Skip to content
RizeTrade

Help Centre

153 guides on importing trades, connecting brokers and everything else in RizeTrade.

Import trades from Sterling Trader Pro

Export a .txt file from Sterling Trader Pro with the six columns in the order below, then upload it in Rize Trade with the matching Date Format and Time zone.

For the shared upload flow (account, file size, and Import History), see How to import your trades.

Export from Sterling Trader Pro

Save executions from Position Manager or Trading Monitor as a .txt file with only the columns Rize Trade expects, in this exact order.

  1. Log in to the Sterling Trader Pro desktop app.
  2. Open Position Manager or Trading Monitor.
  3. Set columns under View > Settings > Columns. Keep only these columns, in this order, then click OK:
    • Date
    • Time
    • Symbol
    • Shares (Qty)
    • Exe Price
    • Side
  4. Choose Actions > Save as .txt.

Warning: Use Exe Price (execution price), not order price. On upload, confirm Date Format matches the dates in your file.

Columns Rize Trade expects

Each row needs date, time, symbol, quantity, price, and side. Files can include a header row or use a fixed column order with no header. Comma, tab and semicolon separated files all work.

With a header row

When the first row is a header, these column names are recognized (any alias in a group works, upper or lower case):

  • Symbol: symbol, sym, ticker
  • Side: side, action, b/s, buy/sell
  • Quantity: qty, shares, size, quantity, fill qty, filled qty, exec qty
  • Price: exe price, exec price, fill price, avg price, execution price, or price
  • Date: date, trade date, transaction date, exec date, or a combined date/time, datetime or exec date/time column
  • Time: exec time, time, fill time, order time

Optional fee columns: total fee, total fees, fees & comm, fees & commissions or total (an all-in fee), or commission / comm plus separate columns such as ecn fee, sec, taf, nscc, clr, cat, misc, reg fee, clearing fee, venue fee and transaction fee.

If both an execution price column and a Price column are present, the execution price is used. Price is only used when the execution price is blank or not a number (for example MKT).

If the file has a Time column but no date column, Rize Trade uses the Trade Date you pick on upload.

Without a header row

Headerless files are read as six fields in this order:

  1. Date
  2. Time
  3. Symbol
  4. Shares
  5. Price
  6. Side

A line with 12 or more fields, in whole groups of six with a date in the seventh field, is treated as several six-field trades on the same line.

Example row:

01/15/2024,09:30:15,AAPL,100,175.50,BOT

Rows with zero shares or a zero price are skipped as cancelled or rejected orders. UTF-16 LE files and files with a BOM are accepted.

Side values

Side is mapped to buy or sell from common Sterling labels. A row with any other side value is skipped.

  • Buy: B, BOT, BUY, BOUGHT, BC, BTC, BTO, COVER, BUY TO COVER, BUY TO OPEN, BUY TO CLOSE, LONG
  • Sell: S, T, SLD, SELL, SOLD, SS, SX, SHRT, SSHRT, SHORT, SLD SHRT, SOLD SHORT, SELL SHORT, SHORT SELL, SELL TO OPEN, SELL TO CLOSE, STO, STC

Upload in Rize Trade

After exporting the .txt file, import it from Add Trades with Sterling Trader Pro selected. For the general upload flow, see How to import your trades. Sterling-specific settings:

  • Set Time zone to match the timestamps in your file. Required.
  • Set Date Format to match the dates in your export. Default is MM/DD/YY. Options: MM/DD/YY, DD/MM/YY, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY.
  • Trade Date is only needed for exports that have times but no dates.
  • Accepted file types: TXT or CSV.

Tip: If a date in your file has a day above 12, Rize Trade works out day and month order from the file itself. If every day is 12 or under (for example 03/04/26), both orders read cleanly, so Rize Trade shows the first trade under each reading and asks you to choose. Compare with a known trade day in Sterling. See Why are my entries and exits on the wrong dates? if times land on the wrong day after a successful import.

After upload, open Settings > Import History to confirm status, trade count, and duplicates.

If the import fails

Sterling-specific rejections are below. For generic errors (file too large, wrong file type, empty file, missing account or time zone), see Fix any import problem. Track failed imports under Settings > Import History. See Import queued or something went wrong.

Header row detected but no valid trades found

Symptom: Import reports Header row detected but no valid trades found in this Sterling Trader Pro file.

Cause: Column names or row values do not map to symbol, side, quantity, price, date, and time.

Fix: Confirm headers use recognized names (or remove the header and use the six-field order). Check that each data row has a symbol, side, quantity, price, date, and time, then re-export and upload.

Missing a Symbol, Side, Quantity or Price column

Symptom: The message says This Sterling Trader Pro file is missing a Symbol, Side, Quantity or Price column and lists the columns it found.

Cause: The header row has no column Rize Trade recognizes for one of those fields.

Fix: Add the missing column under View > Settings > Columns, save as .txt again, and re-upload.

Times but no dates

Symptom: The message says This export has times but no dates. Pick the Trade Date above and upload again.

Cause: The file has a Time column but no date column, and no Trade Date was picked.

Fix: Pick the Trade Date on the upload screen and upload again. If the file also has a date column, check its header name.

Dates but no trade times

Symptom: The message says the file has dates but no trade times, so the fills cannot be placed in order.

Cause: The header row has a date column but no time column.

Fix: Add the Time column in Sterling, export the executions with their times, and re-upload.

This doesn't look like a Sterling Trader Pro export

Symptom: The message says this does not look like a Sterling Trader Pro export. Sterling files should have 6 columns: Date, Time, Symbol, Shares, Price, Side (for example 01/15/2024,09:30:15,AAPL,100,175.50,BOT). The message may also show how your file starts and ask you to pick the correct broker if the file is from another platform.

Cause: The layout does not match a Sterling six-column export, or the file is from a different broker.

Fix: Rebuild the column set in Sterling (View > Settings > Columns) to Date, Time, Symbol, Shares (Qty), Exe Price, Side only, save as .txt again, and re-upload. If the file is from another platform, choose that broker on import instead.

Failed to parse Sterling file

Symptom: Import fails with Failed to parse Sterling file, often followed by a short detail string.

Cause: The file could not be read as a Sterling export (unexpected structure or similar).

Fix: Open the .txt file, check date format against the Date Format you selected, confirm six columns per trade, and remove blank or partial rows. Upload again. For large files over the size limit, see "File too large": how to break up your import file.

Was this helpful?