FundingPips Trading Journal: How to Sync Your Trades

Most FundingPips traders don't journal. The ones who do pass evaluations more often, stay funded longer, and pull more consistent payouts. That's not motivational fluff—it's the pattern I've seen across my own accounts and the trading communities I'm part of.

The irony is that FundingPips gives you a dashboard with your P&L, drawdown tracking, and compliance metrics. That's useful for knowing where you stand but useless for understanding why you're there. A trading journal answers the "why" questions: why did you take that trade, why did you exit early, why does Tuesday always produce your biggest losses.

Platform setup tested firsthand: I've traded FundingPips accounts on MT5, cTrader, and Match-Trader—across evaluation and funded phases. The setup instructions here come from connecting these platforms to actual funded accounts, not from reading help docs.

If you're deciding which platform to use with FundingPips—or weighing the $20 cTrader surcharge against MT5's free access and Match-Trader's browser simplicity—my full platform compatibility guide covers all three options with honest pros and cons, setup walkthroughs, and my recommended pick for evaluation through Hot Seat. For the absolute latest, check FundingPips' website or their FAQ section.

Why FundingPips Traders Specifically Need a Journal

FundingPips has rules that make journaling more important than on a personal trading account:

Drawdown tracking. On a $50K 2-Step Standard account, your max drawdown is $5,000 (10%) and daily loss limit is $2,500 (5%). You need to know exactly how much of that buffer you've used at all times—not just at end-of-day, but during the session. A journal that tracks cumulative daily P&L helps you decide whether to take that third trade of the day or stop.

Consistency rule compliance. If you choose the On-Demand payout option (90% split) on your funded account, no single day can produce more than 35% of your total payout cycle profits. Without a journal, you have no way to monitor this ratio in real time. One outsized winning day can disqualify you from requesting a payout.

Funded-stage rule awareness. The evaluation and funded stages have different rules. Your journal should flag when you're on a funded account and remind you about news trading restrictions, lot size limits, and the 3% single-trade cap. Without this awareness baked into your daily review, it's easy to slip up.

Evaluation-to-funded adjustment tracking. When you transition from evaluation to funded, your position sizing and daily targets should change. A journal helps you compare evaluation P&L patterns to funded P&L patterns and make data-driven adjustments.

Method 1: Platform-Native Trade History Export

The simplest approach—export your trade history directly from your trading platform and paste it into a spreadsheet.

MT5 Export

Open the "Account History" tab at the bottom of MT5. Right-click → "Save as Detailed Report" to generate an HTML file with all your closed trades. Alternatively, right-click → "Export" to save as CSV.

The export includes: ticket number, open time, close time, symbol, direction (buy/sell), volume (lots), open price, close price, commission, swap, and profit.

You can import this into Google Sheets or Excel, then add your own columns: setup type, rating (1-5), notes, screenshot link, and whether the trade complied with your daily targets.

cTrader Export

cTrader provides detailed trade history through the "History" tab. You can export to CSV or use cTrader's built-in reporting tools, which generate performance summaries including win rate, average winner/loser, profit factor, and equity curves.

cTrader's reporting is more detailed out of the box than MT5's—you may not need a separate journal if cTrader's analytics answer your review questions.

Match-Trader Export

Match-Trader's trade history is accessible through the web interface. Export options may be more limited than MT5 or cTrader. Check the history section for download or export buttons.

For Match-Trader users, a third-party journal tool that auto-syncs trades may be more practical than manual exports.

Method 2: Third-Party Trading Journal Tools

Dedicated trading journal platforms offer automated trade syncing, advanced analytics, and visual dashboards. Several integrate with FundingPips' supported platforms.

TradeZella

One of the most popular trading journals in the prop trading community. TradeZella can import trades from MT5 and cTrader via account connection or file upload.

How to sync: Connect your FundingPips trading account to TradeZella using your platform credentials or upload your trade history CSV. TradeZella auto-imports trades and generates analytics.

Key features for FundingPips traders: Daily P&L tracking with drawdown alerts, session-based performance analysis (useful for identifying your best trading window), and trade replay that lets you review entries and exits on the chart.

Limitation: Monthly subscription cost. Worth it if you're trading $25K+ funded accounts where the analytics pay for themselves in better decisions.

Tradervue

Another well-known journal platform with MT5 import support. Tradervue focuses on simplicity—auto-import your trades, add tags and notes, then use their reporting to identify patterns.

How to sync: Upload MT5 or cTrader history files. Some platforms support direct API connections—check Tradervue's current integration list.

Key features: Trade tagging (tag by setup type, market condition, session), shared journal feature (useful if you want accountability from a trading partner), and risk analysis reports.

TradesViz

A free-tier option that supports MT5 trade imports. TradesViz offers surprisingly good analytics for a free tool, including drawdown curves, time-of-day analysis, and instrument-specific performance.

How to sync: Upload trade history CSV from your platform.

Best for: Traders who want automated analytics without the monthly subscription of premium tools.

Edgewonk

A desktop-based journal that emphasizes statistical analysis and behavioral tracking. Edgewonk lets you define custom tags for emotional state, market conditions, and rule compliance—useful for tracking FundingPips-specific factors like "traded during news window" or "approached daily loss limit."

How to sync: Manual entry or CSV import from MT5/cTrader.

Best for: Traders who want deep statistical analysis and are willing to invest time in detailed logging.

Method 3: Spreadsheet Journal (My Approach)

I use a custom Google Sheets journal because it gives me total control over what I track and how I analyze it. Here's my FundingPips-specific template:

Columns I Track

Basic trade data: Date, time, instrument, direction, lot size, entry price, exit price, stop loss, take profit, gross P&L, commission, net P&L.

Setup classification: Setup type (VWAP pullback, London ORB, session fade, etc.), timeframe used for entry, confluence factors (how many confluences aligned).

FundingPips compliance: Account type (evaluation/funded), daily P&L cumulative (running total for the day), daily loss remaining (daily limit minus cumulative losses), drawdown remaining (max drawdown minus worst equity point), news event proximity (was there a high-impact event within 30 min?).

Performance rating: Trade quality (1-5, regardless of outcome), execution quality (1-5, did I follow my plan?), emotional state (calm/anxious/frustrated/overconfident).

Formulas I Use

Daily P&L running total: Simple SUM formula filtered by today's date. This tells me mid-session whether I'm approaching my daily loss limit.

Consistency check: My best daily P&L divided by total cycle P&L. If this exceeds 30% (leaving buffer below the 35% rule), my spreadsheet highlights it in red. This prevents me from accidentally blowing the consistency rule on a good day.

Win rate by setup: COUNTIFS formula counting wins vs. losses per setup type. After 50+ trades, this tells me which setups actually work and which I should eliminate.

Average R-multiple: For each trade, I calculate the R-multiple (actual profit divided by initial risk). My target is 1.5R average. If it drops below 1.0R over a 2-week period, my risk-reward is inverted and I need to adjust exits.

How to Use Your Journal for FundingPips-Specific Decisions

During Evaluation

Review your journal weekly to assess:

• Are you on pace to hit the profit target before drawdown becomes a concern?
• Which sessions produce the best P&L? Focus your trading hours accordingly.
• Are you taking enough trading days to meet the minimum (3 days on 2-Step Standard)?
• Which setups have the highest win rate? Double down on those.

During Funded Trading

Review daily:

• Where does today's P&L sit relative to the daily loss limit? If you've lost $1,500 on a $2,500 daily limit, stop trading.
• Is your best day approaching 35% of total cycle profits (On-Demand consistency rule)?
• Did any trades touch the 3% single-trade profit cap?
• Were any trades opened within the news restriction window?

Review weekly:

• Total P&L for the payout cycle. Are you on pace for a worthwhile payout?
• Drawdown usage. How close did you get to the max drawdown floor?
• Trade frequency. Are you overtrading (taking B-setups) or undertrading (missing valid opportunities)?

Before Requesting a Payout

Use your journal to verify:

• Your best single day doesn't exceed the consistency threshold.
• All trades were compliant with funded-stage rules.
• Your total profit exceeds the 1% minimum withdrawal amount.
• No trades were executed during restricted news windows.

The Minimum Viable Journal

If a full spreadsheet setup feels like too much, here's the absolute minimum I'd recommend:

After every trade, write one sentence. "EURUSD long at London open, VWAP bounce, +$320, clean entry, held through the retracement well." That's it. One sentence per trade in a note-taking app.

End of day, write three numbers. Daily P&L, cumulative drawdown used, number of trades. Three numbers in 15 seconds.

End of week, ask one question. "What's the one thing I'd change about this week's trading?" Write a one-paragraph answer.

This minimal journal takes 5 minutes per day and gives you 80% of the insight that a full journal provides. You can always upgrade to a more detailed system later—but a basic journal started today is infinitely better than a perfect journal you never build.

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