Public.com Trading Journal - Auto Import

Public.com traders can import their complete trade history into JournalPlus using a CSV export from the Activity tab, then access realized P&L, win-rate tracking, and benchmark comparisons that Public’s own platform never provides. The integration takes under five minutes and works for stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto held in the same Public account.

Key Features

CSV Trade History Import

Public does not offer a direct API connection to third-party tools, but its CSV export contains everything needed for a complete journal import. Navigate to Portfolio > Activity in the Public web app, download the transaction history file, and upload it to JournalPlus via the CSV upload flow. JournalPlus parses the Symbol, Date, Action, Quantity, and Price columns automatically, and saves the column mapping so future imports require no remapping.

Realized P&L That Public Hides

Public’s dashboard shows your current portfolio value and unrealized gains — what a position is worth right now versus what you paid. What it does not show is your realized gain or loss on every closed trade, your overall win rate, or how long you held positions on average. After importing into JournalPlus, every closed trade gets a calculated realized P&L, and the dashboard surfaces metrics like win rate, average winner, average loser, and profit factor across your full history.

SPY Benchmark Comparison

The core question for any equity investor is whether active stock picking actually outperforms a passive index fund. DALBAR’s 2023 study found that the average retail equity investor underperformed the S&P 500 by roughly 4% annualized over 30 years, largely from behavioral timing errors. JournalPlus answers this question directly: after importing your Public trade history, set SPY as the benchmark and the dashboard calculates your realized return vs. the index for any date range you select.

Trade Thesis Tagging

Not all trades come from the same decision process. Public users often hold a mix of long-term conviction positions, dividend plays, earnings speculations, and trades copied from community members they follow. JournalPlus’s tagging system lets you label each trade by thesis — dividend, growth, earnings, social-copy — and then compare performance across categories. The category breakdown often reveals that one decision type (commonly social-copy trades) is dragging down an otherwise positive portfolio.

Multi-Asset Performance Separation

Public supports stocks, ETFs, crypto, options, and bonds in a single account. The single account view makes it easy to overlook that, for example, equity positions are up 12% while crypto trades are down 30%. JournalPlus separates your Public trades by asset class after import, so each segment gets its own P&L summary, win rate, and benchmark comparison rather than being averaged into a single portfolio number.

How to Connect Public.com

Step 1: Log In to Public.com

Open the Public web app at public.com and sign in to your account. The CSV export feature is available on the web platform — the mobile app does not currently offer a downloadable transaction history file.

Step 2: Open the Activity Tab and Download Your History

Navigate to Portfolio > Activity. Use the Download or Export button to save your transaction history as a CSV file. The file contains all executed trades with columns for symbol, date, action (Buy or Sell), quantity, and price per share or unit.

Step 3: Open JournalPlus and Start a CSV Import

In JournalPlus, go to Import Trades and select CSV Upload. Choose the Public CSV file from your downloads folder. JournalPlus recognizes the standard Public column format and pre-fills the mapping fields for common column names.

Step 4: Map Your Columns

On the column mapping screen, confirm that each Public CSV header is matched to the correct JournalPlus field: Symbol, Trade Date, Side (Buy/Sell), Quantity, and Price. If Public’s export uses different header labels, adjust the mapping manually. JournalPlus stores this mapping for future imports.

Step 5: Review and Confirm the Import

JournalPlus displays a preview table of all parsed trades before saving. Review for any rows with parsing errors — these typically appear when a non-trade row (such as a dividend credit or cash transfer) is included in the export. Remove or skip those rows, then confirm to complete the import.

Step 6: Tag Trades by Thesis

After import, use the bulk tag tool to categorize your trades. Select all positions you copied from Public community members and tag them “social-copy.” Tag dividend-focused buys separately from growth or momentum plays. This step takes 5-10 minutes but unlocks the category-level performance breakdown that makes the journal genuinely actionable.

What Gets Imported

Data Field	Description
Trade Date	Date of execution
Symbol	Ticker symbol (stocks, ETFs, crypto)
Side	Buy or Sell
Quantity	Number of shares, units, or contracts
Price	Execution price per unit

Public’s CSV does not include commission data on stock and ETF trades because Public charges no commission on those transactions. Options trades carry a $0.03 per contract fee, which may appear as a separate line item in the activity export. Crypto trades may include a spread cost rather than an explicit commission. Any data not present in the export — trade rationale, emotional state, setup tags, and thesis notes — must be added manually inside JournalPlus after import.

Analytics & Insights

After importing your Public trade history, JournalPlus builds a realized P&L ledger that Public’s own interface cannot produce. Every closed position shows entry price, exit price, hold duration, gross profit or loss, and net return as a percentage. The dashboard aggregates these into a win rate, average win-to-loss ratio, and profit factor — three metrics that tell you far more about trading quality than a portfolio percentage return.

The benchmark tool is particularly relevant for Public users. Because Public’s social feed surfaces other investors’ winning positions, it creates a distorted view of what active stock picking looks like. Barber and Odean (2000) documented that active individual traders underperform by approximately 6.5% annually net of costs versus passive holding. Importing your trades and running the SPY comparison puts a specific number on the cost — or benefit — of your own selection decisions.

Consider the scenario where a Public user makes 12 trades over 6 months: NVDA bought at $450 and sold at $510 (+13%), AAPL bought at $175 and sold at $168 (-4%), a social-copy trade in AMC entered at $6.50 and exited at $4.20 (-35%), and 9 additional positions. Without a journal, the investor sees a portfolio up 8% and considers it a good year. After importing the CSV into JournalPlus and tagging each trade, the breakdown shows original-idea trades returned +14% on average, social-copy trades lost -18% on average, and SPY returned +11% in the same period. The portfolio is technically up — but the investor is underperforming the index and being dragged down by one specific category of decision. That insight only exists because the trades were tagged and analyzed separately.

For traders using Public’s multi-asset accounts, the asset class filter adds another layer. Stocks, ETFs, and crypto each get their own performance summary, making it straightforward to see whether diversification across asset types is adding or subtracting from overall returns. For more on tracking equity positions across platforms, see the US stock market journal guide. Traders who also use social-driven platforms may find the social media traders use case relevant as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does JournalPlus support Public.com trade imports?

Yes. JournalPlus imports Public.com trades via CSV export. Download your trade history from Public’s Activity tab and upload it to JournalPlus using the CSV import tool. Column mapping is handled in the import flow.

How do I export my trade history from Public.com?

In the Public web app, go to Portfolio > Activity and use the Download option to export your transaction history as a CSV file. The export includes all closed trades with symbol, date, action, quantity, and price.

Why doesn’t Public.com show my realized gains and losses?

Public’s built-in analytics focus on current portfolio value and unrealized P&L. Realized gain/loss history, win rate, and average hold time are not surfaced in the Public interface — those metrics require a dedicated journal like JournalPlus.

Can JournalPlus track crypto trades from Public alongside stock trades?

Yes. Public supports stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto in a single account, and JournalPlus imports all of these from the same CSV. After import, you can filter and compare performance by asset class separately.

How do I know if my Public stock picks beat the market?

JournalPlus includes a benchmark comparison tool that measures your realized returns against SPY for any selected date range. Import your Public trade history, set the benchmark to SPY, and the dashboard shows the gap automatically.