2019 UPDATE: Read my guide to the Best Trading Journals for 2019 with tips on how to successfully maintain your journal.
2017 UPDATE: This spreadsheet page has had well over 100,000 visits so I hired a developer to make a Free Trading Journal right here on StockTrader.com. As of April 2019, StockTrader.com readers log well over 10,000 stock trades each month!
Trading Journal Spreadsheet Download
I’ve had quite a few requests for a copy of the spreadsheet I use for my trading journal. I uploaded it to the server so feel free to download a copy if you’re interested. It’s not the most elegant spreadsheet but it does what I need.
Here’s some details about the columns included:
- Expectancy: An average of column K (R Multiple). This formula must be modified each day to include the latest rows.
- Total P&L: Sum of Column J (P&L)
- Trade #: Just used for some calculations later…
- L/S: Long or Short
- QTY: Number of shares
- Bought: Purchase price
- Sold: Selling price
- Initial Risk: Dollars at risk based on the initial stop
- Comm: Commission for both sides of the trade. I have it set to calculate based on the number of shares entered in column E.
- P&L: The actual P&L, including commission
- R Multiple: P&L divided by the Initial Risk
- % Wins: This is calculated by dividing column R (Sum W/L) by column A (Trade #)
- Comments: I use this to list errors made on the trade or anything else worth noting.
- $ at Work: This gives me an idea of how much money was in the position. It’s simply QTY (column E) divided by Bought (purchase price). Note that this is not accurate for shorts but it’s close enough for government work. 🙂
- % P&L: The percentage return for the trade. P&L divided by $ at Work. Again, not exact for shorts.
- Initial % Risk: Just tells me how far my stop was from my entry in percentage terms.
- W/L: Tells whether the trade was a winner (1) or a loser (0). This is used by the next column, Sum W/L.
- Sum W/L: A running total of the W/L column. This is used in the % Wins column.
Have ideas for how I can improve the spreadsheet? Email me!
