Your First Trade

This walkthrough covers a simple manual trade using the current 1.1.25 Trades workflow. Imported broker trades can use executions, observed Stop History and additional P/L controls.

Prerequisites

Before adding a trade:

Open Account and configure at least one account with the correct base currency.
Optionally create or seed strategies, confluences and exit reasons.
Configure Units per Lot when you want to use Lots for the intended account/symbol.
Add required exchange rates if the trade/profit currency differs from the account base currency.

Create a Trade

Open Trades.
Click New Trade.
Complete the Entry details.
Define Initial SL / Initial TP and, when useful, Planned Targets.
Add Exit details after the position is closed.
Add setup tags, notes, images and reflection data as needed.
Click Save Changes.

Demo Mode allows new manual trades while the current database contains fewer than 20 persisted trades.

Entry Details

Important fields include:

Field	Description
Instrument	Broker/platform symbol or ticker.
Direction	Long or Short.
Entry Date Time	Entry date/time, including optional millisecond precision.
Entry Price	Manual entry price, or a read-only VWAP when derived from executions.
Quantity	Position size. FTJ stores quantity in units.
Initial SL	Original risk-defining stop when known.
Initial TP	Original summary planned target when known. TP1 controls this value while a Planned Targets plan exists.
Planned R	Planned reward relative to original Entry-to-Initial-SL risk.
Session	Asia, London, NY, London/NY Overlap, Afternoon or Evening.
Timeframe	The chart timeframe used for the setup.
Currency	Trade/profit currency used for conversion where required.
Account	The FTJ account that owns the trade.

Initial Risk and Planned Targets

Use Initial SL and Initial TP for the original trade plan.

For a Long, Initial SL must be below Entry and a planned target must be above Entry. For a Short, Initial SL must be above Entry and a planned target must be below Entry. Invalid/inverted geometry leaves Planned R unavailable rather than creating a misleading ratio.

For a simple plan, Initial TP is enough. For a scale-out plan, expand Planned Targets:

Add TP1, TP2 and any further planned targets.
Enter the intended allocation percentage for each target.
Make the complete saved allocation total 100%.

FTJ calculates weighted Planned R from the target R values and their percentage allocations, using the same original Entry-to-Initial-SL risk denominator.

Planned Targets describe intent. Actual partial exits remain executions and do not automatically create or rewrite the planned target plan.

If a broker trade later moves its stop to break-even or trails the stop, FTJ keeps a known Initial SL instead of replacing the original risk. Where broker sync observes later stop states, review them separately in Stop History.

Units and Lots

FTJ stores trade quantity in units. Lots is a display and entry conversion.

The Position size panel shows the current Units/Lots relationship. For this manual-trade workflow, use Lot Settings to configure Units per Lot for the selected account and symbol and do not rely on Lots until the intended contract size is configured.

For cTrader execution-based imports, FTJ instead uses persisted broker-authoritative contract size for Lots display when available. If that metadata is unavailable, configured Units per Lot remains the fallback. For non-standard contracts such as some metals or CFDs, verify the displayed relationship instead of assuming the standard FX value.

Exit and Realised Result

Important Exit fields include:

Exit Date Time;
Exit Price (Avg/VWAP);
Realised R for eligible closed trades;
Gross P/L (Base);
Net P/L (Base);
Swap (Base);
Fees (Base);
Exit Reason.

Realised R is actual realised Net P/L divided by the original account-base risk. It is unavailable while the trade is still open or when required initial-risk/currency data is missing.

Open trades do not show realised Gross/Net P/L and are excluded from closed-trade performance KPIs.

For manual trades, FTJ calculates P/L from the entered trade fields and available exchange-rate data.

Execution-Based Trades

When a trade contains linked executions:

Entry and Exit can show Derived from executions.
Entry/exit prices are volume-weighted averages of the relevant fills.
Quantity is derived from the executions.
A position is closed when buys and sells net to zero within the application’s quantity tolerance.
Edit the underlying executions rather than typing over derived entry/exit values.

Eligible imported execution-based trades can also show Broker reported / Calculated P/L and Adjust Costs.

Stop History

If FTJ has observed broker stop management, History (n) appears by Initial SL.

Open it to review Stop History inside Executions & Stop History. The history is observational: it records stop states FTJ actually saw during broker sync. The time shown is the observation time, not a reconstructed exact broker modification time.

Setup, Images, Notes and Reflection

The lower Trades workflow can be expanded or collapsed:

Strategy & Confluences includes the Pre-Trade Plan.
Images stores chart screenshots.
Trade Notes stores post-trade notes.
Executions & Stop History contains fills and observed stop management.
Self-Reflection contains ratings, Mistakes and Additional Reflection.

FTJ remembers your top-level expand/collapse preferences between application restarts. The preference controls the workspace layout only; it does not change the trade data.

Use Add Mistake during Self-Reflection when a reusable execution/discipline mistake applies. No mistakes records an explicit clean review and remains different from an untouched/unreviewed trade.

What’s Next?

Review Dashboard.
Open Reports for Reports.
Configure Strategies, Confluences, Exit Reasons and Mistakes.
Manage required Exchange Rates.
Import existing history through Importing Data or Broker Sync.