How to import your share trading history from a CSV or broker export

If you've been investing for a while, your trading history is probably scattered across one or more broker accounts. Getting that data into a portfolio tracker is one of the best things you can do for your finances — it gives you accurate cost basis calculations, capital gains tax reports, and a clear picture of how your investments are actually performing.

But the process can be frustrating. Every broker exports data differently, column names don't match up, date formats vary, and some exports need cleaning before they're usable.

This guide walks you through how to export your trading history from popular brokers and what to look for when importing into a portfolio tracker.

Two ways to track: holdings vs transactions

Before diving into exports and imports, it's worth understanding the two approaches TrackMyShares offers.

Holdings portfolio — you list your current positions (symbol, quantity, and optionally what you paid). This is the quickest way to get started. You don't need your full trading history — just what you hold right now. It's available on the free plan and gives you a snapshot of your portfolio value, allocation, and daily changes.

Transaction portfolio — you import your full buy, sell, and dividend history. This takes more effort upfront, but it unlocks features that a holdings-only view can't provide:

• Accurate cost basis — with purchase dates and prices for every trade, TrackMyShares calculates exactly what you paid for each holding using the FIFO method. This is essential for capital gains tax.
• Tax reporting — a complete transaction history lets you generate capital gains reports for Australia, the US, UK, Canada, and New Zealand. Without it, you'll need to reconstruct everything at tax time.
• True performance — knowing when you bought and at what price is the only way to calculate your actual return, including the effect of timing.
• Dividend history — importing dividend transactions gives you a complete income record, including franking credits and withholding tax.

If you just want a quick overview of your portfolio, a holdings import is all you need. The rest of this guide focuses on importing your full transaction history for those who want tax reports, performance tracking, and complete records.

If you've ever spent hours at tax time pulling together broker statements and spreadsheets, importing your history once can save you that effort every year going forward.

Exporting from your broker

Most brokers let you download your trading history as a CSV file. Here's where to find it for six popular brokers.

CommSec

Navigate to Portfolio > Accounts > Transactions. You can export domestic (ASX) and international trades separately. Look for the CSV download option after selecting your date range.

CommSec typically includes columns like "Code" or "Stock Code" for the ticker symbol, and "Brokerage" for fees. If you hold both ASX and international shares, you'll need to export and import them as two separate files.

For a detailed walkthrough, see our CommSec import guide.

SelfWealth

Go to Settings > Trading Account > Reports. You can generate reports for a custom date range covering your full history.

SelfWealth provides separate exports for ASX and US trades. Each file is a clean CSV that includes trade dates, quantities, prices, and brokerage fees.

See our SelfWealth import guide for step-by-step instructions.

Stake

Navigate to More > Tax & Documents > Account Summary Report. This gives you a complete record of your US stock trades and, if applicable, crypto transactions.

Stake shows zero brokerage on US trades, which is correct — but make sure you account for any FX conversion fees separately if you need them for your records.

See our Stake import guide.

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers offers two export methods: Flex Queries (recommended) and Activity Statements. Flex Queries give you more control over which fields to include and the date range.

IBKR uses "BOT" and "SLD" for buy and sell transactions rather than "Buy" and "Sell". TrackMyShares recognises these automatically, so you don't need to rename them before importing.

See our Interactive Brokers import guide.

CMC Markets

From the web platform, go to Account > Order History and use the advanced search to set your date range. On the desktop app, it's under Account > History. Export as CSV.

See our CMC Markets import guide.

Superhero

Download your Transaction Statement for a custom date range. Superhero also provides a Realised Gains Report which can be useful for tax purposes.

Note that Superhero's CSV may include extra header rows above the actual data. You might need to remove these before importing.

See our Superhero import guide.

Preparing your CSV for import

Regardless of which broker you use, here are the key columns a portfolio tracker needs:

Some optional columns that are useful if your broker provides them:

• Franking credits — important for Australian dividend tax reporting
• Withholding tax — relevant for US dividends received by non-US investors
• Market/Exchange — helps identify which exchange a stock trades on if the symbol is ambiguous
• Currency — useful when importing trades across multiple markets

Common issues to watch for

Date formats — Australian brokers typically use DD/MM/YYYY while US brokers use MM/DD/YYYY. TrackMyShares auto-detects the format and will ask you to confirm when it's ambiguous (for example, is 03/04/2025 the 3rd of April or the 4th of March?), so you don't need to reformat dates yourself.

Currency symbols and commas — some exports include dollar signs or thousands separators in price and fee columns. TrackMyShares strips these automatically during import, so you can leave them as-is.

Extra header rows — some brokers (like Superhero) include account summary rows above the actual transaction data. Delete these before importing so the column headers are read correctly.

Split transactions — if your broker records stock splits as separate line items, TrackMyShares supports a dedicated "split" transaction type, so these are handled correctly without manual cost basis adjustments.

Dividend records — brokers handle dividends differently. Some show a total amount, others show a per-share amount with the number of shares held. TrackMyShares accepts both formats — you can provide either a per-share amount in the price column or a total in the amount column.

Importing into TrackMyShares

Once your CSV is ready, here's how the import works in TrackMyShares:

1. Upload your CSV or Excel (XLSX) file — drag and drop or browse to select. If your Excel file has multiple sheets, you'll be asked which one to import
2. Column mapping — TrackMyShares auto-detects column names from all six brokers mentioned above. It recognises aliases like "Stock Code", "Avg. Price", "Brokerage", "Trade Date", and many more, so in most cases the mapping is done for you. You can always adjust it manually if needed
3. Date format confirmation — the importer detects your date format automatically and only asks you to confirm when dates are genuinely ambiguous
4. Preview and validate — every row is shown with a status indicator. Green means ready to import, yellow flags warnings like missing optional fields, and red highlights errors that need fixing before you can proceed
5. Import — confirm and your transactions are processed immediately

After importing, you can generate tax reports, view your dividend history, check your performance against benchmarks like the S&P 500 or ASX 200, and track your portfolio with accurate cost basis data — all straight away.

Investing with multiple brokers

If you use more than one broker — say CommSec for ASX shares and Stake for US stocks — TrackMyShares makes it easy to keep everything organised:

1. Create a separate portfolio for each broker — this keeps your imports clean and makes it easy to re-import or update each broker's data independently
2. Import each broker's transactions into its own portfolio
3. Create a consolidated portfolio that combines them — this gives you a single view across all your accounts, with unified tax reporting and performance tracking

This way, your data stays clean and separated at the source, but you still get the full picture when you need it. Your consolidated portfolio generates a single tax report covering all brokers, so you don't need to piece together multiple reports at tax time.

Keeping your portfolio up to date after the initial import

The initial import is the biggest task. After that, you have a few options for keeping things current:

• Periodic CSV imports — export new transactions from your broker every month or quarter and import the new trades. TrackMyShares detects duplicates using external IDs and trade details, so you won't end up with repeated entries.
• Email forwarding — TrackMyShares gives each portfolio a unique email address. Forward your broker confirmation emails to it, and the system parses the trade details automatically. Transactions appear as pending for you to review and confirm before they're added — nothing is imported without your approval. You can even set up automatic forwarding rules in Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail so new trades flow in as they happen.
• Manual entry — for the occasional trade, you can add transactions directly from the portfolio page without going through an export-import cycle.

Getting started

If you've been putting off importing your trading history, start with your most active broker. Get that data in, check that the numbers look right, then add your other accounts.

TrackMyShares supports CSV and Excel imports with auto-detection for CommSec, SelfWealth, Stake, Interactive Brokers, CMC Markets, and Superhero. If you just want a quick overview, create a holdings portfolio on the free plan with up to 20 holdings — no trading history needed. When you're ready for tax reports and full performance tracking, upgrade to the PRO plan and import your complete transaction history.

Get started for free →

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Need help importing from your broker? Check our broker import guides or visit the support page to get in touch.