I've had quite a few requests for a copy of the spreadsheet I use for my trading journal. I've made it available here; please feel free to download a copy if you're interested. It's not the most elegant spreadsheet, perhaps, but it does what I need.
A trading journal will help you develop a trading style that fits your personality and beliefs about the market. Anyone who has ever kept a personal diary knows the value of being able to reflect on the past and learning from it. A trading journal performs the same function. You’ll start to spot what’s working and, even more importantly, avoid making the same mistake time after time.
I’ve kept this simple. Each trade gets its own row. If you scale into or out of a position, each lot gets its own line. I’ve color-keyed each cell to show what you need to enter and what is calculated for you.
If you’re an Excel wonk, you can go bananas calculating the most obscure ratios and making distant forecasts about how much your portfolio might be worth in ten years. That’s fun, but always remember that the biggest benefits of a journal will be found in three columns: the profit or loss on each trade, why you did it, and what you learned from that trade.
Every trade gets an entry in your journal, and it gets entered as quickly as possible after each trade. It’s best to keep your journal current; otherwise you might build up a backlog of trades and it’ll be a struggle to remember why you entered or exited each one.
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Read my guide to the Best Trading Journals for tips on how to successfully maintain your journal.
Here are some details about the column and row headers on the spreadsheet. The orange boxes need your inputs. The gray boxes are calculated for you:
Note: If you scale in or out, break the trades down into single lines. For example, if you buy one large position but scale out with three sells, break the purchase into three lines with the same date and cost basis.
At the top of the spreadsheet you’ll find the trading metrics box. It’s a dashboard for your trading performance and habits. Those numbers won’t even begin to be meaningful until you’ve made a few dozen trades. Many traders have fallen into the trap of thinking themselves smart when they were just lucky and, likewise, sometimes you do everything right but the markets just move against you. The longer your trading history, the better your conclusions will become.
If you don’t want to use Excel or want more advanced analyses on your trading, top-rated TraderSync is convenient, attractive and insightful. We also tested Tradervue, Trademetria, Chartlog, and Edgewonk. See our full guide to trading journals
Microsoft Excel is very popular among traders. Excel novices can use it to track their trades in a trading journals, while Excel power users might use it to help evaluate and manage risk, sort through market data for trading ideas, or create their own charts.
At an absolute minimum, a trade journal should include these elements:
Have ideas for how I can improve the spreadsheet? Email me!
Explore our other online trading guides:
Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.
Carolyn Kimball is Managing Editor for Reink Media Group and the lead editor for content on investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.
Steven Hatzakis has led research at Reink Media Group since 2016 and brings over 20 years of experience with the online brokerage industry. Steven has served as a registered commodity futures representative for domestic and internationally regulated brokerages and holds a Series III license in the US as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
