Turning trades into social video: formats that work

On this page

1. Start from a recording, not a recording of a recording
2. The four shapes and where they go
3. Vertical 9:16 for the feed
4. Portrait 4:5 and square 1:1 for feed posts
5. Landscape 16:9 for a real recap
6. Captions that say only what the clip knows
7. Cutting for attention without cutting the truth
8. Watermark, and what is in the frame
9. A short checklist

A trade recap is a strange kind of video. The subject is a chart that was designed for a wide monitor, the audience is watching on a phone held upright, and the interesting part is often a few pixels of profit-and-loss text in a corner. Getting from one to the other is mostly a framing problem. This post walks through the export shapes TradeClip offers, which one to pick for where the video is going, and how to keep the result readable and honest.

Start from a recording, not a recording of a recording#

Every export in TradeClip starts from the clip's source recording, the fMP4 fragments the capture helper wrote while the trade was open. The recording is never cropped at capture time; the whole chart window is kept, and the shape you choose is applied when the clip is rendered. That is why you can export the same trade as a vertical short today and a landscape recap tomorrow without recording it twice, and why a capture region you set later still reproduces the framing a clip was made with.

The practical consequence: record wide, decide the shape afterwards.

The four shapes and where they go#

The clip editor exports at five aspect ratios. Four of them are named canvases at 1080p by default, with 1440p and 2160p available when the footage can fill them; the fifth, "Original size", reframes nothing and comes out at the recording's own dimensions.

The resolution setting is the output's short side, which is what "1080p vertical" universally means: 9:16 at 2160 is 2160 x 3840, and 16:9 at 2160 is 3840 x 2160. A resolution the footage cannot fill is reported as capped rather than upscaled silently.

Vertical 9:16 for the feed#

This is the shape most recaps end up in and the one that fights the chart the most. A wide chart squeezed into a tall frame leaves either a tiny chart with empty bands above and below, or a tall crop that shows a narrow slice of price action. TradeClip's starter layouts take the second approach with an overlay design: the chart fills the frame, and the symbol, side, size, P&L, timer and levels float on top of it rather than sitting in a black slab.

For vertical, set a capture region before you export. The region picker has a Mobile 9:16 preset that shows a shaded rectangle over the source window with draggable corners; drag it over the part of the chart that matters, usually the last few candles and the position line. The region is stored as fractions of the window, so it survives the window being resized.

Portrait 4:5 and square 1:1 for feed posts#

Both are compromises that give the chart more width than 9:16. Square is the safest choice when you do not know how a platform will crop, and 4:5 is worth choosing when a platform shows it at full height in the feed. The starter layout for the square canvas keeps the same overlay idea; the readouts are placed so they do not cover the right edge, where TradingView keeps the position label.

Landscape 16:9 for a real recap#

If the video is going to YouTube or a page, use the chart's natural shape. Landscape is also the right choice when you want to narrate: the webcam row in the editor can place your camera recording in a corner, and the Desktop 16:9 region preset keeps the whole chart in view.

Captions that say only what the clip knows#

TradeClip's text rows use a small caption language. You write a template such as {symbol} {side} {quantity} or {upnl} after {elapsed} and the editor and the export fill the variables from the recorded facts. Eight variables exist: symbol, upnl, side, quantity, pnl, tp, sl and elapsed.

Two properties of this system matter for social video.

First, the same resolver runs in the editor preview and in the export. What you see in the timeline is what the exported caption says. There is no second implementation to drift.

Second, the variables cannot invent. {upnl} reads the last profit-and-loss sample at or before the current instant and holds it; it never interpolates between readings, so it never draws a smooth line the market did not trace. If a fact was not observed, the caption renders an em dash instead of a plausible number. A recap made this way is an honest document even when it is also a good-looking one.

Cutting for attention without cutting the truth#

The automatic save keeps every retained second at real speed, because it is the record of the trade. The edited export does not have to. The source timeline editor lets you cut, reorder and change speed, and the auto-edit planner can compress dead time so a twenty-minute hold becomes a watchable clip.

A few habits keep the edit fair to the viewer:

• Keep the entry and the exit at real speed. Speed up the waiting in between. A viewer can tell the difference between a decision and a hold.
• Do not cut around the drawdown. If the position went against you before it worked, that is the most instructive part of the clip and the part people will trust you for.
• Use the elapsed timer. {elapsed} counts from entry and keeps counting through speed changes, so a compressed hold still tells the viewer how long it actually took.
• Let the P&L readout do the talking. {upnl} moves with the recorded samples, mapped onto the edited timeline, so a compressed section still shows the values that were on screen at those instants.

Watermark, and what is in the frame#

Exports on the free trial and on Pro carry the TradeClip watermark; Ultra exports are clean. The watermark is a small mark near the edge of the frame, applied when the clip is rendered rather than baked into the recording, so an upgrade makes the next export of an old clip clean.

More important than the watermark is everything else in the frame. A recording of a TradingView window can include panels beyond the chart. Before you post, scrub the export and check the region you chose shows what you intend and nothing you do not. The capture region is the tool for this: frame it once, and every later export of that clip reproduces the same framing.

A short checklist#

1. Record wide. Let the clip finish on its own.
2. Open the editor. Choose the shape for the destination: 9:16 for short-form feeds, 1:1 or 4:5 for feed posts, 16:9 for a narrated recap.
3. Set a capture region that keeps the last candles and the position line.
4. Add one caption row with the facts you want on screen, using variables so they are filled from the recording.
5. Compress the hold; keep the entry and exit at real speed.
6. Export, then watch the file once before you post it.