Add a trade by hand

When a trade is missing from your broker file, or your broker's files can't be imported yet, you can type it in on the Trade Log, or from a ticker's report page with Add Trade (the ticker is filled in: Ticker Reports). A trade you add by hand is treated like an imported one: it joins its position, counts in strategies and reports, and an import never changes it.

Before you start

You need an account to put the trade in. If you don't have one, click + New account next to Account in the form (or Add Account on Accounts & Data).

Add a stock trade

1. Open the Trade Log and click Add Trade (top right). The Add Trade window opens with Stock selected.
2. In Ticker, type the symbol, for example AAPL.
3. Optional: next to the ticker, pick the Market, US or CA. Without it, the app picks the listing itself: a ticker that trades in both countries (AAPL is Apple on the Nasdaq and a Canadian Depositary Receipt on the NEO) follows the account's currency, so a US-dollar account gets the US listing and a Canadian-dollar account the Canadian one. An account that holds both currencies needs the Market for such a ticker.
4. In Account, pick the account.
5. In Type, pick Buy or Sell.
6. In Date, set the trade date.
7. Fill in Quantity (number of shares) and Price (per share). The price is saved to 2 decimals (4 below $1), fees to the cent. Only know what the trade cost in all? See Enter the total instead of the price.
8. Fill in Commissions & fees if you paid any.
9. Click Add Trade.

You should see the message Trade created, and the trade appears in its position.

The trade's currency is the currency of the listing: a US listing is in US dollars, a Canadian listing in Canadian dollars.

Enter the total instead of the price

For a buy or a sell, click Total above Quantity (next to Price), then enter the trade's total from your broker's confirmation:

• a buy: Total paid, fees included;
• a sell: Total received, after fees.

Fill in Commissions & fees too. The app works out the price per share from the total, the fees and the quantity (for an option, per share of its 100-share contracts), and keeps it unrounded so the quantity × the price, with the fees, gives back your total. A buy whose total is smaller than its fees is refused (The total is smaller than the fees).

Add a dividend

Follow the steps for a stock trade, with these differences:

• In Type, pick Dividend.
• Shares Held is optional: the number of shares that paid the dividend.
• Amount is the total cash you received, not the amount per share.

Add an option trade

1. Click Add Trade, then click Option at the top of the window.
2. In Underlying, type the stock's symbol, for example AAPL.
3. Pick Call / Put, then fill in Strike and Expiration.
4. Pick the Account.
5. In Type, pick Buy or Sell. Selling an option you don't hold opens a short position; buying it back later closes it.
6. Set the Date.
7. In Contracts, enter the number of contracts.
8. In Premium per share, enter the price as your broker quotes it, per share. For a premium of $125 per contract, enter 1.25.
9. Fill in Commissions & fees and click Add Trade.

Record how an option ended

An option stays open in MyTraderDash until a trade closes it. Your broker file usually contains that trade, but if it doesn't, the position stays open even after its expiration date. Record what happened to close it.

From the position (easiest)

1. On the Trade Log, in the Grouped view, find the open option position.
2. Click the small calendar icon on its row (its tooltip says Record outcome: expired, assigned or exercised). The Record Option Outcome window opens with the contract filled in.
3. In Type, pick Expired, Assigned or Exercised. A line under it describes what will be recorded.
4. Check the Date (it starts at the expiration date) and the number of Contracts.
5. Add Commissions & fees if your broker charged any, then click Record.

You should see Option outcome recorded. With Assigned or Exercised, the shares appear as a new trade too.

From Add Trade

Click Add Trade, choose Option, fill in the contract, and pick Expired, Assigned or Exercised as the Type. Then fill in Date and Contracts and click Record.

The app checks the outcome against the account:

• The option must be open in that account, with at least as many contracts as you enter.
• Only a sold option can be Assigned, and only a bought option can be Exercised.

If something doesn't match, a message says what's wrong and nothing is recorded.

When a broker file you import later has the same outcome for the same contracts, the broker's trade replaces the one you recorded, so the option isn't closed twice (see Data issues).

Edit a trade

1. On the Trade Log, find the trade. In the Grouped view, click the small arrow at the start of the position's row to see its trades; the List view shows them directly.
2. Double-click the trade. The Edit Trade window opens.
3. Change the Account, Type, Date, Quantity, Price or Commissions & fees.
4. Click Save Changes. You should see Trade updated.

The ticker and the option contract can't be edited. To fix those, delete the trade and add it again.

Delete trades

1. On the Trade Log, tick the checkbox of each trade you want to delete. In the Grouped view, open the position first with its arrow; the trades have their own checkboxes.
2. In the toolbar that appears at the bottom, click Delete Trades.
3. Confirm with Delete.

To delete a whole position with all its trades and dividends, tick the position's own checkbox in the Grouped view and click Delete Groups instead.

Deleting can't be undone. A deleted trade comes back if you later import a broker file that contains it.

Messages you may see