How to use Blackbox: your fills, graded against you
Describes the product as built on September 28, 2026. The app is the record; if this page and the app disagree, the app is right and this page is behind.
Blackbox is the record. It takes your fills, stamps each one with what the Tape showed when you entered, and grades you against your own history rather than anyone else’s. This guide walks a new trader through it from the first import to the trade drawer.
Bring your fills
Import a CSV from your trading platform on the Import page. The source is detected from the columns and the fills land on the account you choose. Every fill that entered after the feed existed is stamped with the tape state at that minute: the dealer-gamma regime, the session segment, the expected-move-to-ATR read, the distance from the 240m EMA and whether spot was between the walls. Older fills keep their numbers and simply carry no stamp. Your data stays yours: export it as CSV, as a Tradervue-shaped file or as JSON at any time, and delete everything from Settings.
The strip
Eight tiles across the top for the period you pick, this week, month, 90 days, year to date or all: net P&L, win rate, profit factor, expectancy per trade, average win against average loss, payoff ratio, max drawdown and trade count. Each carries its inputs underneath so you can see how it was made.
Equity curve and score
The curve is cumulative net with the underwater drawdown shaded beneath it and the peak and trough marked. The daily session bars sit under that. The score beside it grades six metrics out of 100 and honours the 30-trade rule: until you have 30 trades it tells you how many more it needs rather than pretending.
The calendar
A month at a time, each trading day with its net and trade count and, when you filed one, the day’s report-card grade. Weeks total on the right. Click a day for its fills.
By condition
This is the table the stamps were for. Your trades are cut nine ways: dealer gamma at entry, session segment, trade number of the week, expected move to ATR, distance from the 240m EMA, position against the walls, side, duration and day of the week, plus one more for your own tags. Each cell shows count, net, per trade, per contract, win rate, average win against loss, payoff and average R. Thirty trades in, this table tells you the conditions you actually make money in and the ones you only think you do.
Distributions and streaks
Three boxes: P&L per trade in dollar buckets with the tail and skew read; R per trade once your trades carry a planned stop; and a scatter of the best move each trade had against the worst move it took, with a diagonal that marks giving back more than you kept. Streaks show the current run, the longest of each kind, the best and worst day and hour, average hold time and commissions.
The trades table
Every fill in the period with symbol, side, size, entry, exit, net, R, duration, its stamp chips, tags and grade. Filter by symbol, side, condition or tag, search across symbol, date, tags, notes and chips, tick rows to sum them, and download the current view as CSV. Click any row to open the drawer.
The trade drawer
Two halves. What the tape said: the stamp chips, then MAE, MFE and give-back over the life of the trade from the five-minute bars, with a running P&L line from entry to exit. What you said: an execution rating from one to five, tags, a planned stop and target, notes and up to four screenshots. Set the stop and the drawer computes planned R and realised R in points, which is what the R column, the R histogram and the average-R cells read from.
| Field | What it feeds |
|---|---|
| Planned stop | Realised R on the row, the R histogram, average R by condition |
| Planned target | Planned R in the drawer header |
| Tags | The Tag filter and the Tag group in By condition |
| Rating and notes | Your own review; searchable from the table |
| Screenshots | Private to you, up to four per trade |
The daily report card
From the Blackbox header, file a card for today: a grade and a few words on the day. Grades appear on the calendar and in the trades table, so a week of C days is visible without opening anything.
A routine that takes five minutes
- After the close, import the day’s fills if they are not already in.
- Open each trade, set the stop you had in mind when you entered, add one tag and one sentence. That is all the note-taking Blackbox needs.
- File the report card.
- Once a week, read By condition. Once you pass 30 trades, believe it.
Questions people search for
Do I have to write notes on every trade for Blackbox to work?
No. Import your fills and the scorecard, calendar, results by condition and streaks fill in on their own. Each fill is stamped with the state of the Tape at the moment you entered. Notes, tags, a rating and a planned stop are optional and add the R-based reads when you use them.
Why does a cell say it needs more trades?
Anything under 30 trades is not reported as a result. Small samples flatter everybody, so the cell shows its count and how many more trades it needs instead of a number you might act on.
Where do MAE and MFE come from?
From the five-minute bars over the life of the trade, kept from the day the feed started. A trade before that reads no data rather than a guess. The drawer names the first day bars are on file.