Trading Journal for UK Futures Traders: What You Need

A UK futures trader needs a journal that handles US markets on UK time. It should import from the platform you actually use (Tradovate, Rithmic, TopstepX or NinjaTrader, for most futures prop traders), store each trade's time correctly when the US and UK change their clocks on different dates, keep P&L in the dollars you trade, and look after your data under UK GDPR. If you trade prop-firm accounts, it also needs to keep evaluations and funded accounts apart. Here's what to check, and how to choose.

#Trading the New York session from the UK

If you trade US contracts such as NQ, ES and their micros, your trading day runs on New York's clock. For most of the year New York is five hours behind the UK. But the US and UK change their clocks on different dates, so twice a year the gap shrinks to four hours:

• From the second Sunday in March (US clocks go forward) until the last Sunday in March (UK clocks go forward).
• From the last Sunday in October (UK clocks go back) until the first Sunday in November (US clocks go back).

In 2027 that's 14 to 28 March and 31 October to 7 November. (As this guide was written, in late October 2026, New York was opening at 13:30 UK until 1 November.)

Event	New York time	UK, most of the year	UK, during the gap weeks
CME Globex opens for the week (Sunday)	18:00	23:00	22:00
Daily CME break	17:00 to 18:00	22:00 to 23:00	21:00 to 22:00
Many major US data releases	08:30	13:30	12:30
US stock market open	09:30	14:30	13:30
US stock market close	16:00	21:00	20:00

Holiday hours differ, so check CME's calendar around US holidays.

#Why this matters for your journal

Platforms write times in different zones. TopstepX exports are reported to be in UTC, Tradovate uses your local time, R | Trader Pro puts the zone in the column name, and MetaTrader uses the broker's server time. If your journal assumes the wrong zone, every trade shifts, and your time-of-day analysis tells you the wrong story.

What to look for:

• The journal asks or detects which zone each file is in.
• It stores times properly, so a trade on the Friday before the clocks change and one on the Monday after both land at the right UK time.
• Its time-of-day stats use a fixed clock. In New York time the open is always 09:30; in UK time it moves between 14:30 and 13:30, so stats in UK time blur the clock-change weeks. See futures market hours in UK time.

Many futures prop firms also define the trading day by US hours, so from the UK the new day can start in the evening. Check your firm's rules, and see how to journal a prop firm evaluation.

#Dollars, pounds and your P&L

US futures are priced and settled in dollars, and most futures prop-firm accounts are in dollars too. When you're paid, the money is converted to pounds somewhere along the way, and the rate and fees depend on the firm's payout method and your bank.

For your journal:

• Keep trades in dollars. Point values ($20 a point on NQ, $2 on MNQ) and commissions are in dollars, so converting each trade adds noise.
• Review in R. An R multiple doesn't care about currency, so it's the cleanest way to compare trades.
• Convert totals separately when you need a figure in pounds.

If you need figures for HMRC, use your broker's or firm's statements and speak to an accountant. A journal is for reviewing your trading, not a tax record.

#Your data: UK GDPR and where your journal is stored

A trading journal holds more than numbers: account names, balances, screenshots, and notes about how you felt. Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to see your data, take a copy, correct it and have it deleted, and you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if a company handles it badly.

Before you sign up, check the privacy policy for:

1. Where your data is stored: the UK, the EU or elsewhere, and what safeguards apply if it leaves the UK.
2. Whether it's sold or shared for advertising.
3. How to export everything, in a format you can use elsewhere.
4. How to delete your account and how long deletion takes.
5. What it asks for to import trades. A read-only API key or token is better than your trading password, and a file import needs neither.

Marble's journal is stored in London, it's never sold, and you can export or delete it at any time. It never asks for your trading password: Topstep connects with an API key and Interactive Brokers with a report-only Flex token, both stored encrypted and used only to read trades, and everything else comes in as a file.

#Importing from the platforms UK futures traders use

Most futures prop firms run on one of a few platforms. As listed in October 2026:

• Tradovate: Apex, Tradeify, MyFundedFutures, Take Profit Trader, Lucid Trading and others. See how to export trades from Tradovate.
• Rithmic (R | Trader Pro): Apex, Bulenox, Tradeify, Funded Futures Network and others. See how to export from R | Trader Pro.
• TopstepX: Topstep. See how to export trades from TopstepX, including API sync.
• NinjaTrader 8: a front end for many of these. See how to export from NinjaTrader 8.
• Interactive Brokers: some UK traders use it for futures directly. Its Flex Query reports can be read by a journal with a read-only token; see how to set up an IBKR Flex Query.

Firms change platforms, so check your firm's help pages. A journal that reads your platform's own export file, without you reformatting it, will save you the most time.

#What else to look for in a futures journal

• Contract point values for minis and micros, so P&L and R are right without typing them in.
• Contract months grouped as one market, so NQZ6 and NQH7 both count as NQ.
• Fills paired into trades, including scale-ins and partial exits.
• Commissions per trade, or a clear note when the export doesn't include them.
• Several accounts side by side: evaluations, funded and personal. See tracking multiple prop firm accounts.
• Rules and grades, so you can review process, not just P&L.
• Works on your phone, for logging feelings and notes as they happen.
• Clear pricing in pounds, a trial, and easy cancellation.

#How to choose: a three-step test

1. Import two weeks of real trades from your platform. Do they match your statement, including fees?
2. Check the times on a trade you remember, ideally one from a clock-change week.
3. Do one weekly review in it. Does it answer your questions, or do you end up in a spreadsheet anyway?

#Where Marble fits

Marble is a trading journal built in Scotland for futures, forex and prop-firm traders. It imports files from Tradovate, TopstepX, Rithmic, NinjaTrader 8, MetaTrader, cTrader and Interactive Brokers, syncs Topstep and Interactive Brokers once connected, and lets you set the time zone each file is in. It's priced in pounds: £10 a month, or £84 a year (£7 a month), both with a 3-day free trial. A Founders' Lifetime plan is £199 once, for the first 500 traders only.

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If Marble sounds like it fits how you trade, the trial is the honest test. Start with Marble.

Names of platforms and firms belong to their owners. Marble isn't affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Marble is a trading journal. Nothing here is financial advice.