Charles Schwab Import Instructions

There are now two different methods of importing transaction history from Charles Schwab into TradeLog™:

Importing from a downloaded Export CSV file.
This is recommended when importing an entire year's worth of trade history. The csv file is limited to 1500 records. Unfortunately, there is no way to know ahead of time if the date range you have requested will exceed this limit. If the limit is exceeded, the file will contain no records and you will have to shorten the date range and try again.
Importing from the web using the online Account History report.
This report is most useful when importing a few days or weeks worth of data to keep yourself up to date. Each page of the report is limited to 50 records, but you may import each page one at a time.

Export CSV File Import

General Procedure:

1. Log on to your Charles Schwab trading account web site
and Click on the Account tab and then History tab.

2. Select Previous Year, or Current Year from the Date Range: drop down box
...or...
Select a date range from the From/To: boxes

3. Select All from the Transactions drop down box.
Note: This is necessary so you can get all option expirations, exercises, and assignments.

4. Click the Go button to display the first page of your report.

5. Click the Export button to begin the csv file download.

6. Click the OK button on the popup History Download Disclaimer dialog box.

7. Click the Save button on the popup File Download dialog box.

NOTE: If the File Download box fails to appear, you may have to enable File Downloading in your web browser by right-clicking on the following message in Internet Explorer and selecting Download File:

8. Select the Import folder under the TradeLog folder under My Documents from the Save In drop down selector.
Click the Save button to save the file to this location on your hard drive.

9. Run TradeLog

10. Click on the Schwab Imp speed button.

11. Click NO from the popup dialog box to import from the Export csv file.

12. Select the file you just saved from the Schwab Import popup dialog box and click the Open button.

13. Your trades will be automatically imported and matched.

14. Repeat steps 3-14 until all of your data is imported up to date.

Account History Import

General Procedure:

1. Log on to your Charles Schwab trading account web site
and Click on the Account tab and then History tab.

2. Select Previous Year, or Current Year from the Date Range: drop down box
...or...
Select a date range from the From/To: boxes

3. Select All from the Transactions drop down box.
Note: This is necessary so you can get all option expirations, exercises, and assignments.

4. Click the Go button to display the first page of your report.
- Your Schwab data will be in descending date order.

5. Click on the Date column to sort in ascending order.

6. Use Edit, Select All. (Ctrl-A shortcut) to select the entire page.
     ... or ...
     Use your mouse to select the report table.
     Please make sure you select the field name header line.
     For tips on selecting a report table with your mouse see:
     Selecting a report table with your mouse

7. Copy the report data using your web browsers Edit, Copy command (Ctrl-C keyboard shortcut)

8. Run TradeLog

9. Click on the Schwab Imp speed button.

10. Click YES from the popup dialog box to import from the Schwab Account History you just copied.

11. Your trades will be automatically imported and matched.
- Your Schwab trade history may span several different pages.
- You must import each page separately, starting with the page with the oldest trade data.

12. Click the Next >> button to display the next page and repeat steps 6, 7, & 10 for each page
until you reach the end of the report.

Problems with Schwab reports:

Occasionally, Schwab presents their trade history data out of order for a specific date. This usually occurs when one has challenged a fill or has had an other manual edit from customer service. Since Schwab does not report time of day for their trades, there is no automated way for any software program to determine the proper order of trades. And since TradeLog matches trades in a first-in first-out methodology as required by the IRS, it is inevitable that trades will be mismatched when this happens.

We have tried almost every conceivable method for automatically re-ordering the trades, but it seems that Schwab is not in any way consistent when this happens. Add to this the fact that Schwab does NOT report when a buy is a "buy to cover" a short sale, and you can see that it becomes impossible to automate this.

To fix this just run the Edit, Force Match Trades function.