diff --git a/doc/users_guide.rst b/doc/users_guide.rst
index b7d96ddf521bbaf9512724a5a1c22371bd47ee36..ff502ad4d6397743aee3f15bcf3d54f4d69a6727 100644
--- a/doc/users_guide.rst
+++ b/doc/users_guide.rst
@@ -324,6 +324,7 @@ but we did rename/move things to make them more coherent.
 * Removed last occurences of camelCase
 * Removed big.LITTLE assumptions and made the code only rely on CPU capacities or
   frequency domains, where relevant.
+* Constructor now only takes trace files as input, not folders anymore.
 * ``Trace.data_frame`` is gone:
 
 **LISA legacy**::
diff --git a/ipynb/examples/typical_experiment.ipynb b/ipynb/examples/typical_experiment.ipynb
index 48884ca6d147af970b118fd98ba4372280de4d2d..c3c588258bc7833c55dc8dbe3e1d3f3583e0336d 100644
--- a/ipynb/examples/typical_experiment.ipynb
+++ b/ipynb/examples/typical_experiment.ipynb
@@ -731,7 +731,8 @@
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
-    "trace = Trace(wload.res_dir, te.plat_info, events=events)"
+    "trace_path = os.path.join(wload.res_dir, 'trace.dat')\n",
+    "trace = Trace(trace_path, te.plat_info, events=events)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -771,7 +772,8 @@
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
     "plat_info = PlatformInfo.from_yaml_map(plat_info_path)\n",
-    "trace = Trace(wload.res_dir, plat_info, events=events)"
+    "trace_path = os.path.join(wload.res_dir, 'trace.dat')\n",
+    "trace = Trace(trace_path, plat_info, events=events)"
    ]
   },
   {
diff --git a/ipynb/profiling/kernel_functions_profiling.ipynb b/ipynb/profiling/kernel_functions_profiling.ipynb
index 7ddf3e0579d94918d89fb70e6f07822eb106f61f..6dffd6e2ade7cbd26a3312cfa7df2527f4f1a98a 100644
--- a/ipynb/profiling/kernel_functions_profiling.ipynb
+++ b/ipynb/profiling/kernel_functions_profiling.ipynb
@@ -623,7 +623,8 @@
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
-    "trace = Trace(wload.res_dir, te.plat_info, events=events)"
+    "trace_path = os.path.join(wload.res_dir, 'trace.dat')\n",
+    "trace = Trace(trace_path, te.plat_info, events=events)"
    ]
   },
   {
diff --git a/lisa/tests/base.py b/lisa/tests/base.py
index 0257a04b303d395f9597badee131787a2f6488d2..688837a52d58a289dacee8a061151b27a283ac12 100644
--- a/lisa/tests/base.py
+++ b/lisa/tests/base.py
@@ -376,7 +376,8 @@ class RTATestBundle(TestBundle, abc.ABC):
         allows updating the underlying path before it is actually loaded to
         match a different folder structure.
         """
-        return Trace(self.res_dir, self.plat_info, events=self.ftrace_conf["events"])
+        path = os.path.join(self.res_dir, 'trace.dat')
+        return Trace(path, self.plat_info, events=self.ftrace_conf["events"])
 
     def __init__(self, res_dir, plat_info, rtapp_profile):
         super().__init__(res_dir, plat_info)
diff --git a/lisa/trace.py b/lisa/trace.py
index b053623874cc6c40a0333c1dbe9e414f7a0d36a3..9b7dcd150928c5524714ccef589a2d11acb95828 100644
--- a/lisa/trace.py
+++ b/lisa/trace.py
@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
     """
     The Trace object is the LISA trace events parser.
 
-    :param data_dir: folder containing all trace data
-    :type data_dir: str
+    :param trace_path: File containing the trace
+    :type trace_path: str
 
     :param events: events to be parsed (all the events by default)
     :type events: str or list(str)
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
     """
 
     def __init__(self,
-                 data_dir,
+                 trace_path,
                  plat_info=None,
                  events=None,
                  window=(0, None),
@@ -88,9 +88,6 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
         # The platform information used to run the experiments
         self.plat_info = plat_info
 
-        # TRAPpy Trace object
-        self.ftrace = None
-
         # Trace format
         self.trace_format = trace_format
 
@@ -120,21 +117,15 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
         self.freq_coherency = True
 
         # Folder containing trace
-        self.data_dir = data_dir
-
-        # By deafult, use the trace dir to save plots
-        self.plots_dir = plots_dir
-        if self.plots_dir is None:
-            # In case we're passed the trace.dat
-            if os.path.isfile(data_dir):
-                self.plots_dir = os.path.dirname(data_dir)
-            else:
-                self.plots_dir = data_dir
+        self.trace_path = trace_path
+
+        # By default, use the trace dir to save plots
+        self.plots_dir = plots_dir if plots_dir else os.path.dirname(trace_path)
 
         self.plots_prefix = plots_prefix
 
         self._register_trace_events(events)
-        self._parse_trace(self.data_dir, window, trace_format)
+        self._parse_trace(self.trace_path, window, trace_format)
 
         # Import here to avoid a circular dependency issue at import time
         # with lisa.analysis.base
@@ -237,7 +228,7 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
 
         # Check for events available on the parsed trace
         self._check_available_events()
-        if len(self.available_events) == 0:
+        if not self.available_events:
             if has_function_stats:
                 logger.info('Trace contains only functions stats')
                 return
@@ -270,7 +261,7 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
         logger = self.get_logger()
         for val in self.ftrace.get_filters(key):
             obj = getattr(self.ftrace, val)
-            if len(obj.data_frame):
+            if not obj.data_frame.empty:
                 self.available_events.append(val)
         logger.debug('Events found on trace:')
         for evt in self.available_events:
@@ -451,13 +442,12 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
         :param event: Trace event name
         :type event: str
         """
-        if self.data_dir is None:
-            raise ValueError("trace data not (yet) loaded")
-        if self.ftrace and hasattr(self.ftrace, event):
+        try:
             return getattr(self.ftrace, event).data_frame
-        raise ValueError('Event [{}] not supported. '
-                         'Supported events are: {}'
-                         .format(event, self.available_events))
+        except AttributeError:
+            raise ValueError('Event [{}] not supported. '
+                             'Supported events are: {}'
+                             .format(event, self.available_events))
 
     def df_functions_stats(self, functions=None):
         """
@@ -474,8 +464,6 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
                           to report
         :type functions: str or list(str)
         """
-        if not hasattr(self, '_functions_stats_df'):
-            return None
         df = self._functions_stats_df
         if not functions:
             return df
@@ -699,7 +687,7 @@ class Trace(Loggable):
         # make sure fake cpu_frequency events are never interleaved with
         # OS generated events
         else:
-            if len(devlib_freq) > 0:
+            if not devlib_freq.empty:
 
                 # Frequencies injection is done in a per-cluster based.
                 # This is based on the assumption that clusters are
diff --git a/lisa/wa_results_collector.py b/lisa/wa_results_collector.py
index 627c379c33f44c0d05006875db0e866131e4a923..14a37ef9450596cdb9eb30bee7711ce05a3b7c90 100644
--- a/lisa/wa_results_collector.py
+++ b/lisa/wa_results_collector.py
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ class WaResultsCollector(Loggable):
                 df = trace.analysis.frequency.df_cluster_frequency_residency(cluster)
                 if df is None or df.empty:
                     logger.warning("Can't get cluster freq residency from %s",
-                                      trace.data_dir)
+                                      trace.trace_path)
                 else:
                     df = df.reset_index()
                     avg_freq = (df.frequency * df.time).sum() / df.time.sum()
diff --git a/tests/test_trace.py b/tests/test_trace.py
index 5a7fbfd865e9b090063dbd47b8e8a04aa8a5bafb..6f402c33d4a0d1a4496f1add98b14572fdd55bb2 100644
--- a/tests/test_trace.py
+++ b/tests/test_trace.py
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ class TestTrace(StorageTestCase):
         columns = ['comm', 'pid', 'load', 'util', '__cpu']
         for column in columns:
             msg = 'Task signals parsed from {} missing {} column'.format(
-                trace.data_dir, column)
+                trace.trace_path, column)
             self.assertIn(column, lt_df, msg=msg)
 
         # Pick an arbitrary PID to try plotting signals for.