Accounting
Keep the books of your activity —deposits, withdrawals, fees, payouts— to know how much you REALLY made, beyond the broker balance.
Accounting is your ledger inside TradingNote. The balance your broker shows is misleading: it goes up when you deposit and down when you withdraw, none of which has anything to do with whether you're profitable. To know how much you REALLY made you need to separate the money you put in and took out from the money your trading generated. That's exactly what this section does.
The problem it solves, with an example
Imagine your account started with 10,000, you deposited 5,000 more mid-month, and today the broker shows 16,000. Did you make 6,000? No: you made 1,000 (16,000 − 10,000 − 5,000). The broker doesn't subtract your deposits. Accounting does, which is why it tells you your real result.
What movements to record
| Type | Examples | Effect on your real result |
|---|---|---|
| Income (non-trading) | Deposits, capital added. | Raises the balance but is NOT profit: it's subtracted. |
| Expense (non-trading) | Profit withdrawals, personal expenses. | Lowers the balance but is NOT a loss: it's added back. |
| Business cost | TradingNote subscription, prop-firm fees, data fees. | It does reduce your real profit: it's an operating expense. |
| Prop-firm payout | The money the prop firm pays you from your profits. | It's your real income from the funded business. |
What it's for
- Know how much you really made, subtracting deposits, withdrawals and business costs.
- Track prop-firm payouts and profit withdrawals in one place.
- Keep your numbers tidy when it's time to do your taxes or report.
- Compute your real business profitability: trading income minus all costs.
Record each deposit and withdrawal as soon as it happens. Keeping accounting up to date avoids end-of-month surprises and makes your real performance curve (not the broker's) truly reflect whether your trading makes money.