Trading Journal Template: What to Track and Why

Most traders start a journal, fill it in for two weeks, and stop. The usual reason is the template: thirty columns, half of them never used, and none of them answering the question that matters, which is "what should I do differently next week?"

This template keeps only the fields that feed a decision. Copy it into a spreadsheet or use it to judge the journal app you're considering.

The three parts of a good journal entry

Every trade record should answer three questions:

1. What was the plan? The setup, the entry, the stop, the size and the risk in dollars.
2. What happened? The exit, the result in R and in dollars, and how far the trade went for and against you.
3. How did you behave? Whether you followed your rules, which mistakes you made, and what state you were in.

The first two tell you whether your strategy works. The third tells you whether you are actually trading it.

The 18 fields worth tracking

If that feels like a lot, start with fields 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14 and 16. Add the rest once logging is a habit. For the daily routine that fills them in, see how to journal trades.

Optional fields for later

• MFE and MAE: the maximum favourable and adverse excursion, in points or R. They show whether your stops are too tight or your targets too close.
• Planned vs actual exit: did you exit at your target, at your stop, or somewhere you decided in the moment?
• News nearby: a yes/no for a major release within 15 minutes of entry.

The worked example

Here is one NQ trade, the same example we use on our futures trading journal page.

• Long 1 NQ at 24,118.25, stop 24,098.00, target 24,179.00.
• The stop is 20.25 points away. At $20 a point that is $405 of risk, so 1R = $405.
• The target is 60.75 points away, which is $1,215, or 3R.
• The trade hit the target: result +3.0R, P&L +$1,215 before fees.

The same trade on MNQ ($2 a point) risks $40.50 per contract. That's why the size and point value fields matter: without them, the journal can't tell you whether +$1,215 was a good trade or an oversized one.

Spreadsheet formulas

Assume these columns: E = entry, F = stop, H = exit, I = size, J = dollars per point, D = direction ("Long" or "Short").

Risk in dollars (column K):

=ABS(E2-F2)*J2*I2

Result in R (column L):

=IF(D2="Long",(H2-E2),(E2-H2))/ABS(E2-F2)

P&L before fees (column M):

=L2*K2

Dollars per point for common markets:

Gold contract sizes can differ between brokers, so check your symbol's specification. A standard lot of 100 ounces, as Axi lists it, gives the $100 per $1.00 figure.

Before, during and after the trade

A journal works best when it isn't only filled in after the close.

Before the session: write your bias, the levels you care about, the news times and your daily stop. Two or three lines are enough.

Before each trade: check the setup against your rules. If you use a points checklist, record the score. This is the moment a journal can actually change a decision, not just describe it.

After each trade: fill in the result fields and a one-sentence note, ideally within a few minutes, while you still remember why you clicked.

After the session: one line on what went well and one on what to change. Babypips' advice on journaling makes the same point: record what you did well, not only the mistakes, so the journal stays something you're willing to open.

A mistakes list you can count

Free-text notes are hard to analyse. A fixed list of mistakes, picked from a dropdown, can be counted and turned into a cost in R. Start with these and edit them to fit how you trade:

• Entered before the trigger
• No stop, or stop moved further away
• Size larger than plan
• Traded outside my window
• Took a trade within 10 minutes of a loss
• Exited early out of fear
• Ignored a news release
• Took a setup that wasn't on my checklist

Keep the list short. Eight options you pick honestly are worth more than twenty you skip.

A daily and weekly summary block

Below the trade log, keep a small summary for each day and each week. It takes two minutes and makes the weekly review much faster.

Daily summary

Weekly summary

To turn the mistakes list into a full tag system with setups, emotions and context, see how to tag trades in a trading journal.

Five template mistakes

1. No stop recorded. Without a stop there is no R, and without R most of your reports are meaningless.
2. Moving the stop field after the fact. Always record the initial stop. If you moved it, note that separately.
3. Free-text only. "Felt rushed" in a note can't be counted. A dropdown of five or six mistakes can.
4. No screenshots. A month later you won't remember what the chart looked like.
5. Mixing accounts. Backtest trades, a prop evaluation and a personal account in one sheet produce averages that describe none of them.

One sheet per account type

Keep a separate tab, or at least a separate account column you filter on, for each kind of trading:

• Live personal account: real money, your own rules.
• Prop evaluation or funded account: the firm's limits apply, so add columns for the daily loss used and the room left above the drawdown floor.
• Backtest or replay: useful for testing a setup, but never mixed into live statistics. Replay trades are taken with perfect focus and no real fear, so they tend to look better than live ones.
• Demo or sim: treat like backtest unless you're deliberately rehearsing live execution.

When you compare the same setup across these tabs, the gap between backtest R and live R is one of the most honest numbers in your journal. A large gap usually points to execution, not to the setup.

Turning the template into answers

The point of all this data is a short list of questions you can answer each week:

• What is my expectancy in R per trade, overall and per setup?
• Do A-graded setups earn more than B-graded ones?
• How do I trade after a loss?
• What did breaking my rules cost me this month?
• Which session or hour should I stop trading?

Our weekly review routine walks through these questions one by one, and R-multiple explained covers the maths behind expectancy.

When to move beyond a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is fine until the admin starts to cost you the habit. Common breaking points are importing fills from your platform, attaching screenshots, tracking prop-firm limits and building reports by setup, grade or session.

TJ was built around this template. Rate It! records the checklist grade before you enter, Log It! takes the prices and fills in risk, R and P&L, and Review turns the fields into 30 ready-made reports. It also imports CSV files from MT4/MT5, Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, Quantower and TopstepX. It has a free plan; you can try it in the demo without signing up.

Whichever tool you use, the rule is the same: a short journal you fill in every day beats a perfect one you abandon.

Not financial advice. Journaling helps you understand your own trading; it does not predict future results.