ThinkOrSwim remains one of the best platforms for executing wheel strategy trades. The options chain tools are excellent, fills are competitive, and the platform has features specifically designed for active options traders. The one thing TOS doesn't do well is export your data in a clean, usable format. Here's how to get your trade history out and into a tracker without losing your mind.
How Do You Export Trades from ThinkOrSwim?
Step 1: Navigate to Activity and Positions
In the TOS desktop application, go to Monitor → Activity & Positions. Click the gear icon in the upper right of that panel and make sure all relevant columns are visible: Symbol, Description, Trade Date, Spread, Side, Qty, Price, Commission, and Net Amount.
Step 2: Set Your Date Range
Select "Today" for recent trades or a custom date range for historical exports. For a full tax year or campaign history, export in monthly or quarterly chunks — very large TOS exports can have formatting inconsistencies that make cleaning harder.
Step 3: Export to CSV
Click the export icon (the small page icon with an arrow) and select "Export to CSV." Save the file to your desktop with a descriptive filename including the date range.
Step 4: Clean the Raw Data
The TOS CSV comes with noise that needs to go before you can use it:
- Remove the multi-row account summary header that appears before the actual trade data
- Delete footer rows showing account totals and summaries
- Filter out cash transfer rows, margin interest entries, and any rows without option or stock symbols
- Separate stock trades from options trades if you want them in different tracking sections
Step 5: Map TOS Columns to Standard Tracker Fields
| TOS Column | Tracker Field | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Ticker | Strip the option suffix characters |
| Description | Trade Type | Parse "PUT" vs "CALL" vs stock from description |
| Trade Date | Trade Date | Verify timezone — TOS uses ET, convert if needed |
| Price | Premium or Share Price | Per-share value × 100 = total contract value |
| Qty | Contracts or Shares | Negative quantity = sell order |
| Commission | Fees | Sum with Regulatory Fee column for total fees |
What Are the Common TOS Export Quirks to Watch For?
Multi-leg trades (like rolls executed as spreads) often appear as a single row in the export but need to be split into individual legs for your tracker. Look for rows where the Description includes both "BUY" and "SELL" in the same entry — those are your spreads that need to be manually separated. Also watch for option symbols that include special characters that can break CSV parsing in Excel or Google Sheets.