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A trade (also called a deal) groups everything about one physical transaction: the purchase and sale contracts, the documents that arrive for it, the shipments that carry the cargo, and the invoices and payments that settle it. The Trades page is your trade book. This page helps you find a trade, read it, and close it out. The examples follow Veltana Commodities SA’s sugar trade VCS-S-2026-0714: 27 MT of white refined sugar bought FOB Laem Chabang from Kanchana Siam Sugar at USD 528/MT and sold CIF Singapore to Meridian Foodstuffs at USD 565/MT. To see how it was built from its documents, follow the walkthrough.
Available when the Trades module is turned on for your workspace. It is on by default. Ask your workspace admin.

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The trade list

Open Trades in the sidebar to see the running book.
The Trades list with the search box, the Active, Complete, Terminated and Cancelled chips, and the Counterparty and Owner filters

The Trades list with VCS-S-2026-0714 at the Loaded stage, bought from Kanchana Siam Sugar and sold to Meridian Foodstuffs.

Each row shows:

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Filter the list

  • Search matches the reference, counterparty or product.
  • Status chips: Active, Complete, Terminated and Cancelled. Only Active is on when you first open the page, so finished and cancelled trades stay out of the way until you switch their chip on.
  • Counterparty and Owner narrow the list to the parties or teammates you pick.
  • Clear filters resets everything.
Filters live in the page address, so you can bookmark a filtered list or send the link to a colleague. Sort order and column widths are remembered in your browser.

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How trades are created

Mercora doesn’t create trades on its own. A trade appears when someone on your team creates or approves one:

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Create a deal from contracts

New deal is available when the Contracts module is turned on for your workspace. Ask your workspace admin.
1

Open the dialog

On Trades, click New deal.
2

Link the contracts

Under Contracts, search for the purchase and sale contracts to link, or create a new one in place. Each side can hold several contracts, for example one purchase sold through two sales. When you create the second side, the form is prefilled from the first so a back-to-back contract takes seconds.
3

Check the reference, owner and book

Deal ref is filled from the contract numbers. Edit it to override. Pick an Owner and, if your workspace uses books, a Book.
4

Create

Click Create deal. With both sides linked, the dialog previews the quantity, laycan and the margin per unit before you create.
Contracts are optional. With only one side linked, the deal starts one-sided and the counterpart contract pairs in when it lands. A deal reference alone starts an empty deal.

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The trade page

Click a row to open the trade. The header shows the reference, the trade’s status, and whether the cargo is Insured or Not insured. If you can edit trades, you also get:
  • Edit: change the trade’s own fields (reference, product, quantity, ports, laycan, Incoterms, payment terms, vessel and so on).
  • Mark complete / Reopen: close out the trade, or bring a completed one back.
  • The … menu: Terminate trade, Cancel trade and Delete trade.
The page has up to five tabs. Which ones you see depends on your role and your workspace’s modules.
The Overview tab answers “what is the deal and what is it making”.
A trade's Overview tab with the P&L card (Contracted, Invoiced, Realized) and the sale and purchase legs

VCS-S-2026-0714: contracted and invoiced margin are both $999.00 (sale $15,255.00 minus purchase $14,256.00); nothing is realized until payments are recorded.

P&L shows up to three numbers, each in your workspace’s reporting currency:AR (accounts receivable) is money owed to you. AP (accounts payable) is money you owe. Invoiced and Realized need access to Financials. If an amount can’t be converted because an exchange rate is missing, the card says how many invoices or payments it skipped rather than showing a partial total as final. The FX line under the card lists the rates it used.On the sugar trade, Contracted reads $999.00 (sale $15,255.00 minus purchase $14,256.00), and **Invoiced** reads the same $999.00 because the supplier and customer invoices match the contracts. Realized stays empty (“No payments recorded yet”) until payments are recorded. The $999.00 is a gross margin before freight and insurance: Contracted counts only the purchase and sale contracts, and a freight or insurance invoice only enters Invoiced once it’s filed on the trade as AP.Legs lists the trade’s contracts. A leg is one side of the deal: a purchase leg is what you buy, a sale leg is what you sell. Each row shows the type, counterparty, quantity, unit price, Incoterms and total value. Open a leg to see its ports, laycan, payment terms and currency, and to set the actual quantity loaded. Type it in, or click Use loaded to take the loaded total from the trade’s shipments when they carry one.Updates holds short status posts (On track, At risk, Off track) so the team can see the latest word on the deal. Notes holds free-form notes.

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The properties panel

The panel on the right of a trade holds its key facts:
  • Properties: status, reference, product, quantity, owner, Entity and Book (when the P&L module is on), Trade currency, Insured, and FX overrides.
  • Counterparties: the purchase and sale parties.
  • Logistics: vessel, ports, origin and laycan.
  • Any custom fields your admin has added to trades. See Workspace settings.
  • Lifecycle: the trade’s stage and where it comes from.
  • Activity: when the trade was created and last updated, and its open issues.

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Lifecycle stage

The stage moves through Contract, Pre-ship, Loaded, In transit, Delivered and Complete. Mercora reads it from the evidence (the trade’s shipments, or its cargo documents such as the B/L) and names the basis under the ladder, for example “From shipment KITI BHUM”, “From B/L” or “No cargo evidence yet”. If the evidence is wrong or late, you can pick the stage yourself. Your pick shows as “Set by” you, and Use the evidence hands the stage back to Mercora.

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Book and entity

Book and Entity appear on the trade when the P&L module is turned on for your workspace. Ask your workspace admin.
  • Book is the bucket the deal is carried in on the P&L. A deal lands in a book when its reference ends in one of the book’s codes, or when someone picks the book on the trade. Picking Use the reference goes back to the code.
  • Entity is your own company on the deal. It’s read from your side of the contract. If your admin has listed your entities, you can pick a different one, and Use the contract goes back to what the contract says.
Admins set up both under Settings. See Books and Legal entities.

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FX overrides

When a trade involves a currency other than USD, FX overrides lists each currency with the rate in use and whether it’s live or an override. Click a rate to pin your own (for example a hedged rate). It’s entered as that currency’s rate to USD. Use live removes the override. An override on a trade is used everywhere that trade’s numbers are converted: the Overview card, the Financials tab and the P&L.

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Cancel, terminate, complete or delete

These four actions do different things to your numbers:
Deleting a trade can’t be undone. If you only want it off the running list, cancel it instead.

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Next steps

Trade financials

Record invoices and payments, and plan costs and income.

Shipments

Follow the vessels and containers carrying the cargo.

P&L

See the trade’s margin across the whole book.