- Is SageTradingJournal really free?
- Yes. The journal, backtesting workspace, analytics, Edge Lab, prop-firm tracking, psychology tools, progression and MetaTrader 5 auto-logging are all free, with no card required and no paid tier.
- Is this only for XAUUSD / gold?
- No. Everything works for any instrument you trade — forex, metals, futures, indices, stocks or crypto. XAUUSD simply ships with the deepest bundled candle history for backtesting.
- Do I need to connect a broker?
- No — but you can, for free. Log trades manually in seconds, bulk-import a CSV from MT4, MT5, cTrader or TradingView, or install the free MetaTrader 5 Expert Advisor to auto-log every closed trade. It never asks for your broker password.
- What makes the backtesting different?
- The market is paused at your cursor and the chart can only show candles you have reached — on any timeframe. Fills resolve inside the bar, on the side of the book they trade on, at the spread quoted in the historical data where it exists. Every trade is journaled, graded from evidence and analysed with the same tools as your live trades.
- Does the gamification encourage overtrading?
- It is designed not to. Levels, missions and skills are derived from journaling, backtesting, analysis and kept rules — never from P&L, trade count or size — and XP for volume falls off sharply. A research habit out-earns thousands of backtest trades.
- Is my data private?
- Completely. Each account is an isolated workspace. Nothing is public unless you opt in per surface, nothing is sold or pooled, nothing trains anything, and you can export your trades as a CSV at any time.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes. The journal, analytics, prop tracker and progression are built for a phone, and the backtesting workspace has its own phone layout — a thumb bar upright, a rail when the phone is on its side.