A trading journal for MotiveWave. The charts stay there. The grading happens here.
MotiveWave traders tend to be serious about analysis: Elliott, Gann, volume profile, custom studies. The Account page shows every execution with commission and an exact timestamp, which makes it one of the cleanest exports Actal reads. What MotiveWave does not show is whether the trade matched your plan, and what the sloppy ones have cost you this quarter.
Does MotiveWave have a trading journal?
No. MotiveWave has trade history on the Account page and a basic trade report, and its own users call that screen basic on the MotiveWave forum. There is no grade, no mistake tag, no rules, no plan and no P&L split by setup. The export is good, though: every execution with commission and a timestamp that includes the timezone offset. That is all a journal needs.
Where MotiveWave traders get stuck, and what a week with Actal looks like.
Hours on the analysis, Elliott counts, profiles, custom studies. Then a sloppy entry, a moved stop, and the trade report just says minus $410.
The trade gets a grade on execution with your own setup criteria as the checklist. The analysis was an A. The execution was a D. Now you know which one to work on.
The trade report in MotiveWave is basic. A list of fills. I cannot see a habit in a list of fills.
Fills become round trips, mistakes become tags with a running cost, and the most expensive one sits at the top of the insights page with the trades behind it.
My rules live in a text file next to the workspace. Nothing checks them.
Daily loss, max trades, size and cooldowns are checked on every import. A broken rule is the first thing you see, on the day it happened.
Replay sessions, a sim account and the live account, all mixed in one Account page.
Each becomes its own account in Actal. Replay grades stay with replay. Live grades stay with live. One dashboard shows whether the habits match.
I plan the session on the chart and never write it down, so I cannot say if I traded it.
A, B and C scenarios before the open, a closeout after. Plan adherence is a weekly number. Off-plan days are marked on the calendar.
Stats journals re-read my timestamps in some timezone and half my trades were in the wrong session.
MotiveWave writes the offset into every timestamp and Actal reads it as written. A 09:31 entry is 09:31. Commission is kept separate, so gross and net are both right.
The charts, the studies and the backtester stay in MotiveWave. Actal takes one export from the Account page and grades the person who clicked.
How to get the file out of MotiveWave.
Written from MotiveWave's own documentation and checked against real files where we have them. The same guide shows on the import page and next to any error.
Older builds export Underlying, Symbol, Action, Quantity, Price, Time, Commission. Newer builds export Account, Ticket, Symbol, Time, Action, Quantity, Price, Commission. Actal reads either from the header, so it does not matter which version you run.
MotiveWave writes timestamps with the offset, for example 09:31:05.335-0500. Actal uses that and ignores your profile timezone, so a 09:31 entry is 09:31 whatever machine you exported from.
Exits are sometimes written with the continuous symbol (/NQ) while entries carry the contract (NQH4). Actal matches them onto the same position instead of leaving one trade open and another with no entry.
Commission is stored next to the P&L, not netted into it. Gross and net are both right, and mistake costs are computed on the net number.
- 1Open the Account page from the Account tab at the bottom left of the console.
- 2Open the Executions panel (called Trades in newer builds); it lists the filled orders for the account.
- 3Click the Export to CSV icon at the right above the list, pick the account if asked, and save the file.
- MotiveWave writes timestamps with an explicit offset (for example 09:31:05.335-0500), so no timezone assumption is needed.
- Exits are sometimes written with the continuous symbol (/NQ) while entries carry the contract (NQH4); they are matched onto the same position.
- Commissions are kept separate from P&L instead of being netted, so gross and net both stay correct.
- Verified against real exports of both layouts.
Some builds call the panel Trades. Same panel, same export icon above the list. If your build shows both, Executions is the one with a row per fill and that is the better file.
If your broker is on Rithmic you can also export Order History from R | Trader, one day per file, with commission. MotiveWave's own export is quicker for a month at a time, so use that unless it is missing something.
MotiveWave's export already has what you need. If you want the broker's version, an Activity Flex Query with the Trades section at execution level imports too, with the contract multiplier included. That guide is on the supported brokers page.
Every trade checked against your rules, then graded.
Daily loss limit, max trades, size and cooldowns are checked the moment the file lands. Then each trade gets a grade on execution with your own setup criteria as the checklist, a mistake tag if there was one, and the chart marked up so the lesson sticks.
Five things that happen with MotiveWave files, and the fix.
You exported a chart or a strategy report. The journal file is the CSV icon above the Executions (or Trades) list on the Account page. Export from there.
The Account page shows one account at a time. Pick the account in the selector before exporting. If you have several, export each and they land in their own accounts in Actal.
Usually the exit was on the continuous symbol and the entry on the dated contract. Actal matches those. If it still shows open, the exit is outside the exported range; export a wider range and nothing already in is doubled.
MotiveWave nets commission into some views and not others. Actal shows gross and net separately, so compare against the matching one. If a contract is off by a fixed factor, check its point value in the symbol settings.
A non-English locale can write commas as decimals. Actal handles comma decimals and semicolons; if a file still fails, send it to hello@actal.io and it is usually fixed within the week.
Sim, eval, funded and live, side by side.
Each MotiveWave account becomes an account in Actal with its own rules where they differ, and one dashboard across all of them. A habit that shows up on every account is easy to see.
MotiveWave questions
Import today's MotiveWave session. Grade it tonight.
One export, one minute, and the rules tell you how the day actually went. Free while in beta, no card, everything unlocked.