Fidelity trading journal
Connect Fidelity read-only, or download your Activity & Orders history and drop the file in. Read your trading back as an equity curve, a calendar and your own written notes.
Connect Fidelity read-only and your fills arrive daily, or download your Activity & Orders history as a CSV and drop it onto Import & Export. Buys, sells and option expirations become positions with an equity curve, calendar P&L and your own notes. One honest limit: a file cannot open a short option.
How do I import Fidelity trades into a journal?
Connect Fidelity from Connections, or download your history from Activity & Orders, open Import & Export in sizeforzero, choose the account, drop the CSV and press Import trades. Bought and sold rows become positions, and expirations close the open option at zero.
Connect Fidelity
- In sizeforzero, open Connections.
- Choose Fidelity.
- Sign in on Fidelity’s own page. The link is read-only: sizeforzero can see your trades and cannot place one.
- Your fills arrive and then refresh every day.
A short option opened at Fidelity belongs on the connection rather than in a file, for the reason explained below.
Import a Fidelity history CSV
- In Fidelity, open Accounts, then Activity & Orders, then History, and choose the account and the dates you want.
- Download the history. Fidelity saves it as a CSV file, newest first.
- In sizeforzero, open Import & Export and choose the account to import into.
- Drop the file. Exported from is picked from the file’s columns when sizeforzero can tell; check that it says Fidelity.
- Press Import trades. You are told how many fills landed, how many were skipped as already imported, and anything that needs a second look.
The file starts with a few empty rows and ends with a footer of disclaimers and a Date downloaded line. Both are skipped, and the rows are applied oldest first whatever order Fidelity lists them in.
Why a Fidelity file cannot open a short option
Fidelity words an option sale you open as YOU SOLD OPENING TRANSACTION, and a file read by sizeforzero treats that row as a plain sale. A plain sale with no position to close cannot open a short, so it waits in your Inbox as an unmatched sale.
The later row for that option, its EXPIRED or ASSIGNED line, is then refused with a note that names the option, and the premium you collected is not booked. When an assignment moves shares, the share row of the file still books them at the strike.
We would rather say so than book a wrong number. If you write short options at Fidelity, use the connection, which reads the position itself. Long options, shares, and the expiry of a long option all import normally from a file.
How the Action column is read
Fidelity writes the Action as a full sentence, for example YOU BOUGHT OPENING TRANSACTION PUT (NFLX), and it often starts with a space. sizeforzero reads the side from the start of the sentence, so YOU BOUGHT is a buy and YOU SOLD is a sale. Quantity is signed in the file and is read as the file states it.
Dividends, interest, electronic funds transfers and wires are recorded as income or transfers. Reinvestments, journaled entries, redemptions, distributions and other credits are kept out of your trade count. An in-kind transfer in or out is applied using the signed quantity on its row.
An EXPIRED row has no quantity or price, so sizeforzero closes the whole open lot at zero on that date.
Four layouts, one preset
Fidelity has changed the column order of this export more than once between 2017 and 2026, and the headers come with or without the ($) suffix, for example Price ($) or Price. Every column is matched by its name, not its position, so each of the four layouts seen is read.
Commission ($) and Fees ($) are separate columns and arrive as separate figures. Dates are month, day, year, with no time of day, so a Fidelity CSV cannot put same-day fills in minute order.
Options in a Fidelity file
The contract sits in the Symbol column with a leading hyphen, for example -NFLX270115P50: the underlying, the expiration as year, month and day, C or P, and the strike. sizeforzero reads it into its parts, so every contract keeps its strike and expiration. Single-leg calls and puts are supported; multi-leg strategies are not tracked as one position.
Currency and accounts
A Fidelity history file has no currency column, so every row is booked in US dollars. Create the journal account in USD and import each file into the account it came from. Positions can be held in USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, AUD, JPY or CHF and keep their own currency.
Under Show more you can mark an account’s type: Cash or individual, Margin, TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, or Other or not sure. IRA and Roth have no type of their own, so mark those as Other or not sure.
What the Fidelity import leaves out
Futures, forex and crypto are not supported. Short options cannot be opened from a file, as above. A row that is not clearly a trade is flagged for review with a plain reason instead of being guessed at.
sizeforzero never places an order and never moves money. It reads what already happened.
Does sizeforzero sync with Fidelity automatically?
Yes. Connect Fidelity from Connections, sign in on Fidelity’s own page, and fills refresh daily. The link is read-only, and CSV import stays available if you prefer to work from a file.
Where do I download my Fidelity history?
In Fidelity, open Accounts, then Activity & Orders, then History. Pick the account and dates, then download. Fidelity’s help pages have the current wording if the menus have moved.
Can I journal short options from a Fidelity file?
No. A short option opened at Fidelity is read from a file as a plain sale, which waits in your Inbox, and its expiration or assignment row is refused with a note. Use the connection for short options.
Do long options and expirations import from a Fidelity file?
Yes. A bought option opens a long position with its strike and expiration, and an EXPIRED row closes the open contract at zero, so the premium paid is realised as the loss it was.
Why does my Fidelity file start with blank rows and end with disclaimers?
That is how Fidelity writes it, along with a leading byte-order mark. sizeforzero skips the empty rows, finds the real header row and ignores the footer, so the file can be dropped in as it was downloaded.
Does the Fidelity export change format over time?
It has. Four header layouts are known between 2017 and 2026, differing in column order and the ($) suffix. Columns are matched by name, so an older download imports as well as a recent one.
Are Fidelity commissions and fees included?
Yes. Fidelity writes Commission ($) and Fees ($) as separate columns, and both are read. Figures are rounded to the cent.
What about Fidelity dividends, transfers and reinvestments?
Dividends and interest are recorded as income, and electronic funds transfers and wires as transfers. Reinvestments and journaled entries are kept out of your trades so they do not distort win rate.
What happens if I import the same Fidelity file twice?
Nothing is written twice. Every upload is fingerprinted, so a Fidelity download you have already imported adds no trades and says so plainly. Downloads for overlapping periods are safe, and recent imports keep a one-click undo for 24 hours.
Can sizeforzero place trades or move money at Fidelity?
No. It is a journal, not a broker. The Fidelity connection is read-only, and sizeforzero never places an order, holds funds or gives investment advice.
What does a Fidelity trading journal cost?
The journal is free forever: unlimited trades, every account, broker connections, CSV in and out, full analytics, the equity curve and calendar P&L, with no credit card. Pro turns the AI always on after a 30-day free trial. The pricing page has the current plans.
Once the trades are in
More on registered accounts, CAD and USD side by side, and Canadian tax record-keeping on the trading journal for Canadian traders page. Terms like expectancy, R multiple and profit factor each have a plain-English entry in the glossary. The full plan breakdown is on the pricing page.
Keep reading
Bring in your first Fidelity trades and see the equity curve behind them. Free, no card.
Start freeThe fine print
sizeforzero is an independent trading journal. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. Fidelity is a trademark of its owner, referenced here only to describe whose account data this journal can read, by CSV or by a read-only connection.
For informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.