Interactive Brokers trading journal

About this integration

Interactive Brokers doesn't expose a public OAuth API the way modern brokers do — their Flex Query system is powerful but legacy. We connect IBKR via SnapTrade, a third-party aggregator that handles the IBKR integration on our behalf. The user experience is similar to direct OAuth (sign in, approve, done) but the underlying mechanism is SnapTrade-mediated.

Supported instruments

Setup

1. 1System → Brokers → Connect Interactive Brokers (via SnapTrade)
2. 2SnapTrade-hosted IBKR auth flow opens
3. 3Sign in to IBKR through SnapTrade
4. 4Approve TFQ's access via SnapTrade
5. 5Sync completes in 2-5 minutes (slower than direct OAuth, but reliable)

How to export your trades from Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers writes its trade history at Flex Query trades export. In TradeFlow Quantum that file imports with the Interactive Brokers preset.

1. 1In IBKR Account Management run your Flex Query trades export and save the CSV.
2. 2In TradeFlow Quantum open System → Brokers → Upload CSV.
3. 3Choose "Interactive Brokers" from the preset dropdown, then upload the file.

Columns we read from the Interactive Brokers export

Ticker

Symbol

Direction

Buy/SellSide

Entry price

PriceTradePriceT. Price

Size

QuantityQty

Realized P&L

Realized P/LRealizedPL

Trade date

Date/TimeTradeDateDate

Header matching is case-insensitive and ignores punctuation and spacing, so a renamed-but-recognisable header still resolves. A file needs a ticker, an entry price, a size and a date to import at all; direction and P&L are filled in when present.

• •IBKR writes the same field under several spellings depending on which report generated it. T. Price and TradePrice both resolve to the entry price; RealizedPL and Realized P/L both resolve to P&L; TradeDate and Date/Time both resolve to the trade timestamp.
• •Header matching lowercases and strips punctuation before comparing, which is why T. Price and TradePrice collapse to the same thing.

How the Interactive Brokers connection syncs

Connection route

SnapTrade. IBKR's own Flex Query system is powerful but legacy, and there is no public OAuth API of the kind the direct integrations use — so the aggregator handles the IBKR side.

How the connection is held

One SnapTrade user id and secret per TradeFlow Quantum account, registered once on first connect rather than per broker. SnapTrade hosts the broker sign-in modal.

Refresh cadence

The Daily Data tier is read-only with roughly a 24-hour lag — appropriate for a journal, slower than the direct OAuth brokers.

Interactive Brokers import caveats

• —Activity Statement CSVs also import, but their column names differ from the Flex Query ones. Try this preset first; if it fails, send the header row through Settings → Support and a variant gets added.

Why use TradeFlow Quantum instead of Interactive Brokers's built-in tools?

• ✓Cross-broker view. If you trade Interactive Brokers plus any other broker, TFQ unifies the equity curve, P&L attribution, and mistake-checker across all of them.
• ✓Mistake-checker on YOUR data — surfaces patterns in your Interactive Brokers history (time-of-day, setup type, emotional state) the broker won’t show you.
• ✓Long-term data ownership. Interactive Brokers’s built-in analytics typically limit history to 90 days or 1 year. TFQ keeps every trade forever, exportable to CSV any time.