How to Review Your Trades on a TradingLead Chart

What this review does

Chart review puts an individual simulated result back into its price context. Instead of asking only whether the trade made money, you can inspect the candles around the entry, compare partial exits and identify which details were recorded rather than remembered.

TradingLead's verified workflow covers paper sessions and backtests. It is not a promise that the product imports your real broker executions. If you only ran native Bar Replay without starting paper practice, there is no trade ledger from that playback.

Step 1: choose the correct record

Open your paper session or completed backtest and locate its trade list. Check the run you selected before navigating: a paper session and a strategy backtest can use different periods, execution rules and cost assumptions even when they share a symbol.

The list contains exit legs, not necessarily whole positions. A position closed in two parts can produce two rows with the same position ID. Review their quantities and relationship before deciding how many separate entry decisions you made.

For historical paper practice, remember that manual market orders use the latest revealed close with costs. Automatic strategy and forward-paper workflows have their own timing. Do not use the chart's appearance to assume the same execution rule applies to every run.

Step 2: open the trade on its chart

Select View on chart beside the exit leg. TradingLead restores that run's feed, symbol and timeframe and focuses the entry and exit.

Wait for the chart to finish restoring. If it reports a loading or history error, fix that before interpreting the display. A current chart with a similar symbol is not enough: the correct feed and timeframe are part of the evidence.

Selecting the same focused row again clears chart focus while keeping the present chart view. This is useful when you want to compare the selected trade with nearby candles without another navigation.

Step 3: read markers and prices separately

Entry and exit arrows identify execution candles. Their placement around candle highs or lows makes them readable; the arrow tip is not an exact fill-price assertion.

Use the recorded label, short horizontal fill mark when enabled, or ledger price for execution details. Compare:

• The recorded entry and exit timestamps.
• The quantity associated with that exit leg.
• Entry and exit prices rather than only arrow locations.
• The exit reason and any fees shown in the record.
• Related legs that share the same position.

Treat a connecting line as a link between two recorded fills. It does not reconstruct the price path, spread or liquidity between those points.

Step 4: simplify the overlay

For a backtest, open the Chart menu and use its Visibility controls. Choose Selected trade only when the chart is crowded, or All visible trades for a broader comparison.

Trade labels can be set to None, Selected / latest exit, or All visible trades. The all-label option adds entry labels as well as exit details. Entry / exit markers and Trade path lines are separate toggles, so a hidden line does not mean the underlying trade record disappeared.

Use Style for appearance. Style and visibility edits do not rerun the backtest. Inputs and Period are different: applying changes there can rerun it. When reviewing an existing result, avoid unintentionally replacing the question with a newly configured test.

Step 5: distinguish protection from history

The backtest Trade stops / targets overlay shows the selected trade's recorded original levels when available. It is not a history of every later amendment.

An active paper position has a different purpose: its current entry, stop and target levels relate to the open simulated account. Hiding those overlays does not cancel protection or close a position.

Likewise, an open-position P&L label is not a completed exit result. Its tooltip explains unrealized P&L after allocated entry fees, before future exit costs. For closed results, return to the exit leg and ledger.

Step 6: write a process observation

Record what the chart demonstrates without turning hindsight into a trading rule. For example, note that the recorded exit happened before the next candle, or that two partial exits came from one entry. Keep that observation separate from whether the simulation happened to show a gain.

If you want to repeat the decision with later candles hidden, use bar replay practice. A new practice session is another simulation, not validation of a live strategy.

Limitations

The chart has a 40-trade viewport overlay budget. Same-side exits on one candle may share a stacked label, with an overflow count instead of every line of text. The ledger retains every leg.

Labels may show compact movement information, while account-level evaluation requires costs and net results. A clear visual path cannot establish fill realism. Backtest and paper outcomes remain simulations, not guarantees or investment advice.

Trial and subscription access follow pricing. Device-local paper-session storage is not a cloud backup, so do not assume another computer will contain the same review history.

FAQ

Why is only one exit label shown?

Selected/latest-exit mode intentionally limits text. Change the label setting if you need more context, then use the ledger for complete records.

Does hiding a trade change performance?

No. Overlay visibility changes the presentation, not the recorded trade, account balance or order execution.

Where should I start if there are no trades?

Choose a completed backtest with exit records or a paper session that has simulated exits. Native Bar Replay alone creates neither fills nor performance records.