Your day closed green. Ten trades, +$315 on the screen. Then the broker statement arrives and the real number is $259. The difference is fees — commission, exchange, clearing and NFA — and most futures exports never mention them.
If you import your trades from Tradovate, NinjaTrader or Rithmic, the file usually contains the price difference and nothing else. Your journal then shows a P&L that is a little better than reality on every single trade, and over a month that gap is not small. This guide shows how to fix it in SniperJournal once: set your fee per contract, and every import — the ones you already made and the ones to come — carries it.
Which exports include fees, and which don’t
Not every export is the same. Here is what we see in the files futures traders import most:
- Tradovate · Performance, Position History, Orders, Order History — no fees at all. The P&L in the file is price difference × contracts × point value.
- Tradovate · Fills (also ProjectX and TopstepX) — broker commission only. Exchange, clearing and NFA fees are not in the file.
- NinjaTrader · Orders and Rithmic · Order History — no fees.
- NinjaTrader · Executions — includes a commission column, imported as it comes.
SniperJournal knows which is which. When a file has no fees, or only part of them, the import asks you for your rate instead of silently saving $0.
What “fee per contract, per side” means
Futures fees are charged per contract and per side: once when you open the position and once when you close it. Your all-in rate is the sum of the broker commission, the exchange fee, the clearing fee and the NFA fee for one contract, one side. You’ll find it on your broker statement or on your broker’s pricing page. It depends on your plan and on the contract — micros cost less than full-size contracts.
The formula SniperJournal applies is simple: fees = rate × contracts × 2 sides. A 3-contract trade at $1.34 per side costs $8.04.
Step 1 · Import and set your rate
Import your file as usual (Trades → Import). When the file doesn’t include fees, the preview shows a notice above the trades — This file doesn’t include fees — with a field for your rate.
Type your rate and click Apply. The preview recalculates every trade and tells you the total before anything is saved: ten trades, 21 contracts at $1.34 per side is $56.28.
Click Import. The rate is saved to that account, so the next time you import a file without fees the field is already filled in — you just confirm.
The field only appears for files that don’t bring complete fees. Exports that include commissions are imported exactly as they come. If your rate changes, type the new one in the preview and it is saved again.
Step 2 · Add fees to trades you already imported
Already have weeks of trades sitting at $0 fees? You don’t need to delete or re-import anything.
Go to Trades, click Select, pick the trades (or Select all) and click Set fees in the selection bar.
The dialog opens with your account’s rate already filled in, and tells you how many contracts you selected and what the fees add up to. Apply to all writes rate × contracts × 2 sides on each selected trade.
Trades synced from an exchange by API keep the fees the exchange reported; Set fees doesn’t touch them.
Step 3 · Change the rate later
The rate lives with the account: open Portfolios, click Edit on the account, and you’ll find Fee per contract, per side. Change it when your broker changes its pricing, or clear it to import without fees.
Where fees show up
Once your trades carry fees, the whole app uses them:
- The Net Profit card on the Dashboard shows your real result, with the line “after $X fees” and a Net / Gross toggle to compare.
- The Commissions Paid card totals them for the period.
- Each trade’s details list its fees next to the P&L.
- Daily Review shows the day’s fees next to the day result.
The P&L of each trade stays the gross figure your broker reports; fees are stored separately and subtracted where it matters. Nothing is counted twice.
Limits and tips
- One rate per account. If you trade contracts with different fees in the same account — micros and full-size, say — use the rate of what you trade most, or select those trades in the Journal and set their fees separately.
- Fills exports already include the broker commission. Your rate is added on top, so enter only the part that is missing: exchange, clearing and NFA.
- Leave it empty to import without fees. You can always add them later with Set fees.
- The rate is in your account’s currency, the same one your P&L uses.
Fees are the one cost you pay on every trade, win or lose. Thirty seconds to set your rate, and your journal stops flattering you by a dollar or two per contract.