Guides for crypto futures traders

A trading journal only needs to read your trade history. Here is which permissions that takes on each exchange, what to never switch on, and how to avoid a key that suddenly stops working.

On Binance Futures the realized PnL of a fill does not include fees. Commissions and funding are separate records — here is where to find them and how to get the real result of a trade.

Bybit’s Closed P&L is already a net number — but it is recorded per closing order, not per position. Here is what is inside it and how to see the result of a whole trade.

MEXC shows two numbers for a closed futures position: closing PnL and realized PnL. Only the second one is your result. Here is the difference.

OKX realized PnL already includes fees and funding. The traps are elsewhere: sizes in contracts and coin-margined swaps that pay out in BTC, not dollars.

Bitget’s position history gives a net profit that already includes fees and funding. The tricky part is the history window — and positions held for weeks.

The number next to a closed trade is often not what actually landed in your account. Here is how net PnL is made up — price move, trading fees and funding — and how each exchange reports it.

Funding is small on one payment and easy to ignore — until you hold positions for days. Here is how it is calculated and how to see what it took from your results.

Fees look tiny — 0.02%, 0.05%. But they are charged on the full position value, twice per trade. For an active trader they are often the biggest cost after losing trades.

Add to a position twice and close it in three parts — and the “entry” and “exit” on your screen are averages that may never have traded. Here is how they are calculated.

“I win 70% of my trades” sounds great — and says almost nothing on its own. What matters is win rate together with how big the wins are compared to the losses.

Profit factor answers one question: how many dollars do you earn for every dollar you lose? It is one of the most useful single numbers in a trading journal.

Profit tells you where you ended up. Drawdown tells you how painful the road was — and whether you could have stayed on it.

Expectancy is the average amount a trade makes or loses over the long run. If it is positive after fees, more trades mean more money; if not, more trades only speed up the losses.

Liquidation happens when your margin can no longer cover the loss of the position. A simplified formula is enough to see how close it is — and why high leverage leaves almost no room.

The margin mode decides how much of your balance a single position can lose. It is a setting you choose once and then forget — which is exactly why it is worth understanding.

Most blown accounts are not caused by bad entries but by positions that were too big. Sizing from risk per trade takes one line of math.

A journal turns “I think I’m doing fine” into numbers. Here is what to record for each trade, which metrics are worth watching, and why spreadsheets usually get abandoned after a bad week.

Exchanges delete old history, and every exchange exports it differently. Here is which file to download, where to look for it, and how to turn it into something readable.

A spreadsheet journal works if it has the right columns from day one. Here is a template for futures trading — and the formulas that turn it into answers.

Most trading mistakes feel invisible in the moment and obvious in the data. Here are seven common ones and the number that gives each of them away.

A loss, then an immediate bigger trade to “win it back”. Revenge trading is one of the fastest ways to turn a bad day into a bad month — and it leaves clear traces in the data.

More trades feel like more chances. In practice, past a certain point every extra trade adds fees and mistakes rather than profit. Your history shows where that point is.