My Free Trading Journal Spreadsheet (Excel + Sheets)

Most brokers let you export your trade history as a CSV file directly from your account dashboard, typically under "Account History," "Statements," or "Activity." Once downloaded, you can open the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets and copy the relevant columns (entry date, ticker, quantity, entry price, exit date, exit price) into the corresponding cells in the template. Keep in mind that broker exports often include extra columns or formatting quirks, so you may need to clean up the data before pasting it in. If you trade frequently, dedicated trading journal apps can automate this import process.

A spreadsheet works well if you're placing a handful of trades per week and want to focus on the basics like profit/loss, strategy notes, and lessons learned. However, once you start trading more actively (10+ trades per week), find yourself spending too much time on manual data entry, or want deeper analytics like win rate by setup, time-of-day performance, or risk-adjusted returns, it's probably time to upgrade. Dedicated trading journal apps automatically import your trades, generate visual reports, and surface patterns that are difficult to spot in a spreadsheet.

TraderSync is our top-rated paid trading journal, offering automated broker imports, detailed performance analytics, AI-powered trade insights, and clean visual reporting. It's especially well-suited for traders using day trading platforms who want to identify patterns in their winning and losing trades. Tradervue is another strong option, particularly for traders who value community features and the ability to share trades with mentors or peers. For a full comparison of paid and free options, see our comparison of the top journal apps.

If you take the time to conduct post-trade analysis, you can improve your success rate and ultimately make more money from your investing. To do so, I suggest following these steps:

1. Log the trade details - This includes the ticker symbol, trade date, buy price $, total shares, sell price $, return $, return % (at a minimum). Other great data points to track include stop price, risk, and commission spend, if you’re paying commissions.
2. Download a stock chart and mark it up - Mark it up with your buy and sell points alongside any trendlines, support, resistance, etc. Then, mark this chart with the trade info and archive it. Some trading journals allow you to save screenshots with your trade. That’s great if you take the time to do it.
3. Write your trade notes - Either on the chart itself, in your Excel journal, or on paper, write down what you did right and wrong and recap the reasoning behind the trade.
4. Reflect back on trade data, chart, notes - This is the true "reviewing the film" exercise; identify potential bad habits, make rule tweaks, identify areas for improvement, and overall set the focus for the next trade.
5. Archive for later use - Once you have reviewed the trade from start to finish and gone through the motions of a proper recap, save your trading journal entry.

Recommended variables

What variables do successful traders use when logging trades in their trading journal? Here are 11 to always include:

1. Stop Price $ - The Stop Loss price ($) which can be a physical stop loss order or a mental stop. Cutting your losses short is one of many crucial keys to successful investing.
2. Strategy - Always tag each trade with the strategy used.
3. Risk $ - This is the amount of capital being risked on the trade. So, if you buy 100 shares at $100, and your Stop is at $99, then you are effectively risking $100 on the trade. Risk can also be expressed as an "R" multiple (Van Tharp principle), and is a concept that has truly changed the way I approach trading.
4. Risk % - The percent of capital risked on the trade. Referencing the previous example, the total risk would be 1% ($10,000 invested / $100 being risked).
5. Target Price $ - Back to our example of buying long at $100, if we set our target price at $110, that means our goal is to hold the stock until it reaches at least $110. Once we reach our initial target price, we can check back in and consider trimming our position to take some profits, sell the entire position, or hold the position and set a new, higher price target.
6. Return $ - The number everyone loves to see, which hopefully is a profit and not a loss. If our 100 shares of stock we bought at $100 reaches our $110 target price and we sell our full position to lock in profits, then we would realize a return of +$1,000 ($10 per share x 100 shares).
7. Return % - The dollar return converted into a percentage. Sticking with our example, selling at $110 would yield a +10% return ($1,000 / $10,000).
8. Return "R" - Applying R multiples, we convert the Return $ into "R". Using this same example, if we had risked $100 (1R), and made $1,000, then our return would be +10R.
9. Mistake? - Did you make a mistake or break a rule with this trade? If yes, then you mark the trade as a mistake. Mistake tracking is one of the more underused, yet very powerful variables. By logging mistakes, you force yourself to replay the trade in your mind and reflect back on what went right and/or wrong.
10. Notes - Not necessarily a variable, but writing notes when reflecting on the trade is important to help you learn from each trade. What went right, what didn't, what you were thinking when buying, selling, and so on are all examples of what can be journaled.
11. Risk/Reward Ratio - The risk-reward ratio measures how much your potential reward is for each dollar you risk on the trade. Using the same long 100 shares at $100 trade example, with $99 as our stop and $110 as our target, our risk/reward ratio would be 1:10. As long as the trade works out at least once every 10 tries, we will still make money (excluding trade costs).

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:

• The date the trade was initiated.
• What was traded.
• The size of the position.
• When the trade was closed.
• The amount of profit or loss, and
• A reason or comment for each trade.