cTrader auto-sync setup
How to connect cTrader to Dusk Analyst (auto-sync setup)
To connect cTrader to Dusk Analyst, download the Dusk Analyst cBot from your dashboard, add it in cTrader's Algo tab, paste your account's API key into its parameters and press Play on any chart. Every closed trade then logs itself.
Auto-sync is part of Pro ($25/month). Every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days with no card, so you can connect and test it before paying anything. Add a card to extend it to 15 trading days free; nothing is charged until those end.
26 seconds
Watch a trade log itself.
A real MetaTrader terminal. Close the trade, open Dusk Analyst, and it’s already there: symbol, direction, entry, exit and P&L. Nothing to export, nothing to type, nothing forgotten.
Auto-sync is on Pro. The free plan imports your history files.
Get started, freeYour account stays yours
No investor password needed
Dusk Analyst never asks for your broker password or investor password, and nothing logs into your account from our servers. On MT4, MT5 and cTrader, a read-only EA or cBot runs in your own terminal and sends only closed trades, using a per-account API key. How it works.
Before you start
What you need
- A Dusk Analyst account (sign up at app.duskanalyst.com). Auto-sync is on Pro, and new accounts get Pro free for 5 trading days with no card.
- The cTrader desktop app, logged in to the account you want to journal. The cBot runs locally: cTrader Cloud cannot make web requests.
- About 5 minutes, on the computer you trade on.
Step by step
Connect cTrader in 8 steps
The same steps appear in the app: open Connectors in the sidebar, or press the ? on the connector card.
- Sign in and add a connector. At app.duskanalyst.com, open the account book you want to sync. Under Connectors on the Dashboard, click Add Connector and choose cTrader.
- Download the cBot. On the cTrader connector card, click Download cBot. You get
dusk-analyst-cbot-ctrader.algo. - Open Algo. In the cTrader desktop app, click the Algo button on the left panel.
- Add the cBot. At the top, make sure cBots is selected, then click New. In the pop-up, click Choose a file and select
dusk-analyst-cbot-ctrader.algo. - Pick the account. Select the cTrader account you want to sync, then open the Advanced parameters drop-down.
- Paste your API key. In Dusk Analyst, press Copy next to the API key on the cTrader connector card. Back in cTrader, paste it into the cBot's API key input.
- Press Play. On the left panel, find Dusk Analyst Sync (scroll to the bottom if you do not see it) and press Play on any chart.
- Keep cTrader running on your computer. Your past closed trades arrive within about a minute, and every new trade logs itself when it closes.
Not syncing?
Troubleshooting
If nothing arrives after a few minutes, check these in order.
- Running in the cloud. Check that the cBot is running in cTrader on your computer, not in cTrader Cloud. Cloud cBots cannot send trades.
- cBot not started. Dusk Analyst Sync must be running (Play pressed) on a chart, and cTrader must stay open.
- Partial API key. Paste the whole key from the connector card into the cBot's API key input, with no spaces.
- Wrong account book. Each account book has its own API key. Trades land in the book whose key you pasted.
- Check the connector card. On your Dashboard, each connector shows when it last synced, or Never synced if it has not reported in yet.
- Still stuck? Email support@duskanalyst.com with what you see. A person reads every reply.
Safety
What the cBot can and cannot do
- Read-only. The EA and cBot only read your closed trade history. They never place, modify or close orders, and never change your charts or indicators.
- No broker password. Dusk Analyst never asks for your broker login. Trades are sent over HTTPS with a per-account API key; only your closed trades and the account nickname leave the terminal.
- Official download only. The EA and cBot are only distributed from your Dusk Analyst dashboard. Do not install a file claiming to be Dusk Analyst from anywhere else.
- Your API key is private. Treat it like a password. If you regenerate it, the old key stops working and you paste the new one into each platform.
Related
More setup guides
How it works
Live in two minutes.
Create your account
Sign up and grab a per-account API key from the connectors panel.
Drop in the EA
One file into cTrader. No extra software.
Trades sync themselves
Every close pushes into the vault automatically. Journal complete, always.
See it in action
Ask your trading data anything.
Your journal isn't a logbook, it's a dataset. The AI reads your actual trade history and answers the questions that move your edge.
- Why do my cTrader losses cluster on Fridays?
- Which cTrader strategy am I actually profitable in?
- What happens when I break my 1% risk rule?
Pricing
Free is enough to build the habit. Pro is where it runs itself.
Start manual and free. Upgrade to auto-sync when you're ready to stop touching it.
Free
$0
A real journal, free from day one. $0 forever, up to 2 accounts, no credit card required, weekly reports included, and CSV import from any trading platform.
- Up to 2 accounts
- Manual entry + CSV import from any platform
- Tags, calendars & core analytics
- Weekly report export
No terminal connection. Upgrade to Pro when you want the vault to fill itself.
Start freePro
$25/month
The journal that journals itself. $25/month auto-syncs MT4, MT5 and cTrader across unlimited demo, live and funded accounts, with 1,000 AI trade-analyses a month, monthly reports and full export.
- Auto-sync MT4, MT5 and cTrader (terminal connection)
- Unlimited accounts, demo, live & funded
- AI insights & automated session reviews
- 1,000 AI trade-analyses every month
- Monthly reports + full export
- Priority support
5 trading days free, no card. Then $25/month.
Start your free Pro week See auto-sync in 26 secondsNo setup fees. No card for Free, and no card for your first week of Pro: every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days. Add a card to keep it free for 10 more trading days, then $25/month. We email you before billing starts.
Connect cTrader once.
Then every closed trade logs itself. Auto-sync is free for your first 5 trading days, no credit card. Add a card to extend it to 15 trading days free.
Get started, freeNo card required.
FAQ
cTrader connection questions, answered.
How do I connect cTrader to Dusk Analyst?
Download the Dusk Analyst cBot from the cTrader connector card on your Dashboard, add it in cTrader's Algo tab (cBots, New, Choose a file), paste your account's API key into the cBot's API key input and press Play on any chart. Your closed trades then sync on their own.
Does the cBot work in cTrader Cloud or cTrader Web?
No. Cloud cBots cannot make web requests, so the cBot must run in the cTrader desktop app on your own computer. If you trade only on cTrader Web, log trades manually or import a CSV instead.
Is the Dusk Analyst cBot safe to run on my cTrader account?
Yes. The cBot is read-only: it reads your closed trade history and sends it over HTTPS with a per-account API key. It never places, modifies or closes orders, and Dusk Analyst never asks for your broker password.
Is cTrader auto-sync free?
Auto-sync is part of Pro, which costs $25/month. Every new Dusk Analyst account gets Pro free for 5 trading days with no card, and adding a card keeps it free for 10 more trading days. The Free plan ($0 forever) covers manual entry and CSV import for up to 2 accounts, without a terminal connection.
Do my past cTrader trades come in too?
Yes. On first attach the cBot sends your existing closed history, usually within a minute, then keeps up as trades close. If the terminal was off when a trade closed, it backfills what it missed the next time it runs.
Does cTrader have a built-in trading journal?
cTrader has a history and trade report view that shows your past trades and some statistics, but that's not a trading journal in the review sense: it doesn't capture your entry reason, notes, emotional state or the context around each trade, and it doesn't track your journaling habits over time. A dedicated journal like Dusk Analyst stores the trade data and lets you layer review notes, tags and analysis on top, then report on win rate, expectancy, drawdown and equity curve - the metrics that actually improve decisions. If you want the terminal's data without the manual copying, Dusk Analyst's EA reads the closed-trade history and syncs it automatically on Pro.
How do I export my cTrader trade history?
Every cTrader terminal keeps a closed-trade history in its Account History view, and that data can be exported to a file for import elsewhere. Save the history as a report or CSV (the fields are standard: time, ticket, symbol, volume, price, commission, swap, profit), then import the file into Dusk Analyst on any plan - the free tier includes CSV import. On Pro you don't even need to export: the Dusk Analyst EA reads the same history automatically and pushes each close as it happens, including catch-up for periods the terminal was off.
Is there a free cTrader trading journal?
Yes - Dusk Analyst's free tier is $0 forever and works with cTrader: two accounts, manual entry and CSV import, with win rate, expectancy, drawdown and equity curve calculated for you. That's a genuinely usable free journal, not a trial. If you want every closed cTrader trade to sync itself, Pro adds the read-only EA at a flat $25/month with unlimited accounts and AI insights, and every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days, no card.
Will the Dusk Analyst EA slow down my cTrader terminal?
No - the EA is deliberately light. It's a single read-only file that does two things: it watches for closed trades in the account history and it sends them over HTTPS with your per-account API key. It never places orders, never repaints charts and doesn't interfere with your indicators or other EAs; it runs on its own chart window, following the usual one-EA-per-chart convention. The network call is a few kilobytes per closed trade, so even on a slow connection there's no noticeable impact on the terminal or your execution.
Is Dusk Analyst really free?
Yes. The free tier costs $0 forever and includes two accounts, manual trade entry and CSV import - enough to journal a live account properly, with win rate, expectancy, drawdown and equity curve all calculated for you. There is no credit card required to start. Pro ($25/month flat) adds unlimited accounts, MT4/MT5/cTrader auto-sync, AI insights on your trading (1,000 trade-analyses a month), monthly reports and full export, and every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days with no card. The pricing is deliberately simple: one plan, one price, no per-feature upsells.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, and it needs no card. Every new Dusk Analyst account gets Pro free for 5 trading days from sign-up: auto-sync from MT4, MT5 and cTrader, AI Insights with 1,000 credits, monthly reports and unlimited accounts. Add a card to keep it free for 10 more trading days; billing ($25/month) starts only after that, and you can cancel anytime from Billing in the app, with nothing charged.
Can I import my existing trade history?
Yes - CSV import is available on every plan, including free. If you've been tracking trades in a spreadsheet, broker export or another journal, export the CSV from wherever it lives and import it into Dusk Analyst; the journal matches it against your accounts and keeps your history continuous. Import is also the fallback for platforms that don't run MT4, MT5 or cTrader. For MT4/MT5/cTrader terminals, Pro auto-syncs going forward and the EA backfills any trades your terminal missed while it was off. Any platform that exports a CSV of your trade history works. Dusk Analyst recognises TradingView, Tradovate, cTrader, MT4 and MT5 exports on sight; for anything else you map your columns once and that parser is saved for next time. Comma, semicolon and tab files are all handled, day-first and month-first dates are detected from the file itself, and any row that cannot be read is listed for you rather than dropped quietly.
How many AI credits do I get with Dusk Analyst Pro?
Pro includes 1,000 AI trade-analyses every month. One credit covers one trade, so asking a question about a 40-trade week costs 40 credits and you can keep asking. The allowance resets on the 1st of each month and the counter sits in the top bar of the app, so you always know where you stand. Narrowing a question to one account or a shorter date range makes the same allowance go much further. Free accounts get a small number of AI credits to try AI Insights, alongside the full journal, analytics and weekly reports, and the free Pro week (5 trading days, no card) includes the full monthly allowance.