Trading Journal Template: The Columns That Actually Matter

Almost every trader starts with a spreadsheet. It is free, flexible and yours. Below is a trading journal template with the columns that actually matter, followed by an honest look at when a spreadsheet stops being enough.

The columns worth keeping

The facts

• Date and time opened, date and time closed (and your time zone)
• Symbol, direction (long or short), size
• Entry price, exit price, stop loss, take profit
• Commission and swap, and the net result in money

The risk

• Planned risk in money (entry to stop, times size)
• Result in R: net result divided by planned risk
• Account balance after the trade

The decision

• Setup name (the same few names every time, so you can group them)
• Why you took it, in one sentence, written before the trade if you can
• Did you follow your plan? Yes or no
• What you would do differently
• A screenshot of the chart at entry

The formulas that matter

• Win rate: winning trades divided by all trades.
• Average R (expectancy): the average of the R column. Above zero means an edge.
• Profit factor: total won divided by total lost.
• Maximum drawdown: the biggest fall from a peak in the balance column.

When a spreadsheet stops working

• You skip entries on bad days, so the data flatters you.
• Times and commissions are copied wrong, so the numbers drift from your account.
• Prop-firm limits need the firm's own trading day and trailing floors, which spreadsheets handle badly.
• You can't replay a row to see what the market was doing when you clicked.

That is the point where an app pays for itself. The Pips Project fills in every column above by itself from MetaTrader 5, cTrader or NinjaTrader, computes R, expectancy and drawdown, and keeps the decision columns for you to write. Past trades import from your platform's history export. There is a free plan for up to 100 trades.

Next: how to review a trade with replay.