Life of Trade Journal View
Life Of The Trade
“Life of Trade” View in the Journal offers another way to view your trading activity and results.
Trades are grouped by Symbol, making it easier to follow the trade from Open-Adjust-Close – along with any Assigning/Exercising of the underlying stock.
This view further allows you to sort by Account, Symbol, etc for more targeted analysis.
Following a Shared Account (Premium Desktop Feature)
Under Portfolio>Sharing, click on “Accounts I’m Following” on the left-hand panel.
The center panel, above the Account List has a section to enter the code for the Account to be shared on your platform. Enter the code, then click “Add“
On the bottom, right panel box under “Options“, make sure to check boxes:
Show in Journal
Show in Staged Orders
Alert me about this (Needs permission)
Your device’s settings need to be permissioned for Alerts.
Finally, for easy trade identification, select a color identifier from the dropdown box in the right corner of the Options box.
Export Reports (Desktop)
Clicking on 
located on the upper left corner of the Positions and Gains tabs allows you to export that information as a .csv file.
The Journal give you the ability to export reports in a PDF file on your desktop platform. But that’s just the beginning.
You can export from the Transaction or Reconciliation view filtered by Account, Symbol, Tags, Notes and/or Date Range.
Life of Trade View also allows you to filter by Order Status in addition to the above criteria for even more focused report. Only want to print Closed Trades? Want to see how many trades are Unmatched? Select those filters.
The top of your Journal report displays the Tag Summary based upon the account(s) and filtering criteria selected.
The trade detail report displays the status, Open, Close, Expire with a color code of the trade: Blue=Open, Green=Profit, Red=Loss, Yellow=Unmatched.
Link Trades in Journal
Trades can easily be linked in the Journal. This is helpful to keep related trades grouped together for easier tracking and analysis.
Some common applications include:
- Covered Calls – keeping stock and selling Calls with different Expirations
- Adjustment/Repair Trades
- Other previously Unmatched trades
This feature is best used in the Life of Trade View in the Journal.
The following steps will allow you to Link Trades: 
1. After selecting your account and sorting by symbol, expand one of the trade tabs you want to link to another trade group or set.
Click the ‘Link Icon‘
2. A pop-up window will list the Selected (Expanded) Trade, any related trade and Available Trade Sets for that symbol in that account.
Note: You can link trade sets both prior to and following your current, selected trade.
Example: You want to link a May 2019 expired Call to April 2019 and June 2019 Covered Call trade set.
3. Click “Link To This Trade Set” for trade set(s) to link selected trade to, then click “Close“.
In this example, we linked an Expired May 10 2019 short call to an April and June Covered Call trade set.
After linking the trade, notice the total Profit (Loss) Amount updated, but the trade duration did not.
This is because the May Call falls in between the original April trade entry and the June expiration.
If you have more trade sets to link, repeat the previous steps as outlined.
Final note: If you link a trade in error, simply expand the same trade tab and ‘uncheck’ the Link This Trade Set box.
Life Of Trade Icon/Color Codes
The Life of Trade Icon and Tab/Trade entry color show help you identify the status of your trades.
Icon Display and Color Coding
Note: Orders are automatically updated when you login to your trading account, whether Live, Virtual or Manual
Blue – Hollow Dots – No Connection
Active Order or Open Original Trade
Yellow – Hollow Dots – Open Connection
The Original Trade has been adjusted, but is still an Active Trade
Yellow – Solid Dots – Closed Connection
The Trade and any Adjustments have been closed, but one or more entries need to be
Matched or Reconciled
Green – Solid Dots – Closed Connection
Closed trade – which includes any adjustments – resulting in a Profit
Red – Solid Dots – Closed Connection
Closed Trade – which includes any adjustments – resulting in a Loss
Trade Entry Lines
Note: Depending on the Theme used, the following colors will vary. The bar color denotes whether the trade needs action – such as Reconciliation or Matching to another trade.
Blue Line
No action needed on these entries. The colored left tab shows the status of each trade:
Blue: (Open Trade, hollow dots, no connection), Yellow: (Adjusted, hollow dots, partial connection), Red: Loss (Closed, solid dots, connected), Green: Profit (Closed, solid dots, connected)
Yellow Line
Action is needed on these trade entries. The Trade may have gone through Expiration and needs to be Reconciled. By clicking on the Trade Line, the Trade Tab will display:
Once the action is completed, the entry will update on all Journal tables including the Tags, P/L Graph & Insight tabs.
It is important to reconcile expired trades to properly display profit and provide updated analytical information on your trading success.
Color Codes of The Trade Journal
The Tabs on the Journal are Color Coded for Easy Understanding of the Trade
Primary Tab Color Coding (see below for expiration tab coding)
Note: Orders are automatically updated when you check order status. Just make sure to select the time frame to cover the trades that need updating
Light Blue
Active Live Order
This indicates that you have a current live order
Dark Blue
Trade – Open
This indicates the opening transaction of a trade
Gray
Expired or Canceled Order
This can be from a order that you canceled, or a day order that did not get filled
Green
Closed Trade – Profit
This indicates a trade that you closed for a profit
Red
Closed Trade – Loss
This indicated a trade that you closed for a loss
Yellow
Closed Trade – Unmatched – Requires action to match to related
trade. Expand tab to see detail of trade.
Unmatched Trades can happen if there are multiple trades and an entry trade needs to be identified or because a multi-leg trade was split on exit, or change of stock position when an option expired (exercise/assignment)
This is easily matched by clicking the edit icon (pencil) and selected which open order to match to. In some cases there may only be one, and it is simply a verification.
Expiration Tab/Tagging Colors
Red or Green with No Color Tagging
This indicated the option trade expired Out of the Money (OTM)
There were no options exercised or assigned through expiration
Red or Green with Dark Green Color Tag
This indicated that there were ITM options exercised/assigned
However, there was no change is stock ownership. Example: Bull Call where both legs were exercised/assigned.
Red or Green with Yellow Color Tag
This indicates a change in stock ownership through exercise/assignment
This will happen with single leg options trade or where one leg of a spread was ITM at expiration
It is important to reconcile expired traded to properly display profit. If there are unreconciled expired options, the reconciliation window will automatically display when you go to the options tab.
Portfolio
Manage Your Portfolio from the Platform
With Brokerage Integration you can trade directly from the platform with select brokerage firms. Currently TD Ameritrade and Choice Trade are available. With more on the way.
Manual Account Overview
A Manual Account is versatile resource tool which can enhance your trading effectiveness. You can also use this to track trades from an outside brokerage account.
Use the Manual Account for educational purposes.
- It offers flexibility and control, while providing the Analytics and Journal to help you reinforce the “Learning to Earning” process. This allows you to focus on learning the strategies.
- Place trades any time of day or night – all get immediately executed at the price entered. No need for the market to be open.
- No Buying Power limits – no expensive spread margin requirements to adhere to, no limit on how much you can buy/sell
- Place trades in the past.
- Enter trades from Backtest Mode
Use to tracking external accounts
- Can be used to track trades placed at brokers not integrated into the platform
- You can enter the date and fill prices of your actual trades
- This enables portfolio management along with your other accounts
- You can use full Journal function for tracking your progress
Manual Accounts are identified by a narrow Red Bar and are, by default, Auto-Journaled.
Entering trades in a Manual Account takes only a few steps and is similar to a regular trade.
You can also bring up the ticket from any trade point. Simply start a trade and select the manual account just like you would select any other account.
(Bold indicates unique to Manual ticket):
1. Enter the Stock Symbol, or name of Company (Smart search will display potential matches)
2. If this is a past trade, use the calendar/date picker to select date
3. Click “Stock”, “Call” or “Put” to build trade, change quantity, Expiry and Strike (if applicable)
4. Bid/Ask will automatically populate if a specific price is not entered
5. Complete Order Type, Duration and Condition
6. Click “Review” to confirm information is correct, then ‘Submit” on next screen.
The order will appear in Order Status as “Executed” and operate the same way as other accounts.
Virtual Account Overview
Virtual Trading gives you the real trading experience without risking any money. It is a valuable “next step” learning tool – designed to mimic the trading experience as closely as possible.
You’ll start with a $100,000 account. Virtual, of course.
Trades are executed during Market hours – 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Eastern Time, however there is a 15 minute delay after Market open for orders to begin executing.
As with Live Accounts, there are limits on trades if there is not sufficient Buying Power in your Virtual Account. There can be expensive Spread/Margin Requirements to adhere to.
Virtual Accounts do have limitations that Live Accounts do not have:
Virtual Accounts are not subject or responsive to Corporate actions such as buyouts, name or symbol changes, stock/option splits and strike price adjustments to name some examples.
Virtual Accounts are “Auto-Journaled”. This automatically keeps record of all trades for later analysis and reconciling.
These practice accounts are identified by a yellow bar on the left side of the account window.
Virtual Accounts are powered by Choice Trade to provide the real trading experience.
Color Tag Trading Accounts
Select a unique color for each trading account on the Account Summary tab. Each trade in that account will display that color on the Journal trade tab entry.
Now it’s easier than ever to identify trades at a a glance.
