Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Stock Option Log, the free stock, option, and dividend tracker for self-directed investors.
Getting Started
What is Stock Option Log?
Stock Option Log is a portfolio tracker for self-directed investors. You can log every stock trade, option contract, and dividend payment, then see your total portfolio value, win rates, and income all in one organized place. It is a record-keeping tool, not a financial advisor — we show you accurate numbers based on what you enter and nothing else.
Is Stock Option Log free to use?
Yes. The Free plan is genuinely useful and available indefinitely with no credit card required. It includes trade logging for stocks, options, and dividends, journal entries, campaigns, goals, basic analytics, CSV export, and more. The Pro plan ($7.99/month, billed yearly or 9.99 a month) unlocks advanced analytics, compare mode, premium widgets, and higher OCR limits.
How do I add my first trade?
Open the app and navigate to Portfolio. Click “+ Option” to log an options trade, or “+ Holding” to add a stock position. You can also import trades from a Robinhood CSV, a generic CSV, a statement PDF, or a JSON backup via the Settings page.
Do I need to connect my brokerage account?
No. Stock Option Log is brokerage-agnostic. You manually enter your trades, or import them from a file. Brokerage API connections are not wired up today and remain disabled unless explicitly enabled in the future. This keeps your credentials completely private. In the future, we plan on adding features to have brokerage sync and live ticker prices.
Tracking Stocks
What stock information can I track?
You can track your cost basis, number of shares, current value, unrealized gain/loss, and realized P&L from stock sales. The Portfolio page shows all your open positions across multiple tickers, and the History page shows all closed stock sales.
Can I track multiple brokerage accounts?
Yes. The Accounts feature lets you set up multiple brokerage accounts (e.g., Robinhood Brokerage, Fidelity, IRA, Roth IRA) and tag each trade to an account. You can filter your portfolio view by account to see your positions separately.
How does tax lot tracking work?
Each purchase of a stock is recorded as a separate tax lot with its own date and cost basis. This helps you keep track of which shares qualify for long-term vs. short-term capital gains treatment. The app highlights the 1-year holding milestone for each lot.
Tracking Options
What option strategies can I log? Can I see which of my options are expiring soon?
You can log covered calls, cash-secured puts, long calls, long puts, and any other standard single-leg option strategy. Each trade includes the ticker, strike, expiration, number of contracts, premium collected or paid, and outcome (expired, assigned, closed, or exercised).
Can I see which of my options are expiring soon?
Yes. The Dashboard shows an alert when any open option position is expiring within a week. Pro users also get access to the Options Expiry Calendar, which gives a calendar view of all upcoming expirations. You can configure how far ahead the app looks in Settings.
What is the screenshot parser / OCR feature?
The OCR screenshot parser lets you take a screenshot of a trade confirmation from your brokerage app and automatically extract the trade data for quick logging. Free accounts get 5 parses per day; Pro accounts get 100. Screenshots are processed in-memory and never stored — only the extracted text data is returned to you.
Tracking Dividends
How do I record a dividend payment?
Navigate to the Dividends section and click “+ Add Dividend”. Enter the ticker, ex-date, pay date, rate per share, number of shares, and tax classification (qualified or non-qualified). The app totals your income over time and can project future payments based on your holdings.
Can I see upcoming dividend dates?
Yes. The Dividends section has tabs for Received, Upcoming, and Projected payments. You can also enable the Upcoming Dividends notification in Settings to get alerts as ex-dates and pay dates approach.
Analytics & Reports
What does the Analytics section show?
Analytics shows your total portfolio value, total income (options + stocks + dividends), options P&L, stock sales P&L, dividend income, win rate, monthly P&L, open stock positions, and total cash across accounts. All numbers come directly from the trades you enter — no projections or advice. Pro users can also use Compare Mode to benchmark periods or entities side by side.
Can I export my data?
Yes. From Settings you can download CSVs for any combination of tables (Holdings, Tax lots, Open options, Closed options, Dividends, Watchlist, Journal, Campaigns) or export a full JSON backup. You can filter by date range and by specific tickers.
Are monthly PDF reports available?
Monthly PDF reports can be downloaded from the analytics page. These will give you a downloadable record of your monthly performance and a year-end summary to help with tax preparation. You can also download a CSV from the settings page.
Privacy & Security
Is my financial data private?
Yes. Your financial information is private and visible only to you. Row-level security is enforced on every database read and write. Stock Option Log does not sell, share, or aggregate your portfolio data with any third parties.
Does Stock Option Log store my screenshots?
No. Screenshot images sent to the OCR parser are processed in-memory and never stored on the server. Only the parsed, structured output (the extracted trade data) is returned to you.
What’s the refund policy?
14-day money-back guarantee. Request a full refund from Settings → Plan any time in the first 14 days of starting your subscription and you’ll get your money back on the original card (5–10 business days to appear). After 14 days, you can still cancel at any time and you’ll keep access through the end of the period you already paid for, but the original charge isn’t refunded.
Still have questions?
Reach out via the Contact page and we’ll get back to you within one business day.