NakedPnL vs TradeZella — Trade Journal vs Verified Track Record Registry
TradeZella is a private trading journal and analytics tool. NakedPnL is a public registry of verified time-weighted returns computed from primary records. Where each fits, drawn precisely.
- TradeZella is a private trading journal — traders log entries, exits, and notes to study their own behaviour and refine their setups.
- NakedPnL is a public registry of verified track records computed from daily NAV via read-only credentials.
- TradeZella's customer is the trader looking inward at their own habits. NakedPnL's customer is the outside reviewer who needs to verify what the trader claims.
Verdict in one paragraph
TradeZella and NakedPnL share an entry point — both ingest data from connected brokerage and exchange accounts — and then diverge into completely separate workflows. TradeZella is an introspection tool: its job is to make the trader's own behaviour legible to themselves so they can identify patterns, fix bad habits, and improve discipline. NakedPnL is an attestation tool: its job is to convert primary venue records into a chained TWR that any third party can re-derive without trusting the trader. Both can be used at the same time and they do not collide because they consume the same upstream data for different downstream purposes.
What TradeZella does
TradeZella is a trade journaling and analytics platform popular with active US equities, futures, and options traders. Users connect their brokers (Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, NinjaTrader, TradingView, and others) or import trade history manually. The platform reconstructs each trade with entry, exit, position size, instrument, and contextual notes the trader writes in. The output is a private dashboard that surfaces win-rate, average win/loss, time-of-day patterns, instrument-level statistics, mistake-tagging, replay views, and a calendar heatmap. The product is a personal study tool, not a performance-publication surface.
TradeZella's value proposition is reflective rather than declarative. It tells the trader what they actually do — which setups have positive expectancy, which mistakes recur on Friday afternoons, which instruments produce the bulk of the P&L — and lets the trader fix what is broken. Outputs (charts, statistics) are private to the user account by default. There is no public profile and no third-party-verifiable performance figure. A screenshot from TradeZella is a self-reported summary of self-imported data; it is not a verification surface.
What NakedPnL does
NakedPnL records daily NAV at 23:55 UTC from each connected venue. The NAV series feeds a TWR engine using Decimal.js precision and GIPS-style geometric chain-linking. Every NavSnapshot row is canonicalised, SHA-256 hashed, and chained to the previous row's chain header. The daily Merkle root of all chain heads is committed to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps. The methodology is documented at /docs/verification and the /verify/chain/[handle] page recomputes the chain head in the user's browser using the Web Crypto API.
The output is a single comparable performance figure that any third party can re-derive from primary venue records using the published methodology. The how-to-verify-a-trader-track-record-yourself guide walks the procedure end to end.
Feature comparison
| Criterion | NakedPnL | TradeZella |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Public registry of verified performance | Private trading journal and analytics tool |
| Customer | Trader publishing a verifiable record; allocator consuming one | Trader introspecting on their own behaviour |
| Primary output | Time-weighted return + chained NAV history | Per-trade analytics, mistake tags, calendar heatmap, win-rate metrics |
| Custody model | None — read-only API keys | None — read-only API keys or CSV import |
| Trade execution | No execution | No execution |
| Performance metric used | Time-weighted return computed from daily NAV (Decimal.js precision) | Trade-level P&L, win-rate, expectancy, R-multiple — no public TWR |
| Verification model | SHA-256 content hash, append-only chain, Bitcoin-anchored Merkle root via OpenTimestamps | Internal database; user can self-import data so figures are not third-party-verifiable |
| Independent re-verification | Yes — browser-side SHA-256 from raw venue responses | Not designed for third-party re-derivation |
| Public profile of the account | Yes — opt-in, GDPR-consent gated | Private — dashboard is for the account owner |
| Trade-level annotation | Out of scope | Yes — mistake tags, notes, screenshots, replay |
| Strategy backtesting | Out of scope | Limited (replay over actual trades) |
| Snapshot cadence | Daily NAV (23:55 UTC), retained forever | Per-trade granularity |
| Cost | Free public registry; trader-side paid tiers for analytics depth and verification depth | Monthly subscription, tiered by feature set |
| Regulatory category | Publisher of verified data (not a broker, adviser, or asset manager) | SaaS analytics tool; not a regulated firm |
Where each one is the right tool
- Studying your own trade behaviour to fix bad habits — TradeZella. NakedPnL has no journaling surface.
- Tagging mistakes (revenge trades, oversized risk, late entries) for review — TradeZella.
- Replaying a setup against the chart with annotations — TradeZella.
- Publishing a verified, re-derivable track record an outside allocator can underwrite — NakedPnL. TradeZella outputs are not designed for third-party verification.
- Confirming a trader's claimed performance from primary records without trusting the trader — NakedPnL chain bundle plus the verification methodology.
- Producing a single TWR figure across a Bybit account, an IBKR account, and a Polymarket position — NakedPnL.
Why a journal is not a track record
A trade journal is a study tool. Its accuracy is a function of the trader's discipline in connecting accurate data, and its outputs are not designed to circulate as public proof. Even when a journal pulls trades automatically from a broker, the trader can choose which accounts to connect, which periods to display, and which window to screenshot. None of that is dishonesty; it is just the structural limit of a private analytics product. The methodology guide on why a screenshot of P&L is not evidence covers the same problem applied to image-based shares.
A NakedPnL chain answers the structural questions a journal cannot. The chain spans the full history of every connected account; the methodology is published; the daily Merkle root is committed to Bitcoin. A reviewer can re-run the algorithm and arrive at the same TWR, then verify the chain head against the Bitcoin attestation. The verified-track-record glossary entry covers the four properties that distinguish a verified record from a self-reported one.
Can the two products co-exist for one trader?
Yes, and most serious traders should run both. TradeZella for self-improvement and behavioural review; NakedPnL for the public proof surface. The two products consume the same primary data — read-only API keys to broker or exchange accounts — for opposite downstream purposes: TradeZella surfaces internal patterns to the trader; NakedPnL surfaces the headline performance figure to the world in a form an outsider can re-check. There is no mutual exclusion. A trader who refines their setup using TradeZella and then publishes the resulting performance on NakedPnL gets the introspective benefit of one and the credibility benefit of the other.
Pricing and access
TradeZella prices on a tiered monthly subscription model with a free trial; pricing varies by feature depth (number of accounts, AI features, replay depth). NakedPnL is free to view as a public registry; trader-side paid tiers exist for deeper analytics and higher verification depth (Bronze / Silver / Gold). The founding seat program is hard-capped at 100 lifetime seats and is enforced by a unique constraint at the database level.