Trading tools

Trading journal template

A plain spreadsheet you can open in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. Two example rows show how to fill it in — delete them before you start.

What each column is for

Date and time: When you entered, in your own time zone.
Instrument and direction: What you traded and whether you bought or sold.
Setup / reason: The rule from your plan that triggered the trade.
Entry, stop-loss, take-profit: Planned prices before you clicked buy or sell.
Position size and risk: Lots, the money at risk and that risk as % of the account.
Exit and result: Where you closed, the profit or loss, and the result in R (result ÷ planned risk).
Followed plan?: Yes or no. Over time this column matters more than any single result.
Emotions before / after: One or two words. Patterns show up quickly.
What I learned: One sentence you will read again at your weekly review.