Paper trading journal

Paper trading journal

A paper trading journal records your demo or simulated trades with the same care as real ones, so you can prove a strategy works before you fund it. Dusk Analyst is a paper trading journal: demo accounts import and sync just like live accounts, with the same stats.

Free tier: 2 accounts, no card required.

Demo accounts welcomeSame stats as liveFree for 2 accounts

A paper trading journal logs demo trades with entry, exit, size, setup and notes, then shows win rate, profit factor and average win and loss. Keep demo and live trades in separate account books so you can compare them honestly. Dusk Analyst treats demo accounts like live ones and is free for 2 accounts, no card needed.

The Dusk Analyst dashboard: P&L balance chart, win rate, daily P&L and AI insights
4,000+trades journaled
33countries
365brokers & prop firms verified
$0to start, free forever

Any broker or prop firm on MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8 syncs. Also imports TradingView, CSV and Excel and MT4 / MT5 reports. See all 365 brokers

Quick answers

Should I journal paper trades?

Yes. Without a journal, demo trading is practice with no score. A journal tells you if the strategy has an edge before money is on the line.

Can I sync a demo account to a trading journal?

Yes. In Dusk Analyst a MetaTrader, cTrader or NinjaTrader demo account imports on Free or auto-syncs on Pro the same way a live one does.

How long should I paper trade before going live?

Until your results show a positive expectancy over a fair number of trades and you followed your rules on most of them. Then start live with small size.

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 (MT4, MT5, cTrader, NinjaTrader) is on Pro. The free plan imports your history files.

Get started, free

At a glance

Dusk Analyst at a glance.

Price
$0 or $25/monthFree forever. Pro is one flat price.
Free plan
2 accounts, no cardManual entry, file import, tags, calendars and weekly reports. No time limit.
Auto-sync
MT4 · MT5 · cTrader · NinjaTraderOn Pro. Your first 5 trading days are free, no card.
How sync works
EA, cBot or NinjaTrader add-onRuns in your own terminal and sends each closed trade.
Your password
Never asked forNothing logs into your broker account from our servers.
Brokers
365 checkedAny broker or prop firm on MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8 works.
Setup
About 2 minutesPer account, once.
Where it runs
In your browserDesktop and phone. Nothing to install except the EA, cBot or NinjaTrader add-on.
AI
Dusk QuantAnswers questions about your own trades. Pro, 1,000 trade-analyses a month.

How to use it

Paper trade like it is real

Separate books

Put demo trades in their own account book with its own starting balance, so demo and live results never mix.

Real size

Trade the size you would trade live. Huge demo positions teach habits you cannot afford later.

Same tags

Use the same setup tags on demo and live. When you go live, compare each setup side by side.

Demo vs live

Compare demo and live results

Live results are usually worse than demo: real fills, real nerves. Keeping both in one journal shows you the gap per setup. See paper trading and the win rate calculator.

Import your MT4 or MT5 history file on the Free plan, or auto-sync MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8 on Pro.

How it works

Live in two minutes.

01

Create your account

Sign up and grab a per-account API key from the connectors panel.

02

Drop in the EA, cBot or add-on

One file into MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8. No extra software.

03

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 losses cluster on Fridays?
  • Which strategy am I actually profitable in?
  • What happens when I break my 1% risk rule?
See patterns like this in your own trades

Auto-sync setup

How do I connect my platform?

Auto-sync (MT4, MT5, cTrader, NinjaTrader) is on Pro ($25/month), free for your first 5 trading days with no card. The Free plan imports your platform's history file.

Broker search

Does my broker work?

Each broker was checked against its own site in our 2026 audit. See all 365.

$0to start, 2 accounts
$25a month for Pro
4platforms auto-sync

Pricing

Free is enough to build the habit. Pro is where it runs itself.

Start manual and free. Upgrade to MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 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 reports

No terminal connection. Upgrade to Pro when you want the vault to fill itself.

Start free

No 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. After that it is $25/month. We email you before billing starts.

Prove it on demo before you pay for it.

Import your demo trades. $0 to start.

Get started, free

No card required.

FAQ

Paper trading journal questions, answered.

Is there a free paper trading journal?

Yes. Dusk Analyst's Free plan is $0 for 2 accounts with manual entry and file import, and a demo account counts as one of them.

Do demo accounts count towards my account limit?

Yes, a demo book is an account like any other: 2 on Free, unlimited on Pro.

Can I journal TradingView paper trades?

Yes. Export your TradingView history as CSV and import it on the Free plan.

Does paper trading prepare you for a prop firm challenge?

It helps you learn your setups. Dusk Analyst shows your daily P&L so you can check your own limits, but it does not track prop firm rules for you.

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, P&L 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/NinjaTrader 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, cTrader and NinjaTrader 8, AI Insights with 1,000 credits, monthly reports and unlimited accounts. After that Pro is $25/month, and you can cancel anytime from Billing in the app. If you skip it, the account moves to Free with every trade kept.

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, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8. For MT4/MT5/cTrader/NinjaTrader 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.

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