How Do You Prove Your Trading Results?
You prove trading results by producing a record made before the fact, covering every trade rather than a selection, that you cannot edit afterwards. Anything assembled after the fact — screenshots, exports, spreadsheets — answers a different and much weaker question.
Work out what the other person is actually asking
"Prove your results" is rarely a request for numbers. It is a request for reassurance about a specific worry, and the worry differs by audience. Answer the wrong one and even genuine evidence lands badly.
| Audience | What they actually fear | What answers it |
|---|---|---|
| A prop firm | Rule breaches and blown risk limits | Position sizing consistency, worst day, adherence |
| A trading partner | Being misled about competence | Process evidence: a documented method, followed |
| You, in six months | Not knowing whether the method works | A complete sample you did not curate |
The evidence ladder, from weakest to strongest
Screenshots. Worth nothing and mildly negative — a sophisticated reader treats a screenshot as evidence that nothing better was available.
A spreadsheet. Better structured, equally unverifiable. It was typed by you, after the fact, and it has an edit history only you can see.
A broker statement. Genuinely useful: real fills, real dates, hard to fake. Its limit is selection — you chose which account and which period to send.
A complete, pre-committed, immutable record. Answers the timing and selection problems at once, because the trades were logged before the fact and nothing can be removed afterwards.
What to do if you are starting from nothing
The uncomfortable arithmetic: a track record takes as long as it takes, and there is no way to produce one retroactively. If you need 100 trades of evidence and you take 5 a week, that is five months. Starting today makes it five months from today; waiting until someone asks makes it five months from the day you were asked.
- Start recording before the fact, from the next trade. Entry, stop, target, size, and the reason — logged when you enter, not when you exit.
- Record every trade. The moment you begin classifying some as "not part of the system", the record stops being evidence and becomes a curation.
- Make it unmodifiable. If you can edit it later, anyone evaluating it has to assume you did.
- Report the drawdown. Volunteering your worst period is the single most credible thing in a track record, because nobody fabricates a bad month.
Present it properly
Lead with the length of the record and the number of trades — both are proxies for how much the numbers can be trusted. Give the maximum drawdown before the return. State the period explicitly: a return with no start and end date is not a claim, it is a decoration.
Then give the reader something to check rather than something to accept. A link to a record they can inspect themselves is worth more than any figure you quote at them, because it moves the conversation from trusting you to reading evidence.
Where kappi fits
Broker-import journals prove what you did after the fact, from data you control. kappi timestamps what you said you would do, before you knew how it would turn out, on a record you cannot edit.
You commit each trade from the Chrome extension before the fact. It is timestamped, sealed for a time-capsuled delay, and published when the delay expires on a Merkle-anchored log that cannot be edited afterwards. What you hand someone is a URL rather than an assertion. $15/month, no free tier.
If you want a target to aim at, the profession has one. The GIPS standards require fair representation and full disclosure, with performance presented across every portfolio in a composite rather than a chosen subset.[1] You are not obliged to comply with them and most traders do not. Knowing the shape of a complete presentation still tells you what yours is missing.
kappi is a trade recorder: you commit a trade before the fact, it is sealed on your device for a time-capsuled delay you choose, and published afterwards on a Merkle-anchored log a reader can check without kappi's cooperation. $15/month, no free tier.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How do I prove my trading results without sharing my broker account?
Record the trades themselves before the fact, on a log you cannot edit afterwards. That addresses selection and timing without exposing account credentials or balances.
How many trades do I need before a track record means anything?
It depends on win rate and payoff ratio, but under about 100 trades most performance figures are dominated by noise. Length and completeness matter more than the headline return.
Can I build a track record retroactively?
No, and attempting it is what makes most track records worthless. A record only carries information if it existed before the fact.
What is the most credible thing to include?
Your worst drawdown, stated before the returns. Nobody invents a bad period, so volunteering one is strong evidence the rest is complete.