How to Keep a Trading Journal: What to Record and How to Review It
Keeping a trading journal means writing down every trade you take, why you took it and how it went, then reviewing those notes on a schedule so the same mistakes stop costing you money. Most traders start one after a bad week and quietly drop it a month later, usually because they logged too much, reviewed too little and never saw a payoff. This guide shows how to keep a trading journal that is quick to fill in and actually changes how you trade.
You can build everything below in a blank spreadsheet for free. If you would rather skip the setup, there is a ready made version at the end.
Digital download
The Edge Journal: Trading Journal Spreadsheet
Works in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers. Instant download.
$9.00 USDGet the journal
Why journaling trades works
Your memory of your own trading is biased in a predictable way, because wins feel earned and losses feel unlucky. A journal replaces that story with numbers you can check, such as how often your favorite setup really works and what it costs you when you move a stop.
It also catches problems that never show up in a single trade. Oversizing, revenge trading after a loss and holding losers longer than winners are patterns, so you only see them when twenty or fifty trades sit side by side.
Frequent trading carries real risk, and FINRA's guide to frequent intraday trading is worth reading before you put money behind any strategy. A journal is how you find out whether your strategy deserves that money.
How to keep a trading journal: what to record for every trade
Start with the columns below. Each one exists because it answers a question you will ask later, so resist the urge to add twenty more on day one.
- Date opened and date closed. These tell you whether a trade was intraday or held overnight, which matters more than most traders expect.
- Symbol and asset type. Stock, ETF, option or future, so you can compare results across them.
- Direction. Long or short.
- Entry price, exit price and size. For options, record contracts and remember that one contract usually covers 100 shares.
- Fees. Small on one trade and surprisingly large across a year.
- Profit or loss in dollars. After fees.
- Planned stop and planned target. Written before you enter, not after.
- R multiple. Your result divided by the amount you planned to risk, so a trade that made twice its planned risk is 2R.
- Setup name. The pattern or reason you entered, kept to a short list you reuse.
- Followed the plan? A simple yes or no.
- Mistake tag. Moved stop, chased entry, oversized, revenge trade, exited early or none.
- One line on how you felt. Bored, rushed, confident or fearful are all useful.
A screenshot of the chart at entry is optional but valuable for your best and worst trades, because it shows you what you actually saw rather than what you remember seeing.
A trading journal example
Here is how one row looks once it is filled in. It is an example to show the format, not a real trade or a recommendation.
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Opened / closed | Mar 4 / Mar 4 |
| Symbol / asset | XYZ / Stock |
| Direction | Long |
| Entry / exit / size | $50.00 / $48.90 / 200 shares |
| Planned stop / target | $49.50 / $52.00 |
| Result | Loss of $220, or 2.2R lost against $100 of planned risk |
| Setup | Opening range breakout |
| Followed the plan? | No |
| Mistake tag | Moved stop |
| Feeling | Did not want to take the loss in front of the open |
That single row already tells a story. The setup lost $100 as planned, and the decision to move the stop cost another $120, which is exactly the kind of number a weekly review is built to surface.
How to review your trading journal each week
Logging takes about twenty seconds a trade. The review is where the value is, and fifteen minutes once a week is enough if you look at the same few numbers every time.
- Expectancy. Your average result per trade in dollars or R. If it is negative over a decent sample, nothing else on this list matters yet.
- Profit factor. Total gains divided by total losses. Above 1 means the strategy made money over the period.
- Win rate, with care. You can win seven trades out of ten and still lose money if the three losers are large, so never read win rate on its own.
- The cost of mistakes. Add up the dollars on every trade with a mistake tag. That total is usually the fastest improvement available to you.
- Intraday versus overnight. Split your results by whether the trade closed the same day. Many traders find most of their edge sits in one half and most of their effort sits in the other.
Finish each review by writing one rule for next week, such as no new trades after two losses in a row. One rule you keep beats five you forget.
If you keep slipping on the emotional side, our guides to FOMO in trading and the lessons from Trading in the Zone pair well with a journal.
Free spreadsheet or ready made trading journal?
A blank spreadsheet with the columns above is free and works well if you are comfortable writing the formulas for R multiple, expectancy, profit factor and the weekly totals yourself. Trading journal apps do the math for you, though most charge a monthly subscription and keep your data on their servers.
We built The Edge Journal for the middle ground. It is a trading journal spreadsheet for Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers with a 300 row trade log, the dashboard numbers above worked out for you, an equity curve, a mistake cost table and the intraday versus overnight split. It costs $9 once, there is no subscription and the file stays yours.
Whichever you choose, the habit matters more than the tool, so pick the version you will still be filling in three months from now.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free trading journal?
Yes, a spreadsheet you set up yourself in Excel or Google Sheets is free, and the columns in this guide are everything you need to start. You only pay if you want the calculations and dashboard done for you.
What should a trading journal include?
At minimum it should include the dates, symbol, direction, entry, exit, size, fees, result, your planned stop and whether you followed your plan. A setup name and a mistake tag make the weekly review far more useful.
How often should you review a trading journal?
Once a week works for most traders, with a longer monthly look at your setups. Reviewing after every trade tends to make people react to noise rather than patterns.
Should I record trades I did not take?
It helps to note setups you skipped out of fear, because over time they show whether your hesitation is protecting you or costing you. Keep them in a separate tab so they do not mix with real results.
Can I keep a trading journal for options or crypto?
Yes, the same columns work, as long as you record the asset type and size correctly. For options, the contract multiplier matters, so a spreadsheet that applies it for you avoids results that are a hundred times too small.
This guide is general education, not financial advice. Trading involves risk, and past results do not guarantee future ones.
Phone case
Buy the Dip Phone Case for Traders and Investors
Printed for your exact model after you order.
$32.99 USDChoose your model