Data export is the practical test of whether a trading journal locks you in. A usable export contains every trade with entry, exit, volume, open and close timestamps, commission, swap, tags and notes; a summary PDF does not qualify. Both GoldHunts and Tradezella support journal export and import, so neither traps a trader outright.
The difference lies beyond the download. GoldHunts publishes its public gold data as static, CORS-enabled JSON endpoints — the signal ledger, the aggregate verified record, session windows, glossary and calculator definitions — described by an OpenAPI document, so scripts, spreadsheets and AI agents can query the record directly rather than scraping pages. That only has value because the published record includes losing calls as well as winning ones.
Export quality determines which statistics a trader can compute independently. With commission and swap columns present, a forty-trade gold sample winning 55% with a $310 average gross win and a 80 average gross loss yields an $89.50 gross expectancy, reduced to $72.50 net once 7 of average cost per round turn is applied. Without those columns, the same journal can only report a flattering gross figure.