Ploutos Help

Manual Trade Entry

Use Log trade for one-off trades and small gaps, not as a replacement for CSV import or broker sync.

Use manual entry when the trade belongs in your journal but did not arrive from CSV import or broker sync.

Manual trades are best for one-off cleanup, small test sets, or trades from a source you do not plan to connect yet. If you have a full export file, Import CSV is usually faster and safer than typing every trade by hand.

When manual entry makes sense

Good use cases:

  • adding one trade you took outside the connected account
  • recording a trade from a platform that you only use occasionally
  • correcting a small missing-history gap after you already understand the journal
  • testing the review flow with your own numbers before setting up sync

Weak use cases:

  • rebuilding months of broker history by hand
  • fixing a bad CSV import one row at a time
  • entering several partial fills separately when they were one trading idea

If the source has many rows, start with CSV import. Manual entry should not become your data pipeline.

Before you log the trade

Check the selected Ploutos account first.

Manual trades land in the active account immediately after save. They are not attached to a broker connection, and they do not move automatically if you later decide the trade belonged somewhere else.

Fields that matter most

The Log trade form asks for:

  • start time
  • end time
  • direction
  • market
  • net P&L
  • commission
  • quantity
  • entry price
  • initial stop
  • strategy
  • notes
  • trade image
  • tags

Start and end time should describe the trade window. End time must be after start time.

Net P&L should be the result you want the journal to use after fees. Commission is tracked separately so the trade can still explain how much the trade cost.

Quantity, entry price, and initial stop are optional. Add them when you want the trade record to preserve the stop-price plan. When the initial stop is on the correct side of entry, Ploutos shows initial 1R using the supported market's point value when one exists. Complete risk plans also let analytics show the average R ratio for the active scope.

If the active account has a default risk amount, the form can suggest a trade size after market, entry, and initial stop are filled. The same default risk is also the account's initial dollar-risk budget for review, and new trades can derive an initial stop from it when entry, size, and market value are available. When editing account settings, you can apply it once to existing reviewable trades so Ploutos overwrites their initial stop from that amount when the needed trade data is available.

Market entry

Start by searching for the market. Ploutos will suggest known markets such as MNQ CME, NQ CME, ES CME, large US equities, common ETFs, crypto pairs, FX pairs, and major indexes.

If the market is not in the suggestions, you can type it anyway. A custom market is still usable for journal review, filtering, notes, and tags. It may have weaker chart or market-data coverage than a known market.

Use the most specific symbol you have. For futures, that usually means the product root or contract symbol from the broker export. For stocks and ETFs, use the ticker and exchange when you know it.

Strategy, tags, and review state

Use Strategy for the main setup or playbook.

Use tags for secondary context you actually expect to filter later. A small stable tag set is better than a long list of one-off labels.

After saving, open the trade if you need to set review state, rating, or add more context. Manual trades can be edited later, including the core trade details.

Images

You can attach a PNG, JPG, or WebP image up to 5 MB while logging the trade.

Use this for the chart screenshot or phone photo that will make the trade easier to understand later. The uploaded image is separate from the chart preview.

When to use import instead

Use Import CSV when:

  • you have more than a handful of trades
  • the broker export already has timestamps, sides, prices, and P&L
  • you need duplicate protection
  • you want the preview step before trades enter the journal

The clean path is simple: import bulk history, then use manual entry only for the few trades that genuinely need it.

Next pages