Does PlainSight connect to my brokerage account?

No. You export a file from your broker and drop it on the page. PlainSight never asks for your broker login.

Is my trade history uploaded when I use the AI features?

No. The AI features send only anonymized summary figures, such as totals and shares — never your individual trades or the file.

Where are my saved reports kept?

In your browser, on the device you saved them on. You can save a backup file to your own device and restore it on another.

Which file do I need?

Your broker's trade or transaction history as a CSV or Excel file. Either one row per trade with a profit and loss column, or separate buy and sell fills — PlainSight pairs them into round trips.

Home › Guides › A private trading journal

A Private Trading Journal: Analyze Your Trades Without Uploading Them

By PlainSight — Insightful Actions · Updated November 2026 · ~5 min read

The short answer: a trading journal is private when your trade history is read on your own device and never sent anywhere. PlainSight works that way: you export the file from your broker, drop it on the page, and your browser does the reading. The file is never uploaded. You can check that for yourself in about two minutes, and you should check any journal tool the same way.

What your trade history says about you

A broker export is more than a list of trades. It shows your account's size, what you hold and when, how often you trade, how you size positions, and — over a few months — how you react to losses. That's worth keeping to yourself. The question for any journal tool is simple: where does the file go when you give it to the tool?

Three ways journal tools handle your file

Uploaded and kept on a server. You upload the export; the tool stores it and analyzes it there. Convenient across devices, but your trades now live on someone else's computer, under their security and their policies.
Synced from your broker. You connect the tool to your brokerage account so it pulls trades automatically. No exporting, but you've granted another company ongoing access to your account data.
Read in your browser. The page's own code reads the file on your device and shows the results there. Nothing about the file leaves the device. The trade-off: you export a fresh file when you want a fresh read.

PlainSight's trading journal and its free leak check are the third kind.

How to check any tool yourself

Open the tool in a desktop browser, right-click the page and choose Inspect (in Safari, first turn on the developer features under Settings → Advanced). Choose the Network tab.
Drop your trade history file on the page.
Watch the list. Requests that download the page's own code are normal. What you're looking for is a request that sends something about the size of your file. If one appears, the file is being uploaded.

On PlainSight you'll see the page load its reading code and, on the leak check, a tiny count that names the step you took ("file", "sample", and so on). You won't see your file go anywhere — because it doesn't.

What PlainSight does and doesn't send

Your file: never sent. It is read by your browser on your device.
The leak check's count: the name of the step you took, nothing else — no file, no numbers, no account.
The AI features (optional): only anonymized summary figures, such as totals and shares — never your rows or the file. The one exception anywhere in PlainSight is a photo of a paper ledger, which is sent to be read only if you choose that feature.
Saved reports: kept in your browser on that device. A Back up my data button saves a copy to your own device; restoring reads it there.
Moving a report to your phone (optional): Send to my phone encrypts the report in your browser with a key that never reaches PlainSight. The server relays only that scrambled copy, can't read it, and deletes it once your phone opens it, or after 15 minutes.
From the leak check to the full journal: when you press a button to carry on, the file is kept in this browser for at most 30 minutes so the journal can open it without asking again, and it's deleted as soon as the journal reads it.

The privacy page has the full detail.

What a private journal asks of you

Export now and then. There's no broker connection pulling trades for you. A fresh file every week or month is enough for most reviews; the export guide shows where to find it at each broker.
Back up what you save. Reports saved in one browser live in that browser. Clearing the site's data clears them, so keep a backup file if they matter to you.

Try it on your own trades — free

The leak check reads your broker's export in your browser and gives you three numbers and one sentence about where the money goes. No account, nothing uploaded.

Find the leak in your trading → Or see the full journal on a sample

Frequently asked questions

Does PlainSight connect to my brokerage account?: No. You export a file from your broker and drop it on the page. PlainSight never asks for your broker login.
Is my trade history uploaded when I use the AI features?: No. The AI features send only anonymized summary figures, such as totals and shares — never your individual trades or the file.
Where are my saved reports kept?: In your browser, on the device you saved them on. You can save a backup file to your own device and restore it on another.
Which file do I need?: Your broker's trade or transaction history as a CSV or Excel file. Either one row per trade with a profit and loss column, or separate buy and sell fills — PlainSight pairs them into round trips.

This guide is general information about how PlainSight handles your files. It is not investment advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.