Trading journal templates/spreadsheets?

hello-i've been trading off and on for several years but i am new to T2W. i have always relied on brokerage statements and have never kept a personal trading journal but i would like to get one started. are there inexpensive (or free templates or spreadsheets available online that one could download? thanks in advance for any guidance.

mudcat

Just start your own with:
Date | Instrument | Entry Price | Reason | Profit (Loss) in points | Comments (eg why it failed, what happened after you closed, what rule did you break)

I keep a similar spreadsheet to that (I also include exit price I also keep a screenshot of my charts for entry and exits for all trades in an Outlook file. I find it useful looking back at a chart and instantly seeing how I made my original decision.

Thanks--yes, including the exit price seems like a good idea...

maybe in seeking a template i am making it more complicated than it needs to be but i thought seeing a few samples of what others are doing couldn't hurt.

mudcat

Yes, ideally screenshots are good but it depends how often you trade.

Trade journals are often over looked portions of any successful traders trade plans. Being able to go back and look at past trades to examine where tweaks may need to be made in our trade plans can save us a ton of money as market change over time. The trading strategies we used last year (prior to Oct 2007) will not be as successful now that the market continues to head lower.

Consistent traders go back through their trade journals to see what adjustments need to be made to their trade plans. Do we need to add or remove any specific chart patterns? Are there new indicators or existing indicators that we need to use for confirmation. All important to being able to reproduce trades and to take the emotions out of trading.

Trading Spreadsheets

mudcat5 said:

hello-i've been trading off and on for several years but i am new to T2W. i have always relied on brokerage statements and have never kept a personal trading journal but i would like to get one started. are there inexpensive (or free templates or spreadsheets available online that one could download? thanks in advance for any guidance.

mudcat

Click to expand...

Hello, please do a google search for "Trading Spreadsheets". There is a great product out there actually called "Trading Spreadsheets". There's tons of features, most importantly it's Performance Tracking capabilities - and the price is very viable.

Happy Trading (and searching),
Greg Thurman, creator of the TradingSpreadsheets.com product

Here's one I cobbled together earlier, it's designed to be printed, there are no excel formulas or calculations and it needs to be printed at 75% size to fit A4 Landscape.

Comments and suggestions for improvements are more than welcome.