Manually typing in every trade — or exporting a CSV after each session — gets old fast. Exchange sync skips all of that: you connect your exchange once with a read-only API key, and SniperJournal pulls your trades straight from the source. This guide walks through exactly how it works, where your trades end up, and how to read the results.
Read-Only, Always
First, the important part: SniperJournal only ever uses read-only access. The API keys you connect can look at your trade history and nothing else — they can't place orders, move funds, or withdraw. Your keys are encrypted at rest on our servers and are never shown in plain text again after you save them. When you create the key on your exchange, only enable the "read" permission.
1. Open Exchange Settings
Click your profile in the top-right corner and choose Exchanges & APIs. That's your connection hub — every exchange you link lives here.
2. Connect an Exchange
SniperJournal syncs with 30+ exchanges and brokers over read-only API — Binance, Bybit, OKX, Bitget, KuCoin, MEXC, Coinbase, Kraken, Gate.io, Crypto.com, HTX, BingX, Bitso, Hyperliquid, Interactive Brokers, and many more you can find by searching. The seven biggest run on dedicated, hand-built integrations; the rest are covered through our universal sync engine, so if your exchange has an API, chances are it's supported.
Pick your exchange and you'll get a short form asking for your API key and secret — plus a passphrase for the ones that require it.
Create the key on your exchange with read-only permissions, paste it in, and hit Connect. SniperJournal validates the credentials on the spot: if they work, the connection is saved; if not, you get an error right away instead of a silent failure.
3. Which Portfolio Do Trades Go To?
This is the part most people wonder about. A connection always feeds the portfolio you had active when you created the API connection. From then on, that exchange's trades land in that same portfolio every time you sync — no matter which portfolio you happen to be viewing at the moment. The destination is decided once, at creation, so your data never scatters across the wrong accounts.
You can see and change the destination right on the connection, under "Syncs to portfolio." So if you keep your scalping account separate from your swing account, just connect each exchange from (or point it to) the right portfolio.
4. Sync Your Trades
There are two ways to pull trades:
Sync Now — On any single connection, click *Sync Now* to import that exchange's latest trades into its portfolio.
Sync All — The circular arrow in the top bar syncs every connected exchange at once, each into its own portfolio. Handy when you trade across several accounts.
Each sync pulls up to your most recent 500 trades. Already-imported trades are detected and skipped automatically (matched by their exchange order ID), so running a sync twice never creates duplicates.
5. Read the Result
After a sync you get a short summary of what happened. A single-exchange sync tells you how many trades were imported and which portfolio they went to. Sync All shows one consolidated notice broken down by portfolio — for example, "Arch +20 (mexc, bybit)" — so you can see at a glance where everything landed and how many were new. Your dashboard and stats refresh on their own; no reload needed.
Pausing and Removing
Need a break from a connection? Pause it and it stops syncing until you re-enable it — your saved trades stay untouched. Delete removes the stored credentials entirely (again, your imported trades stay). Either way, nothing you've already journaled is affected.
Troubleshooting
"0 trades imported" — Usually means everything was already synced (all duplicates), or the account has no closed trades in the window. Open positions that haven't closed yet won't come through as completed trades.
Invalid credentials — Double-check you enabled read permissions and copied the full key/secret. Some exchanges also require a passphrase; if the form asks for one, it's mandatory.
Connection paused — A paused connection won't sync. Hit *Enable* to resume.
A Note on Timing
Right now the sync is manual — you decide when to pull, with *Sync Now* or *Sync All*. That keeps you in control and avoids surprises. Automatic background sync is on the roadmap, but for today, a quick *Sync All* at the start of your session keeps everything up to date.
That's the whole flow: connect read-only, point each exchange at the right portfolio, and sync in a click. Your trades show up in the Journal ready to tag and analyze. SniperJournal is free to start.
Exchanges & brokers with API auto-sync: MEXC, Binance, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, OKX, Interactive Brokers, Coinbase, Kraken, Gate.io, Crypto.com, HTX (Huobi), BingX, Bitfinex, Gemini, Bitstamp, Upbit, Phemex, WhiteBIT, WOO X, BitMart, CoinEx, Deribit, Hyperliquid, Poloniex, LBank, Bitso, BloFin, Bitvavo, Kraken Futures, Binance US, and BitMEX — with more added regularly. Don't see yours? Use the search box on the connect screen, or reach out and we'll look into adding it.