How to export your thinkorswim trades to CSV

A trading journal is only as good as the data you put in it. If you trade on thinkorswim, the fastest way to get your history out is the Account Statement export. It takes about a minute.

Export the statement

1. Open thinkorswim and go to the Monitor tab.
2. Choose Account Statement.
3. Pick the date range you want, for example the start of the year until today.
4. Open the menu in the top right of the statement and choose Export to File.
5. Save the CSV somewhere you can find it.

The file contains several sections, such as cash balance and profits and losses. The one that matters for a journal is Account Trade History, which lists every execution with its time, side, quantity, symbol and price.

Import it

1. Create a free account and open the Import page.
2. Choose thinkorswim (Schwab) from the broker list, or leave it on auto-detect.
3. Drop the CSV in. You will see how many executions were found before anything is saved.
4. Click Import.

Your fills are grouped into trades automatically. Scaling in and out of a position, partial exits and short trades are all handled, and the profit and loss is calculated from your actual entry and exit prices.

A few things to know

• Timestamps: thinkorswim exports times in your platform's timezone. The journal reads them as US Eastern by default; you can change this in Settings so trades land on the right calendar day.
• Fees: the trade history section does not include commissions, so set your per-contract and per-share fees in Settings. Options default to $0.65 per contract.
• Importing twice is safe: re-uploading the same file, or an overlapping date range, skips executions that are already stored.
• Expired options: an option that expires worthless has no closing execution, so it will show as an open position until you handle it.

What to look at first

Once your trades are in, start with the P&L calendar and the equity curve, then look at your win rate, average win against average loss, and your largest drawdown. For what those numbers mean, read profit factor and expectancy explained.