Welcome to TradeZella! This guide walks you through everything you need to know to start journaling your trades, reviewing your performance, and building better habits — all from your very first login.
If you're more of a visual learner, check out our Journaling 101 webinar in Zella University for a more advanced walkthrough.
Understanding the Layout
Once you log in (or sign up), you'll land on your Dashboard — this is your home base for everything in TradeZella.
Here's how the screen is organized:
Left Sidebar — Your main navigation, split into four sections: Tracking (your live trades), Back Testing, Mental Mode (mentor access), and University (learning resources and video guides).
Top Bar (Filters) — Use these to filter your data by date range, account, tags, and more. Super important once you start building up trade history.
Bottom-Left Corner (Profile Icon) — Click here to access your account settings, subscription, and preferences.
Bottom-Right Corner (Purple Chat Icon) — Get instant help from our AI assistant or connect with our support team.
💡 Tip: Hover over the (i) icon on any widget to see exactly what that metric means.
How Do I Import My First Trades?
Let's get some data into your account! TradeZella supports dozens of brokers and platforms — and most of them can sync automatically.
How to add your first account
Click "Add Trade" in the left sidebar.
Click "Add New Account."
Select your broker from the list.
Depending on your broker, you'll see one of two options:
Sync — Connects directly to your broker for automatic imports.
File Upload — Lets you manually upload a trade file (CSV, etc.).
Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the integration.
💡 Pro Tip: Look for the "Integration Guide" button on the right side of the screen. It gives you step-by-step instructions specific to your broker.
💡 Need help? If you run into any issues during setup, click the Support Icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. You'll connect with our AI assistant first — but if you need a real person, just type "speak to support" and you'll be connected with our team.
Once your trades are imported, head back to the Dashboard to see your stats come to life!
What's in the Sidebar? (Navigation Guide)
The left sidebar is split into four main sections. Here's a quick breakdown of each tab:
Tracking Section
This is where all your live trading data lives.
Dashboard: Your bird's-eye view of your trading performance. You'll see key stats and metrics at a glance. Hover over the (i) icons on any widget to see exactly what that metric means.
Day View: A clean breakdown of your performance organized by date. Great for reviewing how each trading day went.
Trade View: Your master list of every individual trade. Use this to search, filter, sort, and manage all your trades in one place.
Notebook: Your personal space for journaling. Write daily notes, pre-market plans, post-session reviews, and anything else you want to track alongside your trades.
Reports: This is where the deep-dive analytics live. When you're ready to go beyond the basics, Reports will show you patterns, stats, and insights across your entire trade history.
Strategies This is a big one. You can create and manage your trading strategies here, then link individual trades to those strategies. This lets you track which setups are actually working (and which ones aren't).
Trade Replay: A powerful tool that lets you replay your trades candle-by-candle. Perfect for reviewing entries, exits, and price action after the market closes.
Progress Tracker: This keeps you accountable. Set up your personal trading rules and check them off daily. It's a simple but effective way to build discipline.
BackTesting Section
A completely separate area with its own dashboard, reports, and stats. Create back testing sessions to test strategies on up to 10 years of historical data. Place simulated trades, track results, and see if a strategy works before trading it live.
Mentor/Student Mode Section
Share access to your account with a mentor. They can view your trades, stats, and executions, and leave feedback directly on your trades to help you improve.
Zella University Section
Webinars, video guides, and walkthroughs for every feature in TradeZella. If you're ever unsure how something works, search for it here.
The Trade Page (Deep Dive)
You can open a specific trade page from almost anywhere — Trade View, Day View, or even by clicking a trade on the Dashboard calendar.
Here's what you'll find on a trade page:
Left Side — Trade Details
Stats Tab — View your key trade stats. This is also where you enter your R-Multiple and add Tags (especially "Mistake" tags — so you know exactly what to fix next time).
Strategies Tab — Link the trade to a specific strategy/setup.
Executions Tab — See every individual buy and sell fill for the trade.
Attachments Tab — Upload charts, screenshots, or any other files related to the trade.
Right Side — Chart & Notes
Chart — The main chart for the trade, showing your entries and exits.
Trade Notes — Notes specific to this individual trade.
Day Notes — Your thoughts and observations for the entire trading day.
Running P&L — See your cumulative P&L for the day right on this page.
Setting Up Tags & Strategies
Tags and strategies are two of the most impactful things you can set up in TradeZella. Together, they let you track what's working, what's not, and why.
Tags
Tags let you track anything that might impact your trading — and then see the results in Reports.
To create tags:
Open any trade and scroll down to the Tags section in the Stats tab.
Click "Add New Category" at the bottom.
Name your category (e.g., "Entry Timeframe," "Sleep Quality," "Mental State").
Press Save.
Add specific values as tags on each trade (e.g., "30 Second," "3 Minute," "Good Sleep," "Poor Sleep").
Ideas for tags to track:
Entry timeframe used — 30 second, 1 minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, etc.
Market conditions — Trending, choppy, ranging, volatile.
Mental state — Focused, FOMO, greedy, anxious, calm.
Sleep quality — Good, medium, poor.
Pre-market routine — Completed, skipped, partial.
Once you have enough data, head to Reports → Tags to see how each tag is impacting your performance.
💡 Why this matters: After 30 trades, you might discover you're 75% profitable on "Good Sleep" days vs. 45% on "Poor Sleep" days.
Strategies
Create from scratch:
Go to the Strategies tab in the left sidebar.
Click "Create Strategy" in the top right.
Choose "Create from Scratch."
Name your strategy and add your rule groups — these are the conditions that must be met for a valid trade (e.g., "Trading above VWAP," "Liquidity sweep at key area").
Press Create.
Import a free strategy:
Go to tradezella.com → Resources → Profit Playbooks.
Browse strategies from successful traders.
Click on one, press "Get Free Playbook", then "Duplicate to My Strategy".
It will automatically appear in your Strategies tab.
Once your strategy is set up, you can link it to any trade from the trade page and check off your rules to see if you actually followed your plan.
What Should My Daily Trading Workflow Look Like?
Here's the routine we recommend for getting the most out of TradeZella every single day:
Before you trade
Open TradeZella and use the "Start My Day" feature in the top right.
Use a template (click "Templates" in the top right) or write your own pre-market prep — check the economic calendar, write your if/then game plan, and note your mindset.
💡 Pro Tip: Use the "Intraday Check-In" template to set timed check-in points throughout your trading session so you stay disciplined throughout the day.
After you're done trading
Import your trades — Sync your broker or upload your trade file.
Review each trade:
Add your Stop Loss and Profit Targets to calculate your R-Multiple.
Write trade-specific notes.
Link each trade to the strategy you used and check off your rules.
Add your tags (setups, mistakes, market conditions).
Give each trade a rating.
Once you've fully reviewed a trade, mark it as "Reviewed."
End of day
Head to the Progress Tracker and check off your daily trading rules. This is how you build consistency over time.
What's Next?
Now that you've got the basics down, here are a few things to explore:
Set up your strategies so you can start tracking what works.
Customize your tags to match your trading style.
Check out the Reports tab once you have a few weeks of data.
Try Trade Replay to review your entries and exits candle-by-candle.
Explore Back Testing to test strategies on up to 10 years of historical data.
Watch the Journaling 101 webinar in Zella University for a more advanced walkthrough.
💬 Remember — if anything comes up, the purple chat icon in the bottom-right corner is always there for you.
You can also visit our Knowledge Base at https://help.tradezella.com/en/, explore Zella University inside the app, or join our Discord community at tradezella.com → Community. We're here to help!