level. Used for risk/reward ratio analysis. |
| Notes | Free-form text for recording your thesis, market context, emotional state, or any observations. |
Record your stop loss
Exchange Auto-Import
Connecting an exchange to Thrive enables automatic trade import. Once connected, every completed trade on that exchange is pulled into your journal within minutes. The import process handles position matching, fee extraction, and funding rate payments automatically.
Supported Exchanges
Spot and USDM/COINM futures. Supports sub-account imports. Funding payments extracted automatically.
Unified Trading Account and legacy accounts. Supports USDT and inverse perpetuals.
Spot, perpetual swaps, and margin trading. Supports unified account mode.
USDT-M and Coin-M futures. Spot trading import supported.
Perpetual futures via read-only exchange connection. Vault trading history included.
Decentralized perpetual futures. Imports via on-chain transaction history.
Navigate to Settings and Connections
Go to Settings → Connections and click Add Exchange. Select your exchange from the list.
Create a read-only API key on your exchange
On your exchange, generate a new API key with read-only permissions. Do not enable trading or withdrawal permissions. Thrive will reject keys that have write access as a security measure.
Paste the API key and secret
Enter the API key and secret into the Thrive connection form. Keys are encrypted at rest using AES-256 and are never stored in plaintext. Click Connect.
Initial sync
Thrive pulls your complete trade history from the exchange. The initial sync covers the last 90 days of trading activity and typically completes within 60 seconds. Subsequent syncs are incremental and run automatically every 5 minutes.
API key security
CSV Import
For exchanges not yet supported by direct API integration, or for historical trades from closed accounts, the CSV import tool lets you upload trade data in bulk. The importer supports flexible column mapping so you can use exports from virtually any exchange or tracking tool.
CSV Format Requirements
| Required Columns | Asset (or Symbol), Direction (or Side), Entry Price, Size (or Quantity), Entry Date (or Open Time). |
| Optional Columns | Exit Price, Exit Date, Fees, Funding, Exchange, Leverage, Stop Loss, Take Profit, Notes, Tags. |
| Date Format | ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss) preferred. The importer also accepts Unix timestamps and common US/EU date formats. |
| Delimiter | Comma (CSV) or tab-separated (TSV). Auto-detected on upload. |
| Encoding | UTF-8. Other encodings may cause issues with special characters in notes or tags. |
After uploading, the importer displays a column mapping interface where you can match each CSV column to the corresponding Thrive field. A preview of the first 10 rows is shown so you can verify the mapping before confirming the import. Duplicate detection prevents the same trade from being imported twice based on asset, direction, entry price, and timestamp matching.
Screenshots and Annotations
Every journal entry supports up to 10 image attachments. The primary use case is capturing chart screenshots at entry and exit to create a visual record of the setup and execution. Screenshots are stored securely and displayed inline on the journal entry detail page.
Capture the chart state at the moment you entered. Annotate key levels, the entry zone, and the thesis-confirming pattern.
Capture the chart at close to record what the trade looked like at resolution. Compare against your entry thesis.
Attach screenshots of relevant data: funding rate charts, order book depth, tweets, or Thrive signal details that informed the trade.
Drag images directly into the journal entry form. Supports PNG, JPG, and WebP formats up to 5 MB each.
Build a visual playbook
Tags and Categorization
Tags let you organize trades into custom categories for filtered analysis. Every trade can have multiple tags, and you can create any tag you need. Tags feed directly into Performance Analytics, enabling you to measure your win rate, profit factor, and R-multiple by strategy, setup type, or any other dimension you define.
Common Tagging Strategies
Label trades by strategy: "breakout", "mean-reversion", "trend-follow", "scalp", "swing". Compare performance across strategies.
Label the specific setup: "funding-extreme", "divergence-play", "support-bounce", "range-break". Identify which setups produce edge.
Tag trades with "FOMO", "revenge-trade", "high-conviction", "disciplined". Correlate emotional state with performance.
Label trades by intended hold time: "intraday", "overnight", "multi-day", "weekly". Measure which horizons work best for you.
Tag by trading session: "asia", "london", "new-york". Identify if your edge is session-dependent.
Tags are created on the fly by typing them into the tag field on any journal entry. Previously used tags appear as autocomplete suggestions. You can rename or merge tags from the Journal settings panel without losing the association to existing entries.
Signal Linking
When logging a trade, you can link it to the Thrive signal or divergence that triggered it. This creates a bidirectional connection: the journal entry references the signal, and the signal's performance record notes that a real trade was taken. Over time, signal linking lets you measure how effectively you act on signals and whether the signals you follow are profitable in your actual execution.
| Link to Signal | Select an active or recent AI signal from the dropdown when creating a journal entry. The signal ID, direction, and confidence are recorded. |
| Link to Divergence | Select an active or recently resolved divergence. The divergence type, severity, and asset are recorded. |
| Link to Alert | If the trade was triggered by a Thrive alert, link the specific alert trigger event for full traceability. |
| Performance Correlation | Performance Analytics includes a "Signal-Linked Trades" breakdown showing P&L for trades initiated from Thrive signals vs. independent trades. |
Position Grouping
Real trading rarely involves a single entry and a single exit. You scale into positions, take partial profits, add on pullbacks, and manage multiple concurrent positions in the same asset. Position grouping lets you link related journal entries into a single logical position for accurate composite P&L calculation.
Auto-imported trades from connected exchanges are automatically grouped by asset, direction, and overlapping time windows.
Select multiple journal entries and click "Group as Position" to link them. The grouped view shows aggregate entry, aggregate exit, total size, and composite P&L.
When you close part of a position, the partial exit is recorded as a separate entry within the group. The remaining open quantity is tracked.
Position groups show the average entry price, each individual fill, and the dollar-cost-averaging effect on the overall position.
Review grouped positions weekly
Recommended Journal Workflow
Log the trade immediately
Whether manual or auto-imported, make sure every trade is recorded as close to execution time as possible. For manual entries, log the trade within minutes of entry. Delayed logging leads to inaccurate records and missing context.
Attach entry screenshots and notes
Screenshot your chart at entry. Write a brief note explaining your thesis: why you entered, what you expect to happen, and where your invalidation is. This takes 30 seconds and dramatically improves the value of the journal for future review.
Tag the trade
Apply at least one strategy tag and one setup tag. Consistent tagging is the key to meaningful performance breakdowns. Do not over-tag; three to five tags per trade is sufficient.
Link the triggering signal
If the trade was inspired by a Thrive signal, divergence, or alert, link it. This enables signal-level performance attribution in your analytics.
Close and review
When the trade closes, update the exit price and attach an exit screenshot. Write a brief post-trade review: did the thesis play out? What would you do differently? This review loop is the foundation of deliberate improvement.
Next Steps
Performance Analytics
Analyze your journal data with P&L curves, win rate, and R-multiples.
Charts
Use professional charts alongside your journal entries.
Portfolio Tracking
Monitor holdings across all connected exchanges in real time.
Data Feed
Link a data-feed print to the journal entry you took around it.
