Trading Journal for Prop Firm Traders
Regular trading journals track your P&L. Vigil tracks your rule compliance. Every trade is audited against your prop firm's specific rules -- drawdown type, daily loss limit, holding restrictions, news trading blackouts, and consistency requirements.
Why Prop Firm Traders Need a Different Kind of Journal
Standard trading journals like TraderSync, TradeZella, and Edgewonk were built for personal account traders. They track win rate, profit factor, and equity curves. They do not know what a trailing drawdown floor is. They do not check if you held a position through an FOMC announcement on a firm that restricts news trading. They do not warn you when your daily loss is at 80% of the limit.
Prop firm trading is a compliance game. You can be a profitable trader and still fail because you did not know your firm uses trailing intraday drawdown instead of static. Or because you violated the consistency rule by making 60% of your profit on a single day. Or because you forgot to close a position before the weekend on a firm that forbids weekend holding.
Vigil is the only trading journal that treats prop firm rules as first-class data. Every trade you import or sync is automatically checked against your firm's complete ruleset. You see violations before the firm does. That is the difference between keeping your funded account and losing it.
Vigil vs Traditional Trading Journals
| Feature | Vigil | TraderSync / TradeZella |
|---|---|---|
| Prop firm rule audit | 20+ firms pre-loaded | Not available |
| Trailing drawdown tracking | Real-time simulation | Not available |
| Behavioral pattern detection | AI-powered (revenge, tilt, overtrading) | Basic tags only |
| News trading violation check | Automatic per firm | Not available |
| Daily loss limit monitoring | Per firm, per account size | Not available |
| Performance analytics | Yes | Yes (deeper stats) |
| Price | Free (3 audits) / $29/mo Pro | $30-50/mo |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a trading journal different for prop firm traders?
A prop firm trading journal must track rule compliance alongside performance. Standard journals track P&L, win rate, and setups. A prop firm journal also tracks daily loss limit proximity, drawdown floor movement, holding violations, news trading blackouts, and consistency rule compliance. Without rule tracking, you can be profitable and still fail your evaluation.
Do I need a paid trading journal for prop firm trading?
You can journal in a spreadsheet for free, but you will miss rule violations. A spreadsheet does not know your firm uses trailing intraday drawdown or that you held through a news blackout. Vigil audits every trade against your specific firm rules automatically. The free tier includes 3 audits per month. Pro ($29/mo) covers unlimited imports and 50 AI audits.
Can I use Vigil as my only trading journal?
Yes. Vigil accepts trade data via CSV import from 14+ platforms, broker auto-sync from 9 platforms, or conversational journal via Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, and email. Every trade is stored, audited against your firm rules, and analyzed for behavioral patterns like revenge trading and tilt.
How is Vigil different from TraderSync or TradeZella?
TraderSync and TradeZella are general trade journals that track performance metrics. Vigil is a prop firm compliance tool that audits trades against specific firm rules. TraderSync does not know what trailing drawdown is. TradeZella does not check if you violated a news trading restriction. Vigil does both, plus detects behavioral patterns that cause rule violations.
What prop firm rules does Vigil track?
Vigil tracks 20+ prop firm rulesets including FTMO, TopStep, Apex Trader Funding, The5%ers, FundedNext, Bulenox, and more. For each firm, it checks: max drawdown (static, trailing EOD, trailing intraday), daily loss limit, profit target, news trading restrictions, overnight and weekend holding rules, consistency rules, and position size limits.