Importing files

Bring in a CSV or MetaTrader statement from any broker.

If your broker isn’t connected yet, import a file of your trades. Almost every broker can export one.

You only need a file when there is no direct connection. cTrader, OANDA, tastytrade, Interactive Brokers, TopstepX, TradeLocker and DXtrade all connect directly, and so do six crypto exchanges.

Import a file

1. Download a trade history or statement from your broker.
2. In Crux, choose Add broker or prop firm → Import a file now.
3. Choose the file, or paste its contents, then choose Import.

Columns are detected automatically. Importing the same file again updates trades rather than duplicating them, so it’s safe to re-import a longer history later.

What files work

• CSV exports of trades or fills from most brokers and platforms.
• MetaTrader 4 / 5 account statements saved as HTML.
• Tradovate: Reports → Performance → Download CSV.
• Crux’s own export, which carries your setups, tags, ratings, notes and playbook scores — so a journal moves between computers in one file.

A file didn’t import properly?

Email the file to support@cruxjournal.com and tell us which broker it came from. Remove anything you’d rather not share first — we only need the trade columns.

Trades or fills: which kind of file is it?

Crux looks at the columns before it imports anything and tells you which kind of file it has found, in a note above a preview of the first rows:

• A trade per row. The row has an entry price and an exit price, or a P&L column. Each row becomes one trade as it stands.
• A fill per row. The row has a side, a price and a quantity but no exit, the way most broker order exports look. Crux pairs the buys and sells into trades first in, first out, per account and symbol.
• Tradovate’s Performance export. Each row is already a completed round trip, with its buy and sell fill ids. Long or short is taken from which side opened first.

Which columns does it recognise?

Column names vary from broker to broker, so Crux knows the common spellings of each field. A few examples:

• Symbol: symbol, contract, instrument, ticker or market.
• Side: side, direction, action, buy/sell, B/S or long/short.
• Size: qty, quantity, size, contracts, shares, volume, lots or units.
• P&L and costs: P&L, profit or realized P&L; and fee, commission, swap or financing.
• Your own fields: setup or strategy, notes or comments, tags, rating or grade, and mistakes.

A multiplier or point value column is used when it is there, so options and futures from a file are priced like the same trades from a connection.

Will a re-import overwrite my notes?

No. Your setup, tags, rating, notes and scores are only written when a trade is first imported. Importing the same trades again updates prices and P&L if the broker corrected them, but never touches what you wrote since. Backtest result files import too: give them their own account name and they stay out of your live numbers when you filter.