In short. A crypto trading journal is the same as a forex one, plus what forex does not have: funding on perpetual futures, leverage and the liquidation price, 24/7 trading and several exchanges at once. Done by hand this quickly becomes a chore, so it is better to pull trades from the exchange with a read-only API key and only add the review yourself.
What to record for a crypto trade
- exchange, market (spot or futures) and symbol;
- side, size, entry, stop, target and exit;
- leverage and distance to liquidation — the stop should sit well before the liquidation price;
- commissions and funding — on long-held positions funding noticeably changes the result;
- result in money and in R — from the stop;
- review: setup, whether the trade followed the plan, execution score, mistake, emotions, screenshot.
What is different about crypto
- Funding. On perpetual futures position holders pay each other funding several times a day. A trade that is «in profit» on price can end up negative after funding — look at the net result. How the payment is calculated and what it costs over a month is in «Funding rate: what it is and what it costs you».
- 24/7. The market never closes, and a breakdown by hour and weekday shows when you trade better — for example, that night entries lose money.
- Several exchanges. Separate statistics per exchange hide the overall picture: it helps to see every account in one journal.
- Size in coins and in dollars. Compare trades by their result in R, not by the number of coins.
Pulling trades automatically
In Davinchu crypto exchanges connect with a read-only API key. A key with withdrawal rights is rejected; a key with trading rights is accepted with a warning. How to create such a key on each exchange is covered in «Read-only API key».
| Exchange | What goes into the journal |
|---|---|
| Bybit | linear futures trades (USDT and USDC) on the Unified Trading Account and spot trades, up to two years of history |
| HTX | USDT-M cross-margin futures trades from the moment of connection; spot — the wallet balance in the «Investments» portfolio |
| Binance, OKX, BingX | spot balances — in the «Investments» portfolio |
For Bybit futures, the funding of a closed trade is recorded in its swap, and the account page shows «Fees · 30 days» and «Funding · 30 days» lines. Exchange balances are collected in «Investments» together with other assets. Where the history lives on the exchange itself and what closed P&L includes is covered in «Bybit trade history: how to export and analyze it»; more on connecting on the «Account monitoring» page.
Which metrics to watch
- win rate and average R — per symbol;
- profit factor and expectancy — net of commissions and funding;
- results by hour and weekday — especially telling for a 24/7 market;
- equity drawdown — including the floating loss of open positions; the drawdown calculator shows what it takes to recover.
The journal in Davinchu
The trading journal links to exchange accounts and to accounts with any forex and CFD broker on MetaTrader 4 and 5, prop firms included. Trades arrive on their own, and you add the setup, emotions, execution score and mistake. The «Review» tab shows what breaking the plan costs, and the «Instruments», «Time», «Days», «Sessions» and «Setups» breakdowns show where you make money. The Free plan connects two accounts at no cost. A template for a manual journal is in «Trading journal template».